A U.S. military plane crashes in Iraq, killing four service members and leaving two missing.
1. Pegaos en la Mañana, hosted by Mili Mendes on Radio Isla 1320, covers Puerto Rico and international news on Friday, March 13, 2026.
2. Mili Mendes is the host; guests include PPD Senate minority leader Luis Javier Hernández, PNP Senator Juan Oscar Morales, Ciales Mayor Jesús Resto Rivera, trucker Juan Torres, and District Attorney Gabriel Redondo Miranda.
3. The episode's dominant story is the escalating internal conflict within Puerto Rico's ruling PNP party, specifically the Senate's unprecedented move to investigate the governor's chief of staff.
4. U.S. Central Command reported a military aircraft crashed in Iraq, killing four servicemembers and leaving two missing; no hostile or friendly fire was involved.
5. A social media video by journalist Manuel Crespo showed a Spring Break tourist brawl at the Placita de Santurce, ended by state and municipal police, ahead of increased Spring Break arrivals.
6. PPD Senate minority leader Luis Javier Hernández says Puerto Rico's ruling party has reached a 'point of no return': when a governor stops communicating with the Senate president, institutional progress stops.
7. Hernández argues the commission was triggered not by genuine policy concerns but by personal retaliation after former Justice Secretary Zagardia publicly defended the Housing Secretary—a precedent he calls 'very dangerous.'
8. Ciales Mayor Jesús Resto Rivera explains that a new municipal ordinance (Ordinance 14) bans loud music (boceteo) following a historic Christmas tourism season that brought thousands of visitors but disrupted elderly residents.
9. The mayor says merchants supported the ordinance, the municipal police acquired electronic citation equipment, and increased weekend police patrols begin Saturday, March 14.
10. Of 82 FEMA recovery projects awarded to Ciales, only 12 were worked on by the previous administration, and six of those were done poorly; the new administration is now addressing all deficiencies.
11. Trucker Juan Torres organized a protest on Highway 22 near Plaza de las Américas, calling for enforcement of trucking tariffs that have been legally established but ignored by private companies for over 20 years.
12. Torres explains the regulatory body claims to enforce tariffs but in practice companies dictate their own rates, leaving truckers to accept or lose the contract; no enforcement mechanism is applied.
13. The truckers also demand justice for Armando Rodríguez, a trucker killed in Caguas whose case remains unresolved.
14. In the Toa Baja minor abuse case, District Attorney Gabriel Redondo Miranda confirms a judge approved the prosecution's request for the 17-year-old victim to testify via closed-circuit camera at the March 19 preliminary hearing.
15. The prosecution states the case is solid, with multiple witnesses, and the girl's psychologist issued a report recommending she not testify in-person given the presence of family members who are accused in the case.
16. PNP Senator Juan Oscar Morales confirms the Senate voted 18-0 (one absence) in favor of both the Zagardia document requests and the full commission hearing for Chief of Staff Francisco Domenech on March 24.
17. Morales reveals that agency heads told senators they were preparing to comply with document requests, but Fortaleza reversed course within 24 hours—with Domenech instructing agencies not to deliver—a reversal the Senate president quoted publicly using the word 'investigation.'
18. Morales argues the Senate's credibility rests on past precedent: he personally investigated the Instituto de Ciencias Forenses under Governor Rosselló and a 36-million-dollar ALMA procurement scandal where someone ultimately pleaded guilty.
19. Morales says the information that triggered the Zagardia investigation came to the Senate from outside, and that failing to act would have been irresponsible regardless of party affiliation.
20. Best suited for Puerto Rican listeners following island institutional politics, labor rights, and governance; not suited for audiences unfamiliar with Puerto Rico's political parties and government structure.
