Voters in Cataño affiliated with the New Progressive Party (PNP) will go to the polls this Sunday to choose their next mayor, after the post was left vacant by the death of Julio Alicea Vasallo on August 13, 2026, following a battle with myelofibrosis (bone marrow cancer). The election is drawing attention given the municipality's history of corruption cases, including the 1987 conviction of José Álvarez Brunet, the 2021 conviction of former mayor Félix "El Cano" Delgado, and the 2014 acquittal of Wilson Soto.
One candidate profiled is Félix "Tato" Matías Rodríguez, who began his public career through the Right to Work Administration (ADT) working at La Fortaleza and later became personal messenger to former governors Carlos Romero Barceló and Rafael Hernández Colón. He also played Double-A Superior Baseball League for Juncos and Manatí and served as a municipal legislator from 2017 to 2020 under Delgado's administration.
Now a security guard at San Patricio Plaza mall, Matías Rodríguez, raised in the Juana Matos neighborhood, says municipal employees, senior citizens, sports leaders, and inmates are neglected. He proposes relocating dissatisfied municipal employees, addressing unequal police salaries, and compensating sports leaders; he opposes the expropriation of Juana Matos.