[News] Puerto Rico’s Colonial Government Collapses

[Anti-Imperialist News]

orinocotribune.com
<https://orinocotribune.com/puerto-ricos-colonial-government-collapses/>
Puerto Rico’s Colonial Government CollapsesAugust 17, 2022
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[image: Protesters in Puerto Rico raise a banner demanding an end to US
colonization of the island. Photo: Progressive International.]

Protesters in Puerto Rico raise a banner demanding an end to US
colonization of the island. Photo: Progressive International.

By José (Papo) Coss – Aug 12, 2022

For the first time in its history, the people of Puerto Rico are seeing the
total collapse of the island’s colonial administration, mainly due to the
open corruption of the two traditional parties, both of which promote
integration into the United States and/or the permanence of the colonial
regime.

At the moment, all basic public services such as health, education,
housing, and security are practically dismantled, impoverishing the
majority of the population, despite the funds allocated by the US
authorities. Public funds are diverted to fraudulent corporations,
controlled by members of the corrupt political parties and their families.

It is estimated that more than $10 billion have been looted during the last
decade alone by officials and businesspeople linked to the New Progressive
Party (PNP) and the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), bombastic names that
try to disguise submission of power to the US in exchange for financial
benefits.

Both PNP and PPD leaderships are neoliberal and intermediaries of big US
capital, specialized in the culture of public corruption that has put more
than 400 people in jail in the last decade. In fact, two former governors
have already been accused by the US courts in Puerto Rico, since the local
judicial authorities look the other way.

Due to this atavistic robbery, in 2016, former US President Barack Obama
imposed, in a dictatorial manner, a “fiscal oversight” board that controls
the government’s finances, to guarantee payment with exorbitant interest to
the powerful Wall Street bondholders. Hence, that odious debt is privileged
above all the essential services for the people, which has led to the
current collapse of the colonial administration.

This situation led to the closure of half of our public schools, the most
essential educational service for our children and youth. The same was done
with public health, which had already been partially privatized. Likewise,
in the case of the public university, 50% of its budget was cut, which has
caused massive emigration of the social group that represents the best
knowledge, talent and hope that the country has.

Historically, nearly six million Puerto Ricans have been forced to leave
their nation to seek better living conditions, and there are just under
three million left in the Puerto Rican archipelago. The objective of the
empire is to displace the Puerto Rican community by billionaire Americans,
who little by little have been buying our best lands and facilities.

As a result of this serious political, economic and social crisis, crime
has skyrocketed to levels never seen before, with daily murders by armed
drug gangs. These thugs roam openly and commit crimes in broad daylight. In
truth, the people of Puerto Rico are in the midst of a civil war among
groups of drug traffickers who have no respect for the value of life.

RELATED CONTENT: On Marxism and Decolonisation
<https://orinocotribune.com/on-marxism-and-decolonisation/>

Given all this alarming situation, the credibility of the PNP-PPD
leadership is in free fall, and broad sectors of workers have taken to the
streets daily to protest and propose solutions. For this reason, the two
colonial parties historically supported by the USA lost almost half of
their voters in 2016 and 2020.

Everyday there is more awareness in Puerto Rico of the need to unite all
the political and social movements in struggle, including the Puerto Rican
Independence Party (PIP) and the Citizens’ Victory Movement (MVC), which
since 2020 has become the third largest political force in the country and
the second in the capital of San Juan.

Currently, a legal procedure and street mobilizations are being planned to
repeal the ban on electoral alliances, which was opportunistically approved
by the PNP-PPD shortly before the 2020 elections. For the first time, a
left-wing electoral front could defeat the PNP-PPD, the two parties which,
with the backing of the USA, have taken turns in the administration for
decades.

Despite all the adverse circumstances, the people of Puerto Rico are in
resistance. Just as we defeated the attempts to culturally assimilate us
and the constant persecution of our independence movement, we will have to
take advantage of this collapse of the colonial government to advance
towards decolonization and social justice.

(Telesur
<https://www.telesurtv.net/opinion/El-colapso-del-Gobierno-colonial-de-Puerto-Rico-20220812-0018.html>
)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune
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