[News] Puerto Rico - The Niña, the Pinta, and Hurricane Maria
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Mon Oct 16 10:34:34 EDT 2017
http://www.faireconomy.org/the_nina_the_pinta_and_hurricane_maria
The Niña, the Pinta, and Hurricane Maria
As news of the complete devastation across the island of Puerto Rico is
released, I find myself incessantly hitting refresh on my Internet
browser. With each click, my emotions and tears overwhelm me. A deep
feeling of desperation follows. This has become an unintentional daily
ritual since “natural disaster"
<https://medium.com/@auroralevinsmorales/stop-calling-the-events-of-this-summer-natural-disasters-5cfc32f0af17> Hurricane
Maria struck the island.
OVER 500 YEARS OF COLONIZATION AND EXPLOITATION HAVE LEFT THE
ISLAND OF PUERTO RICO (BORIKÉN) REELING AND IN DESPERATE NEED OF A
NEW DIRECTION
/This post was originally posted on the personal blog of our Director of
Cultural Organizing, /
Eroc
/Arroyo-Montano. View the original post and follow his blog here
<http://www.sonofatabey.com/blog/the-nina-the-pinta-and-hurricane-maria>. /
*
By Ricardo Arroyo-Montano**with Foreword byEroc Arroyo-Montano -
October 9, 2017*
------------------------------------------------------------------------
“What am I driving at? At this idea: that no one colonizes innocently,
that no one colonizes with impunity either; that a nation which
colonizes, that a civilization which justifies colonization—and
therefore force—is already a sick civilization.”*–**Aime Cesaire*
As news of the complete devastation across the island of Puerto Rico is
released, I find myself incessantly hitting refresh on my Internet
browser. With each click, my emotions and tears overwhelm me. A deep
feeling of desperation follows. This has become an unintentional daily
ritual since “natural disaster"
<https://medium.com/@auroralevinsmorales/stop-calling-the-events-of-this-summer-natural-disasters-5cfc32f0af17> Hurricane
Maria struck the island.
I know I am not alone.
As 3.4 million Boricuas on the island are working to survive in the
midst of a humanitarian crisis, over 5 million Boricuas across the
Diaspora wait to hear from family and friends, while trying to
simultaneously figure out how we can be the most helpful. Many have
identified three specific ways to help the island progress.
*1.* Donating towards humanitarian efforts. We trust and highly
recommend giving to these grassroots organizations on the island:
AgitArte <https://www.classy.org/team/140156?is_new=true>, Defend Puerto
Rico <https://www.youcaring.com/defendprhurricanerelieffund-955117> and
CEPA <http://decolonizepr.com/donate-to-cepa.html#onetimedonor>.
*2.* Calling for the elimination of the exploitive debt that strangles
the Island.
*3.* Organizing and fighting for a full repeal of the Jones Act.
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/opinion/hurricane-puerto-rico-jones-act.html>
Meanwhile, we are willingly or unwillingly participating in a collective
mourning, a grieving of what has been lost
<http://latinousa.org/2017/10/03/puerto-rican-diaspora-emotionally-flooded/>.
Deep down, we know that Puerto Rico and its people will never be the
same again.
The entire island has lost electricity and won’t have it back for at
least six months. A curfew is currently being enforced by the National
Guard. People have lost their lives as the government failed to supply
hospitals with diesel fuel for their generators. An estimated 44% of the
Island is without clean drinking water
<http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/09/puerto-ricos-drinking-water-crisis-isnt-going-away-anytime-soon/>.
Over 80% of the island’s crops have been wiped out
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/24/us/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-agriculture-.html>.
Most schools across the island remain closed
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/puerto-rican-schoolchildren-could-be-out-of-class-for-months/2017/10/03/a186748c-a7a5-11e7-850e-2bdd1236be5d_story.html?utm_term=.0896ca324b72>,
leaving 700,000 students without access to formal education. Flooded
towns across the island will have to deal with diseases that are common
in contaminated drinking water
<http://www.prinforma.com/archives/162> and from mosquito breeding
grounds in still water. We are still learning more about the devastation
by the hour.
In the midst of all this hardship, empires twitter happy, white
supremacist, misogynist, colonizer-in-chief managed to attack San Juan's
Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/30/us/san-juan-mayor-cruz.html> from
his golf course. Eventually making it to the island two weeks after the
hurricane first hit, where he continued to insult the Puerto Rican
people by insisting that they were not experiencing a "real
catastrophe."
<https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/10/trump-puerto-rico-visit/541869/>
Many Boricuas on the island and in the Diaspora are engaged. They are
asking questions, the whys and hows, and many are immersed in the work.
The multitude of challenges Puerto Rico faces today are symptomatic of
the ongoing theft of the island's resources, a neglected infrastructure,
and widespread poverty. What is happening today is a direct result of
500 plus years of colonization. What is happening today is a direct
result of the Jones Act of 1917. What is happening today in Puerto Rico
is a direct result of the exploitative economic policies forced upon the
island.
The people creating these economic disparities and creating deep debt
are exploiting poverty and hoarding our resources. These vulture
capitalists bank on our oppression
<http://billmoyers.com/story/vulture-capitalists-circle-puerto-rico-prey/>.
In essence, they have been squeezing the juice out of the island and its
people, and then have the audacity to charge the people for a sip.
<http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=In%20essence%2C%20they%20have%20been%20squeezing%20the%20juice%20out%20of%20the%20island%20and%20its%20people%2C%20and%20then%20have%20the%20audacity%20to%20charge%20the%20people%20for%20a%20sip.%C2%A0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.faireconomy.org%2Fthe_nina_the_pinta_and_hurricane_maria><http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=%20&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.faireconomy.org%2Fthe_nina_the_pinta_and_hurricane_maria>
In the following essay, my brother, a Public Defender and community
activist, Ricardo Arroyo-Montano, makes the clear connection between the
policies and actions of the past and the continued colonization of
Puerto Rico. Corporate mass-media coverage would have us believe this is
all happening in a vacuum, that this disaster and its effects are only
about this hurricane. We hope that this piece can serve as a resource
for those who are interested in learning more about Puerto Rico and its
deep history of resistance.
In the midst of the devastation, I remember the words of Sufi poet and
mystic, Rumi, "the wound is where the light enters." Puerto Rico has
suffered at the hands of U.S. imperialism and capitalist greed long
before Hurricane Maria appeared on the forecast.
<https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/10/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-trump-jones-act-colonialism> I
am not sure that any work on the decolonization of American Empire could
be successful if it ignores the plight of Puerto Rico. While we grieve
and rebuild, we must pursue radical hope and LOVE. We must prioritize
healing justice as we find a way to build bridges between Boricuas on
the island and Boricuas on the continental United States. We must
radically imagine a new way forward. The diaspora must be engaged in the
process. I have faith that another world is possible.
-Un Abrazo. In love & faith, Eroc
*We encourage you to check out the hyperlinks embedded throughout this
piece.*
*
“The most serious blow suffered by the colonized is being removed from
history and from the community. Colonization usurps any free role in
either war or peace, every decision contributing to his destiny and that
of the world, and all cultural and social responsibility.” -Albert Memmi
*
I am a product of the Puerto Rican diaspora.
My motherland is a colony.
The humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico resulting from Hurricane Maria is
the peak in a long colonial relationship with the United States of
America and an opening for a shift towards self-determination. Given
that Puerto Ricans living on the island have no voting power in
Congress, it is important for stateside Puerto Ricans and allies to
understand key moments in this relationship, so that we may clearly and
powerfully advocate on behalf of the island and its residents.
Colonialism everywhere is justified by racial supremacist ideology
cultivated by colonizers for the purpose of economic exploitation.
Puerto Rico is no different. The United States of America’s history of
involvement with the island is full of examples of both, the effects of
which led to the current crises.
One of the tools of oppression is to whitewash and erase the history of
the oppressed. History textbooks in the United States are dominated by
Eurocentric historical narratives, minimizing and even excluding the
contributions and struggles of marginalized people. In the aftermath of
Hurricane Maria, U.S. polls showed that nearly half surveyed were not
aware that Puerto Ricans are American citizens.
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/26/upshot/nearly-half-of-americans-dont-know-people-in-puerto-ricoans-are-fellow-citizens.html>
It is fair then to conclude that they know even less about why Puerto
Ricans have citizenship, the long struggle for sovereignty on the
island, the military abuse of the island
<https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/vieques-invisible-health-crisis/498428/>and
its people, forced sterilization of Puerto Rican women
<http://publici.ucimc.org/colonized-wombs-reproduction-rights-and-puerto-rican-women/>,
or the long-term economic exploitation that has impeded the island's
self-sufficiency.
Further, it is safe to conclude that if U.S. residents do not know how
these problems created the economic crisis the island faced prior to
Hurricane Maria, they also do not understand how the U.S. response to
the current humanitarian crisis serves to solidify U.S. power over the
island.
*PUERTO RICO: AN AMERICAN COLONY*
Though, like any other nation, Puerto Rico’s history is full and varied.
For the purposes of this piece, we will focus on its relationship with
the U.S. Puerto Rico and the United States date their relationship to
the Spanish-American War of 1898 when, after invading the island, the
U.S. was able to extract it from Spain, which had its own centuries-long
legacy of brutal colonization on the island and around the world.
What is less known is that prior to this, in November of 1897, Spain had
granted Puerto Rico a Charter of Autonomy. The charter granted Puerto
Rico a new electoral government and voting representation in the Spanish
Parliament. The new government was empowered to suspend the publication
and enforcement of any resolution of the Spanish government identified
as harmful to the general interest of the island, allowed Puerto Rico to
trade with other nations and enter into its own trade agreements. It was
also allowed to frame its own tariffs and import duties. For the
security of Puerto Rico’s autonomy, it was specifically mandated that no
changes in island government could occur without the consent of the
Puerto Rican legislature.
The Spanish-American war ended with the ‘Treaty of Paris’, which ceded
Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States. By ceding
Puerto Rico to the United States, Spain broke the provision previously
granted to Puerto Rico. Essentially, Spain gave away a nation which it
had no legal right to cede.
Puerto Rico was immediately subjected to martial law and a series of
military governors. Then in 1899, Hurricane San Ciriaco devastated the
island’s population and economy. The United States’ response to San
Ciriaco has lessons for those seeking to defend Puerto Rico from further
exploitation in the wake of Hurricane Maria. These events served as the
opening salvo in the United States economic oppression of the island.
The U.S. sent no financial relief, and instead froze long and short-term
credit, devalued the Puerto Rican peso, conducted land price fixing, and
in 1901 passed the Hollander Act which raised taxes. These economic
assaults led Puerto Ricans to borrow money from American banks. With no
laws limiting interest rates, these loans came with high-interest rates
that today would be considered predatory. When Puerto Ricans inevitably
defaulted on these predatory loans, American banks foreclosed and
assumed ownership of their land. Puerto Rico was made a captive U.S.
market with laws that prevent it from negotiating trade agreements with
other countries.
Concomitantly, in 1900, the Foraker Act created a bicameral legislature
with an elected lower body (House of Delegates). The upper house,
governor and insular Supreme Court were appointed by the United States
President. This was substantially less self-governance than Puerto Rico
had under Spain and in 1914 the Puerto Rican House of Delegates voted
unanimously in favor of independence. The vote was rejected by Congress
and deemed a violation of the Foraker Act. The Foraker Act did have a
provision that established Puerto Rican Citizenship for those on the
island, until 1917 Puerto Ricans were citizens of Puerto Rico, though
with none of the rights of a sovereign nation or people.
Congress’ approach to Puerto Rico was steeped in racial supremacist
arguments about the island natives’ ability to self-govern and differed
from its approach to the territories of Arizona, New Mexico, and
Oklahoma, which all had fully elected legislatures. Hawaii, which had an
Anglo ruling class before annexation, was also granted the ability to
have fully elected legislatures in 1900.
*THE JONES ACTS OF 1917 AND 1920*
Recognizing that Puerto Rico was actively attempting to sever its
colonial relationship with the U.S., Congress passed the Jones-Shafroth
Act in 1917, the Jones Act imposed citizenship to the United States upon
Puerto Ricans. Like the rest of the measures in the Jones Act, this was
seen as exploitative and done over the objections of the elected House
of Delegates. Jose De Diego, presiding member of the House of Delegates
from 1904 to 1917, wrote in opposition to the Jones Act, “The Union
party of Puerto Rico states it’s loudest, most vigorous protest against
the ruling system and energetically demands action and justice from the
people of the United States, to free us from an oligarchy which acts in
their name and rejects their spirit…we declare that the supreme ideal of
the Union party, like that of every strong group and all free men
throughout the world, is the founding of a free country.” Jose De Diego
saw the Jones Act conferring of citizenship as exploitative. As one
United States Congressman made clear when he said that the Jones Act was
“so...that the independence propaganda be discontinued and that our
sovereignty remain there permanently… Puerto Rico will never go out from
under the shadow of the Stars and Stripes.”
The United States entered World War I the day after the Jones-Shafroth
Act made Puerto Ricans citizens of the U.S. and therefore draft
eligible, nearly 20,000 Puerto Ricans went on to serve in WWI.
Additionally, the 1917 Jones Act also includes the provision that
exempted interest on Puerto Rico’s government bonds from federal, state,
and local income taxation in the United States, making the bonds
attractive to tax-sensitive investors. The “debt” that led to PROMESA
<https://www.acrecampaigns.org/puertorico> stems from these triple
tax-exempt bonds.
In 1920 Congress passed The Merchant Marine Act also known as the Jones
Act, which legislated that all imports and exports to the island are
required to be transported on American ships, built in American
shipyards, with American crews. Foreign flagged ships must pay
substantial taxes and custom and import fines to the U.S. Merchant
Marine. This protectionist policy has the effect of adding a 15-20% cost
increase on goods shipped to Puerto Rico, a cost passed on to Puerto
Ricans. Several studies have shown that this one law causes billions of
dollars in losses per year for Puerto Rico. Every single political party
in Puerto Rico has advocated against the Jones Act. However, with no
political representation vis-à-vis the U.S., it remains the law of the
land. This is just one event in a pattern of Puerto Ricans advocating
for the best interests of the island and being overruled by the United
States Congress, particularly in regards to economic self-sufficiency.
Economic policies forced upon the island, from the Jones Act to PROMESA
<https://www.acrecampaigns.org/puertorico>, have been crafted to
advantage American corporate interests to the detriment of Puerto
Ricans. All of the major economic policies that the United States
Congress has imposed on Puerto Rico have had the effect of lessening the
island’s self-sufficiency while enriching America’s corporate elite.
*ENTER DON PEDRO ALBIZU CAMPOS, FATHER OF THE PUERTO RICAN
INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT *
In 1922, a young group of independence sympathizers and former Union
party members who had become disillusioned with the political process
founded the Nationalist Party.
Pedro Albizu Campos
<https://waragainstallpuertoricans.com/pedro-albizu-campos/>
, a native to the island of Puerto Rico and a Harvard Law graduate, was
one of its most active and prominent members. While in Massachusetts, he
was inspired by the Irish struggle for independence and advocated for
their cause. He was convinced that the United States did not have Puerto
Ricans’ interests at heart, and that independence, by any means
necessary, should be the island’s focus. He saw the United States as an
occupying force whose rule was upheld only by force and suppression.
These beliefs were a central piece of the Nationalist Party’s platform
for independence.
Pedro Albizu Campos was approached in the 1930s by struggling sugar cane
laborers who were attempting to unionize. Campos would fight for them in
court as their lawyer and continue to publicly attack American acts of
imperialism. Los Macheteros, as the laborers were known, led an
island-wide strike in 1934. Their success, especially in having their
wages raised, was considered a huge victory against American interests.
The victory was proof that a unified and organized Puerto Rico was a
powerful force. The FBI, under the direction of J. Edgar Hoover took
notice, targeting Pedro Albizu Campos and the Nationalist Party, and
subjecting them and Puerto Rico to the illegal COINTELPRO program
<https://vault.fbi.gov/cointel-pro/puerto-rican-groups>, a surveillance
state that led to 1,800,000 pages of FBI files
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/28/nyregion/new-light-on-old-fbi-fight-decades-of-surveillance-of-puerto-rican-groups.html?mcubz=1>,
as well as a militarized police force.
*AMERICAN CRACKDOWN ON NATIONALISTS AND INDEPENDENTISTAS*
In 1935, Campos gave a speech at the University of Puerto Rico attended
by over a hundred thousand people. Former Army General Blanton Winship,
the U.S appointed Governor, deployed Chief of Police Lt. Elisha Riggs to
break up the speech. The police stopped a car filled with Puerto Rican
Nationalists, on its way to the speech, including the party Secretary
Ramón S. Pagán, claiming to be searching for Campos. The police took the
men to the side of the road and executed them.
Their murders became known as the Massacre of Rio Piedras.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_Piedras_massacre>
The officers involved in the massacre were not charged; they were
promoted. Campos, at their funeral, stated, “We swear that assassination
will not go unpunished in Puerto Rico.” A year later, in 1936, two
Nationalists killed Police Chief Riggs. The Nationalists
Hiram Rosado <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiram_Rosado>
and Elias Beauchamp were arrested and executed in their cells without
a trial. With Campos already under investigation by the FBI, the United
States saw the assassination as the perfect opportunity to arrest Campos
and charge him with seditious conspiracy. After a mistrial a second
trial with a hand-picked jury convicted Campos and he was sentenced to
ten years in prison. Campos was released from prison in 1946 and was
allowed to return to Puerto Rico in 1947.
Not coincidentally, Law 53 was passed a year later. It is better known
as the Gag Law
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gag_Law_%28Puerto_Rico%29> and it was not
repealed until 1957. The Gag Law made it a crime to own or display a
Puerto Rican flag; sing a patriotic tune; speak or write of
independence; or meet with anyone, or hold any assembly, in favor of
Puerto Rican independence. Punishment for violating Law 53 included
imprisonment for up to ten years. The law was used repeatedly to target
Nationalists and the growing independence movement. In defiance of the
law, Campos continued to publicly push for independence.
Puerto Rico’s push for sovereignty reached a boiling point by 1950.
Congress authorized the creation of a constitution however they made
clear true sovereignty was not on the table. The Secretary of the
Interior at the time, Oscar Chapman, stated that the constitution could
not “change Puerto Rico’s fundamental political, social, and economic
relationship.” In case there was any confusion, U.S. Congressman Jacob
Javits stated, “This bill does restrict, and let us have that very
clear, the people of Puerto Rico to a constitution which is within the
limits of the Jones Act, their fundamental status is unchanged.” Puerto
Rico was finally granted the right to vote for its own governor and
control its local political system after fifty years of unelected
appointees. It made no change to the Jones Act as it concerned shipping,
it made no changes to Puerto Rico’s inability to negotiate trade
contracts with foreign nations, and it did not remove Congress's ability
to veto any law passed by the Puerto Rican legislature. The constitution
was approved in 1952.
Campos and the Nationalist Party saw these events as the end of the line
for a political resolution to Puerto Rico’s lack of sovereignty.
Nationalists led a series of uprisings and revolts against continued
colonialism. In 1950 after Campos learned that federal authorities were
raiding other Nationalist leaders en masse and were searching for him.
Recognizing the timing was urgent, Campos ordered the revolution be
carried out immediately.
*PUERTO RICO REVOLTS*
On October 30, 1950, uprisings occurred in Ponce, San Juan, Mayaguez,
Naranjito, Arecibo, Utuado, and Jayuya. Blanca Canales
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanca_Canales> led the Jayuya Uprising
<http://yosoyborinquen.com/the-jayuya-uprising/> where she and other
Nationalists stormed the police station and burned down the US Post
office. Taking the town square they raised the Puerto Rican flag and
declared Puerto Rico a free republic. Luis Munoz Marin, the first
elected Puerto Rican governor, who had once campaigned as an
Independentista, became the chief architect of the “commonwealth”
status, also known as Public Law 600, which declared martial law.
Consequently, the uprisings included an assassination attempt on the
governor. The U.S. attacked Jayuya with P-47 Thunderbolt planes,
land-based artillery, mortar fire, and grenades. Nationalists, under the
direction of Canales, held the town for three days.
On November 2, 1950, after the fall of Jayuya, Olga Viscal Garriga, a
student leader
<http://larespuestamedia.com/resisting-the-colonial-design/> at the
University of Puerto Rico and spokesperson of the Nationalist Party’s
Rio Piedras branch, led, along with Carmen Maria Perez Roque and Ruth
Mary Reynolds, a nonviolent demonstration in San Juan. The police fired
at the demonstration and killed one of the demonstrators. In federal
court she refused to recognize the authority of the United States
government and was uncooperative with federal prosecutors. She was
sentenced to eight years in prison for leading the peaceful demonstration.
Despite the significance of the uprising and the scale of the response,
news of it was prevented from spreading outside of Puerto Rico.
President Truman called it “an incident between Puerto Ricans.” Those
comments in conjunction with the news blackout led Griselio Torresola
and Oscar Collazo to quickly plan an attempt to assassinate President
Truman. The attempt at the Blair House was unsuccessful in its goal but
did effectively communicate that the uprisings were not simply “an
incident between Puerto Ricans” but an act of rebellion.
In 1954, Lolita Lebron
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita_Lebr%C3%B3n>, a leader in the
Nationalist Party, joined by Rafael Cancel Miranda, Ivan Flores, and
Andres Figueroa Cordero, attacked the United States House of
Representatives in D.C. The purpose of the attack was to draw national
and international attention to the quest for Puerto Rican independence.
So that there would be no doubt as to their cause, Lebron unfurled a
Puerto Rican flag and shouted, “Viva Puerto Rico Libre!” before the
group opened fire.
Campos would be sentenced to 80 years in prison for his leadership role
in the rebellion. During his time in prison, he would be tortured by
being exposed to severe radiation. In 1956, Campos suffered a stroke and
was on the brink of death when he was finally pardoned in 1964. He died
the next year. More than 75,000 Puerto Ricans participated in his
funeral procession. Ernesto “Che” Guevara memorialized Campos at a U.N.
speech saying, “Albizu Campos is a symbol of the as yet unfree but
indomitable Latin America. Years and years of prison, almost unbearable
pressures in jail, mental torture, solitude, total isolation from his
people and his family, the insolence of the conqueror and its lackeys in
the land of his birth—nothing broke his will.”
*ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION: OPERATION BOOTSTRAP TO PROMESA*
>From the mid-1950’s until 2006,
Operation Bootstrap
<http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-puertorico-economy/>
, ostensibly designed to spur an industrial revolution on the island,
gave US corporations 10 and 20-year tax exemptions on all gross
revenues, dividends, interest, and capital gains income. Instead, the
tax exemptions ensured American businesses a competitive advantage to
Puerto Rico owned and operated businesses. Further, rather than spur
economic activity on the island, U.S. corporations moved the money
generated in Puerto Rico back to the U.S mainland. In 1995, President
Bill Clinton signed legislation that phased out the tax incentives
created by Section 936 over the following 10 years and U.S.
corporations, mostly pharmaceuticals, began to relocate to other
countries. By 2006, when the incentives came to a close, the economy was
already in recession. This economic condition was further exacerbated by
the U.S. market crash of 2008, an economic crisis from which the island
has not yet recovered.
Puerto Rico, a country with a population roughly that of Connecticut,
has consistently been one of the top five largest markets in the world
for US products; 85% of all products consumed in Puerto Rico are sold by
US corporations. The cost of living is 12% higher in Puerto Rico than in
the U.S. Yet the per capita income of Puerto Rico is roughly half that
of Mississippi, the poorest state in the Union. The island, which once
was agriculturally self-sufficient before American multinationals
concentrated the islands crops on sugar, now imports 85% of its food, a
severe problem highlighted by Hurricane Maria which has devastated the
island's food distribution networks and supply chains.
Municipalities in the United States have the ability to restructure
their debts under Chapter 9, which is the part of the bankruptcy code
for insolvent local governments. Puerto Rico however, due to its
territorial colonial status, was excluded from Chapter 9. In 2014, the
Puerto Rican legislature attempted a workaround by creating and passing
their own version of a bankruptcy law called the Recovery Act. The act
was meant to address Puerto Rico’s exclusion from Chapter 9. The law
would have allowed the public utility companies to restructure its debt,
which totaled around $20 billion. It was struck down by the United
States Supreme Court as unconstitutional. The decision reaffirmed that
Puerto Rico’s elected body of government is at the mercy of Congress, in
which it has no elected representation, for a solution to their economic
crisis.
Congress passed PROMESA in 2016, in its latest attempt to ensure Puerto
Rico’s crippled economy paid its bondholders. PROMESA enabled Congress
to appoint a board of seven members to manage Puerto Rico’s finances.
The members of that board come from the world of banking and private
investments, including from some of the very institutions responsible
for indebting the country. That board can veto any law from the Puerto
Rican legislature that appropriates funds. It also empowers the board to
circumvent local environmental and labor regulations. This has had the
effect of allowing Puerto Rico’s elected government to remain in
existence, but with increasing powerlessness and the loss of any
semblance of autonomy.
The board has wielded its power to impose austerity measures so that
Puerto Rico will pay its debts back to the Wall Street speculators who
hold them. The board voted unanimously to order Puerto Rico to implement
10% cutbacks in its public pension system, lay off tens of thousands
more workers, cut the University of Puerto Rico’s budget by millions,
and cut public services. On top of previous austerity measures that
included: laying off 30,000 workers; charging 67% more for water;
raising electricity rates to the second highest in the United States;
raising property, small business, and gas taxes; cutting public pensions
and health benefits; raising the retirement age; closing hundreds of
schools; and hiking the sales tax to 11.5%, the highest anywhere in the
country. All of which has led to a mass exodus from the island.
*WHICH BRINGS US BACK TO HURRICANE MARIA*
Whether intentional or not, there is no disputing that the federal
government's slow response in delivering aid to Puerto Rico has
accelerated an extant economic exodus from Puerto Rico and will continue
to do so. This has led to a devaluation of land prices. Billionaires
like John Paulson and a growing class of wealthy land speculators had
already been targeting Puerto Rico
<http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/12/investing/puerto-rico-john-paulson/index.html> and
the devaluation caused by slow relief has only made the market more
susceptible to exploitation and land grabs.
There are ways we, of the diaspora, and allies can alleviate the
humanitarian crisis plaguing the island and work with those there to
right a history of economic exploitation.
* Currently, the island has roughly around thirty schools open, a
growing health crisis, electric outages over the vast majority of
the island, cellular outages over the majority of the island, and
much of the population does not have access to clean running water.
No one should be forced to live in those conditions. We can and must
give direct aid to trusted community organizations on the island who
are working to directly address the needs of those affected most by
Hurricane Maria. We strongly recommend giving to AGITARTE, a radical
grassroots org in Puerto Rico, run by folks in the community we love
and trust. <https://www.classy.org/team/140156?is_new=true>
* Puerto Ricans must be in charge of the rebuilding effort. Puerto
Ricans should be given top priority on contracts, staffing, and
leading the efforts on the island. Now is not the time to enrich
offshore companies.
* The Jones Act must be repealed. It exists to the detriment of the
Puerto Rican people, a fact that has been laid out for the world to
see following Hurricane Maria. It has to go and we can make it happen.
* Puerto Rico must be permitted to negotiate its own international
trade agreements. This will enable it to develop capital resources,
an entrepreneurial class, and a diverse economy.
* The debt must be canceled. Canceling the debt allows for the
billions of dollars currently being made in debt payments to instead
be rerouted to the essential public services Puerto Rico needs to
survive. Puerto Rico is struggling with the highest unemployment and
poverty rates in the country and a humane recovery does not exist
for Puerto Rico without the cancellation of the debt.
This is a pivotal time for those in Puerto Rico and the diaspora. It is
clear they believe if they keep us focused on survival we cannot focus
on sovereignty. Puerto Rico’s survival requires sovereignty.
We must heal. We must organize. We must fight.
*Sovereignty is survival.*
*"**For a colonized people the most essential value, because the most
concrete, is first and foremost the land: the land which will bring them
bread and, above all, dignity." -Frantz Fanon*
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