Abel Nazario

Who is Abel Nazario?

Abel Nazario Quiñones is the current mayor of Yauco, Puerto Rico. Elected in 2000, he has been reelected in 2004 and 2008.

Prior to serving as mayor, Nazario served as staff director of the Senate of Puerto Rico Committee on Tourism, chaired by then-senator Enrique Rodríguez Negrón. As such, he was instrumental in the passage of most of the bills in then executive director of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company Luis Fortuño's legislative agenda, including a new Casino Law. Fortuño currently serves as Governor of Puerto Rico, and was strongly endorsed by Nazario early in his gubernatorial campaign.

Nazario has had to struggle with fiscal problems during his years as mayor of Yauco, but that has not kept him from being outspoken, within or beyond municipal boundaries. The fiscal problems led him to reduce his annual salary by 50% to $18,000, which reverted to $36,000 in 2005, still the lowest salary of any of Puerto Rico's 78 mayors, even though many municipalities have smaller populations and budgets than Yauco.