A judge in Puerto Rico has given the government seven days to release death records and other related information to CNN and a local investigative journalism organization looking into Hurricane Maria’s death toll.
Puerto Rico Superior Court Judge Lauracelis Roques Arroyo ruled Monday that death certificates and data including deaths by day and municipality, and burial and cremation permits should be released to CNN and the Center for Investigative Journalism “because the balance is tipped in favor of the constitutional right of access to information.” The judge said Social Security numbers would not have to be handed over.
[Also read: Democrats demand Puerto Rico hearing to examine Hurricane Maria death toll]
Arroyo said that by turning over the information, “the government will make all the measures it deems necessary to ensure the highest level of transparency both in the recovery of our island and in the damage to the lives of our citizens caused by this atmospheric phenomenon.”
CNN and the Center for Investigative Journalism in Puerto Rico went to court to demand the Puerto Rican government disclose death records and related information, as both have looked into the death toll from Hurricane Maria, which devastated the island last year.
Puerto Rico’s government said it will comply with the court’s order and turn over the records.
Ramon Rosario, Puerto Rico’s secretary of public affairs and public policy, said in a statement the government’s policy “is to work with strict transparency and facilitate access to all public information, so we will be complying with what was recently ordered by the court.”
Puerto Rico recorded 64 deaths due to the hurricane in the first few days of the event, but stopped that count quickly and awaited more precise details. A Harvard study published last week estimated more than 4,600 deaths were tied to Hurricane Maria and its aftermath several months after the event.
Carla Minet, executive director of the Center for Investigative Journalism, said information related to the death toll of Hurricane Maria is the “best kept secret” of the Puerto Rican government.
