Woman set to replace Puerto Rico's governor doesn't want job

The woman who is supposed to replace Puerto Rico's embattled governor announced Sunday that she doesn't want the job as the U.S. territory reels from political crisis.

Justice Secretary Wanda Vzquez said in a Twitter post that she hopes Gov. Ricardo Rossell will appoint a secretary of state before resigning Aug. 2 as planned.

Former Secretary of State Luis Rivera Marn would have been next in line as governor, according to the U.S. territory's constitution. But he is one of more than a dozen officials who have resigned in recent weeks since someone leaked an obscenity-laced chat in which Rossell and close advisers insulted people including women and victims of Hurricane Maria.

Rossell on Wednesday announced that he would step down following nearly two weeks of massive protests amid anger over the chat, corruption charges against several former government officials and a 13-year recession.

In the chat, the 40-year-old Democrat and son of a governor called a female politician a "whore," referred to another as a "daughter of a bitch," and made fun of an obese man with whom he posed in a photo.

Rossell became the first governor to resign in the modern history of Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory of 3.2 million American citizens. He is more than halfway through his four-year term.

Marn's resignation had left Vzquez as next in line to be governor. But she said she has already told Rossell about her wishes not to get the job, creating a chaotic scenario about who will be Puerto Rico's next leader.

If Rossell choice for a secretary of state is not approved by the island's House and Senate, Puerto Rico's law dictates the treasury secretary would be next in line if the justice secretary doesn't become governor. But current Treasury Secretary Francisco Pars is too young at 31 years old. The constitution dictates the person would have to be at least 35, so that would leave interim Education Secretary Eligio Hernndez next in line. He replaced former education secretary Julia Keleher, who resigned in April and was arrested July 10 on federal corruption charges. She has pleaded not guilty.

"This is crazy," political expert Mario Negrn Portillo said in a phone interview on Sunday. "We have no idea what's even going to happen tomorrow. Societies cannot live with this type of uncertainty." Vzquez's comments came less than an hour after Public Affairs Secretary Anthony Maceira resigned.

"There were many challenges that we had to face together as Puerto Ricans, although sometimes we differed," he said. "The work of each one of us must continue with the welfare of our island and its people as its north."