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<font size=4><b>Explosive Political Situation in Puerto Rico<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>Written by Roberto Ramos-Perea
<br>
Tuesday, 06 July 2010 15:27 <br><br>
<a href="http://alainet.org/active/39225" eudora="autourl">
http://alainet.org/active/39225<br><br>
</a><i>It is 5:00 of the evening of June 30, 2010, groups of students,
teachers and citizens asked for entry to the House of the Laws and they
were struck and tortured by the Police, there are numerous injured
people, while the National Guard is mobilized towards Capitol Hill.
Violent shocks are scattered over the whole zone of the Parliament and
the repression continues.<br><br>
</i>________<br><br>
A constitutional coup has just been established in Puerto Rico. <br><br>
After a year in which the present time government under the New
Progressive Party (Partido Nuevo Progresista, that attempts to join the
Island to the United States through statehood) tried to and succeeded in
taking over many institutions that form the basis of the democratic
government of Puerto Rico, an atmosphere of hostility followed by many
reckless actions that threaten public peace had climaxed in violent and
aggressive actions of this government against the parties of the
opposition, the organized student movement, the labor unions, the press,
the environment, as against every area and institution of Puerto Rico’s
civil society.<br><br>
This constitutional coup springs from the Legislative branch of the
government under the command of Senator Thomas Rivera Schatz, endorsed by
the central government, under the dominance of the Secretary Governor,
counselor Marcos Rodríguez Ema, with the obvious intent of having under
their grasp and without opposition full control of every agency and
organization that rule the judiciary, academic, economic and civil
societies. In the face of this scenario, Governor Luis Fortuño operates
without volition, has no opinion, appearance nor public
responsibility.<br><br>
With the complete control of the High Court of Puerto Rico, the
University of Puerto Rico Board of trustees, and the alleged control of
the news media, among many others, the genuine participation of the
People of Puerto Rico in all democratic processes protected by our
Constitution is jeopardized.<br><br>
The events started (through the rush approval of Law 7 by the
Legislature) with more than 20,000 public employee lay-offs, with the
allegation that this would alleviate the gigantism of the government and
would find the solution to the serious public deficit, that has never
been properly evidenced. This decision has caused economical chaos,
public services are worse than ever and it has generated despair and
gloominess in every Puerto Rican family. In this same guise there exists
a serious persecution against all artistic institutions of the country,
strangling their budgets, trying with this action to avoid the
propagation of art as dissidence. This, while the government favors
contracts of obscene sums with hundreds of advisors, contractors and
lobbyists associated with their own political party. <br><br>
The attacks continued in the form of the appointment to the High Court of
four Judges with a well known affiliation with, and militancy for the
governing political party, achieving a majority of votes in favor of the
present government on all decisions made in this Forum, on an individual
basis. The government went on repressing and eliminating student
participation on the procedures of the State University, suppressing
tuition exemption rights for outstanding athletes and artists, among
others; forcing the students from all eleven campuses of the University
of Puerto Rico to declare a strike that lasted 60 days, generating ample
support from the people of Puerto Rico and around the world.<br><br>
The students on strike were successful in achieving their demands through
negotiations that involved a First Instance Court and an appointed
negotiator; however, Secretary of government Rodríguez Ema is trying to
invalidate these accords, saying that they “are not worth the paper in
which they were written” <br><br>
This event preceded the Central government’s action of proposing a hasty
law, that was signed with no revision within hours, adding four
additional members to the Board of trustees of the University of Puerto
Rico. These additions to the Board are unconditional members of the
governing political party The students of the State University, who in
the great majority depend on Federal grants, now face an annual recurring
fee of $800.00, which they will not be able to pay and that they will not
pay, forcing the students to return to their strike. With this strategy,
the Central government risks the accreditation of the State University
and as a consequence, the government would be able to privatize its
assets.<br><br>
Following this same direction, the government of Puerto Rico will attempt
to sell and to divide for speculation a strip of land where the Karst
formation stands, on the northwest of the Island. This area collects one
third of our water supplies for the entire population; nonetheless, the
government intends to put this area into private hands that would build a
toll expressway over this zone that is rich ecologically and
economically.<br><br>
Passing up many other events, the budget of Puerto Rico was approved,
together with countless laws which favor privatization, the dissolving of
professional associations and the distribution of public funds into
private hands, without the pertaining and compulsory hearings of public
participation, reaching the extreme of turning off the microphones of the
opposing political party members, in a despotic fashion.<br><br>
The events climaxed last week when the FBI in Puerto Rico arrested
Senator Héctor Martínez, NPP, on charges of bribe, the selling of
influences and other charges. Martinez is Senator’s Rivera Schatz right
hand in the Senate. A public squabble reached the news between the
Senator and the FBI, with the Senator fending the alleged innocence of
Senator Martínez, who has been directly associated with drug traffic and
who was filmed while committing bribery. <br><br>
Then, last in his many violent and reckless acts, the president of the
Senate, Rivera Schatz, using force and a real padlock, censored the
access of the cameras and the news media to the Senate sessions,
depriving the People of Puerto Rico of direct information about the
discussions and voting sessions that were taking place about this year’s
budget and other matter). The events resulted in verbal and physical
violence between senators, rising indignation among the people to a point
of an almost unsustainable state of outrage and wrath.<br><br>
Counselor Rivera Schatz has taken virtual control of the country with his
tyrannical and fascist ways; and it cannot be discarded that from these
same seats, this same week, acts of persecution and acts of violence will
be started against other sectors of the People, all approved by the
Secretary Governor of Puerto Rico.<br><br>
It is 5:00 of the evening of June 30, 2010, groups of students, teachers
and citizens asked for entry to the House of the Laws and they were
struck and tortured by the Police, there are numerous injured people,
while the National Guard is mobilized towards Capitol Hill. Violent
shocks are scattered over the whole zone of the Parliament and the
repression continues.<br><br>
This factual deed of control of the political power from within the
Puerto Rican Nation violates all elementary principles of democracy and
of participation of the People in the government, for which we proclaim
to the World the present situation of contained violence that exists in
our People and that is about to explode against these two politicians
that had taken by assault the power in our Country. Even though in Puerto
Rico there are no conditions for an armed struggle of the People because
of the obvious disparity of the opposing sides, a revolution of cultural
and of student affirmation is starting to take the streets and to
retrieve the spaces stolen away by the originators of this coup.<br><br>
We exhort all communications media of the World to divulge and expose the
current situation of the Puerto Rican Nation and we ask of you,
therefore, your total solidarity.<br><br>
<i>- Composed by Roberto Ramos-Perea, Puertorrican playwrite. (With the
active collaboration, comments and support of more than a hundred Puerto
Rican citizens.)<br><br>
<br><br>
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