Former Guaynabo Mayor Ángel Pérez Otero is set to be released from prison in about a year, after being found guilty in a jury trial for accepting bribes from businessman Oscar Santamaría. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Pérez Otero, also a former representative of the New Progressive Party (PNP), is scheduled to complete his sentence on September 15, 2027.
He was sentenced to five years and three months in prison on February 12, 2024, and has been serving his time at the Montgomery FPC, a minimum-security camp in Alabama. With federal time reductions, Pérez Otero is expected to serve only three years and six months. His case is linked to one of the largest corruption scandals in Puerto Rican politics, involving several other mayors and businessmen, including Félix 'El Cano' Delgado, José Luis Cruz Cruz, Eduardo Cintrón Suárez, Reinaldo Vargas, Luis Arroyo Chiqués, and Javier García Pérez, who were also found guilty of participating in the bribery scheme.
The federal prosecution detailed that businessmen paid bribes to mayors in exchange for contracts for their companies or to maintain existing ones.