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<font size=3>Explosions of Unrest Mark Puerto Rico's Economic
Crisis<br><br>
Written by Juan A. Ocasio Rivera <br>
Wednesday, 18 November 2009 <br><br>
</font><font face="georgia" size=3>Source:
<a href="https://nacla.org/node/6254">NACLA Report on the
Americas</a><br>
<a href="https://nacla.org/node/6254" eudora="autourl">
https://nacla.org/node/6254<br><br>
</a>The unsuspecting governor, smack in the middle of an important press
conference, missed being hit by a projectile by mere inches. The
projectile? Not a bullet, but an egg. An outraged citizen calling himself
"The Common Guy" ("el tipo común") interrupted the
press conference by screaming in outrage at Puerto Rico Governor Luis
Fortuño and by throwing a slider that landed on a sign highlighting a new
development project the governor was announcing. As officers locked the
man in a bear hug and carted him off, and as the press swarmed this
"Common Guy," it became clear that this public display of
resistance was not only transcendental for its raw expression of pain and
anger, but was also symbolic and representative of everyone's frustration
and open outrage at the turn of events on the island.<br><br>
Puerto Rico is witnessing the kind of social, economic, and political
upheaval not seen in decades. Declaring a fiscal emergency, the
pro-statehood Fortuño administration recently passed a Fiscal Emergency
Law, which, among other measures, implemented the layoff of over 20,000
government workers - nearly 10% of the total. In addition to huge cuts in
budgets and services, the layoffs caused immediate shock and outrage due
to its massive breadth and potential effects. Government officials
contend that they inherited a bankrupt government from previous
administrations along with a huge debt load. They are scrambling to
prevent their credit ratings to be classified in the lowest of categories
- the junk rating - and contend that the measures were
necessary.<br><br>
With an unemployment rate of around 16%, it is obvious that Puerto Rico
confronts a serious economic crisis. According to U.S. Census Bureau 2008
figures, the island's median household income stands at $18,610 (compared
with $52,175 in the United States) and median family income stands at
$21,639 ($63,211 in the U.S.). Per capita income is $10,064 ($27,466 in
the U.S.), and 41.4% of families and 45.3% of individuals fall below the
federal poverty level. In 2007, over 50% of families on the island
received some form of public assistance. The figures alone provide a
snapshot of the depth of the economic crisis. Although solutions are not
lacking - several leading politicians and economists continue to offer
alternative fiscal policies - citizens continue to express concern over
their economic situation. <br><br>
Coupled with a soaring crime rate - over 750 murders this year alone -
alarming suicide rates, increasing acts of domestic violence, and
worrisome mental health needs on the island, emotions have reached a
boiling point. Ordinary citizens have begun to express the belief that
their government cannot control the social crisis. <br><br>
Incidents of police abuse, including a recent incident in which
university students were indiscriminately attacked with batons and tear
gas, are being denounced at an increasing rate across the island.
Squatter communities (also known as developers of rescued lands) have
recently been targeted as lawbreakers by the conservative administration,
and families without clear title to their properties are being forcibly
evicted from their homes. <br><br>
Part of the government's fiscal emergency response has been an attempt to
reverse the gains previously won by collective bargaining agreements,
drawing a sharp outcry from the union sector. Opposition political
parties have called for a larger burden to be borne by the rich and by
large corporations, only to be rebuked by the administration, which has
gone ahead with significant increases in basic services. The
administration, whose governor identifies himself as a U.S. Republican,
also censured several books by renowned authors for use in the island's
schools - including <i>Antología personal</i> by José Luís González,
<i>El entierro de Cortijo</i> by Edgardo Rodríguez Juliá, and <i>Aura</i>
by Carlos Fuentes - a deed met with fierce opposition. A further alarming
development was the governor's signing of an executive order authorizing
the police superintendent to activate the National Guard to quell public
disturbances and civil unrest - an act undertaken immediately before the
announcement of the layoffs.<br><br>
Activists from across the political spectrum joined forces to confront
the fiscal emergency law and called for a national strike that was held
this past October 15. The coalition, known as All Puerto Rico For Puerto
Rico (TPRPR), is made up of political organizations, student groups, and
civic and religious organizations, including churches. Among its more
publicly recognizable activists are priests and labor leaders. Unions
such as the Electrical Workers Union (UTIER) and the labor coalition
FASYL (Front for Solidarity and Struggle) are also heavily involved.
<br><br>
Reverend Juan Vera, of the TPRPR Coalition, is seen by most as one of the
main organizers of the coalition. He declared, during one of the massive
demonstrations linked to the national strike, that "the streets will
be our battleground. We declare that there will only be tranquility when
our governors respect the will of the people. Today we begin a new page
in the history of Puerto Rico." <br><br>
The demonstrations on October 15th, which garnered approximately 200,000
people, were centered in the San Juan area, and focused principally on
the largest avenues in the area known as the Ponce de Leon. Schools in
the area were closed, government offices were at a standstill, and public
transportation was halted. Remarkably, the largest shopping mall in the
Caribbean, Plaza Las Americas, closed for the day, only the second time
in its history, leading some to claim that the national strike had the
desired effect of crippling business for the day. Others hoped publicly
that the government would change course once confronted with the growing
demands for alternative solutions.<br><br>
Special police intelligence units were deployed, and Police
Superintendent José Figueroa Sancha confirmed that activists were
recorded for "intelligence purposes," drawing an outcry from
rights activists. Figueroa Sancha, previously second-in-command of Puerto
Rico's FBI office, has been implicated in the agency's targeted
assassination of revolutionary leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios in 2005. Ojeda
Rios was the de facto leader of Los Macheteros, an anti-colonial
guerrilla force advocating Puerto Rico's political independence. He had
been wanted by the FBI for 15 years, having gone underground in 1990
after the infamous $7 million Wells Fargo heist by his organization in
1983. <br><br>
Los Macheteros have re-appeared during the current unrest, issuing a
statement on September 23 calling for struggle and for solidarity with
the affected working class, warning that the government's fiscal measures
were designed to satisfy the needs of corporations and to further the
statehood goals of the governor. The pro-independence guerrillas called
for "firm, effective, and coordinated actions" designed
"to evolve into revolutionary action" in order to obtain
necessary democratic, labor, and political rights. Calling for all
pro-independence forces to unite, the organization reiterated its
position and intent to utilize armed struggle as simply one of the
methods of struggle alongside the Puerto Rican working class.<br><br>
At one point during the October 15 protests in San Juan, several hundred
students spontaneously conducted an act of disobedience, stealing the
media limelight. Ordered by the police to disperse, the students suddenly
decided to resist the order and promptly sat down in the middle of
"Las Americas" Expressway, one of the largest highways in the
country. Blocking traffic for five hours, the students chose to display
their militancy and strength by sending a message in action to the
current administration. The students haggled with the authorities for
hours, insisting that the police leave the area first, while the police
ordered the students' dispersal as a condition. The tension was finally
broken when nationalist icon Rafael Cancel Miranda arrived to speak with
the students, and officers themselves began to disperse. <br><br>
Cancel Miranda was one of four Puerto Ricans who opened fire in the U.S.
Congress in 1954 in a dramatic demand for the island's independence,
serving 25 years in federal prison until President Carter's clemency in
1979. The FUPI (Pro-Independence University Federation) released a
statement after the demonstrations praising the militancy of the students
and the presence of Cancel Miranda. The statement highlighted the fact
that the students present "recognized him and listened to him,
because Rafael Cancel Miranda has the moral stature necessary to be
heard. It is indicative of the students' recognition of our people's true
leaders, who with their lives have demonstrated commitment" and
acted honorably. <br><br>
Days after the National Strike, members of the Hostosian National
Independence Movement (MINH) surprised the governor as he arrived at a
political party meeting in the town of Toa Baja. Pro-independence
activists, labor leaders, and ordinary citizens who had been laid off via
the Fiscal Emergency Law all participated in the MINH demonstration. In
the days and weeks following those actions, the governor and his
entourage have been met with consistent and repeated demonstrations,
protests, and acts of civil disobedience. These acts are conducted by
different organizations, with different interests, and different
constituencies, but have all been coordinated by the coalition and
brought together by labor leaders. They all continue to demand the
cancellation of the layoffs and of the Fiscal Emergency Law.
Pro-independence student activists have indicated that they will now
begin a campaign to demand "more," an ominous though unclear
warning. In recent days, union leaders have led visits and sit-ins at
several offices of elected officials in order to pressure for changes to
the Fiscal Emergency Law and continue to confront the governor at every
turn.<br><br>
In the days after the demonstrations, the governor declared that he would
not reverse the layoffs and would not repeal any of the provisions of the
Fiscal Emergency Law. In response, student organizations and labor
leaders expressed their intention to move forward with a general strike,
one that would be held indefinitely, designed to bring the country to a
standstill, with the political purpose of forcing the administration to
roll back some of the harsher measures contained in the Fiscal Emergency
Law.<br><br>
Meanwhile, Governor Luis Fortuño continues to misstep and provoke the
growing activist movement. During the last days of October, he cancelled
the Natural Reserve designation of hundreds of acres of land that were to
be protected from contamination and development. The removal of
protection was opposed by environmentalists, who saw it as a capitulation
to development interests. The explosion of unrest on the island will
likely deepen as ordinary citizens identify and oppose the privatization
efforts of the administration. <br><br>
The Common Guy and his egg did not constitute the only explosion on the
island. On October 21, an explosion occurred in the Gulf gasoline
refinery owned by Caribbean Petroleum Corporation (CAPECO) in the town of
Bayamon, drawing a frenzy of media coverage and frantic conjecture by
officials in the Fortuño administration about whether it was an act of
sabotage. The fire burned for three days, spewing thick black toxic smoke
that, luckily, was mostly blown out to sea by wind gusts. The explosion
was so severe that it marked 2.8 on the Richter scale, blowing out
windows in local homes and business, and seriously damaging several homes
in the area. Residents pointed out that at midnight the explosion lit up
the sky as if it were noon, and were amazed, frightened, and traumatized
by the severity of the blast.<br><br>
Those who opposed a hated development project in the town of Peñuelas
likely feel vindicated. The "Gasoducto," recently abandoned,
was a development project designed to transport natural gas throughout
the southernmost towns of the island, but met with unusually fierce
community opposition, most especially in the towns of Ponce and Peñuelas.
Anti-gasoducto arguments were based on the fact that the gas line was to
come dangerously close to residential areas, and activists called
attention to serious accidental blasts in other countries where gas lines
are maintained. <br><br>
The CAPECO blast was a haunting reminder that overdevelopment coupled
with a lack of oversight and regulation is a serious threat to civilian
safety in residential areas. But it gave the administration an
opportunity to attempt to link the blast to the growing protest movement.
In spite of having immediate confirmation from CAPECO employees who
reported seeing dangerous flammable vapors being emitted from the oil and
gasoline transfer stations, and who ran from the site in anticipation of
the blast - and luckily were not hurt because they fled in vehicles and
not on foot - the administration, along with FBI officials, continued for
days to report that they could not rule out "terrorism" and
"sabotage" as a possible cause of the blast. Some saw this as a
feeble attempt to weaken the protest movement by attempting to scare more
moderate elements of the organizations involved and so prevent further
unrest. Within days, firefighters were able to contain the blaze and
extinguish it, and the FBI confirmed no evidence of sabotage was found,
instead finding a history of neglect and corruption.<br><br>
What they cannot contain, however, is the true explosion being witnessed
on the island. The true explosion is not the pyrotechnical type. It is
the explosion of dissent, of organization, and of resistance on the part
of hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens who, like the Common Guy,
are tired of coming in second place to big business and global capital.
Working class families have been shocked into action by the neoliberal
policies of the Fortuño administration, and have taken to public
demonstrations and civil disobedience to attempt to roll back some of its
more painful policies. While corporations continue to repatriate billions
of dollars to their U.S. offices, and while elected officials continue to
pay six figures to consultants and authorize salary increases for
themselves, the working class in Puerto Rico has exploded in outrage and
action. While it may not result in immediate fundamental political
change, it certainly marks an exciting and historical moment in the
history of the United States' oldest colony. <br><br>
<i>Juan A. Ocasio Rivera is a social worker, professor, and freelance
writer based in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. He has been a contributor to
online publications such as CounterPunch</i> and <i>Upside Down
World</i>, and has collaborated with various progressive organizations,
including the September23.Org project and La Nueva Escuela.<br><br>
<br><br>
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