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March 12, 2015<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/12/next-target-puerto-rico/">http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/12/next-target-puerto-rico/</a><br>
<b><big><big><br>
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<b><big><big> </big></big></b>
<div class="subheadlinestyle"><big><big>The Repressive Message of
the Pentagon's “Operation Borinquen Response”</big></big></div>
<h1 class="article-title">Next Target Puerto Rico?</h1>
<div class="mainauthorstyle">by CARLOS BORRERO</div>
<div class="main-text">
<p>The significance of a recently divulged plan of the Pentagon
to carry out military exercises in Puerto Rico under the name
“Operation Borinquen Response” between the 14<sup>th</sup> and
21<sup>st</sup> of this month must not be underestimated. On
the pretext of the need to prepare for a natural disaster, US
imperialism has cynically prepared a series of military
maneuvers for Puerto Rico in which more than 1,000 troops from
the island, National Guard troops from West Virginia,
Washington, Tennessee, Vermont and Nebraska, as well as
international observers from Honduras and the Dominican
Republic are slated to participate.<a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/12/next-target-puerto-rico/#_edn1"
name="_ednref1">[1]</a></p>
<p>This military deployment does not represent an isolated
phenomenon. Rather, it is an extension of the policy of
increased militarization of US society to its colony in
anticipation of an intensification of mass discontent. In the
past several years there have been a number of similar
military simulations based on urban warfare scenarios carried
out in US cities such as Houston, Miami and Minneapolis-St.
Paul. These exercises have included the deployment of military
aircraft such as Blackhawk helicopters as well as heavily
armed paratroopers into residential areas. Indeed, Obama added
a key piece to the legal architecture for this militarization
of US society with the signing of the National Defense
Authorization Act of 2012, which essentially repealed what
remained of the Posse Comitatus statute that made the
deployment of US armed forces on US soil illegal during times
of peace. In this way, this Nobel Peace laureate has expanded
the militarist policies of the previous administration both
domestically and abroad.</p>
<p>Another critical component of this militarization of US
society in recent years has been the supply of military grade
equipment and weapons to urban police forces through the
Department of Homeland Security. The brutal repression
unleashed upon protesters in Ferguson, Missouri last year, as
well as the recent revelations by <em>The Guardian</em> of
the existence of secret prisons or ‘black sites’, such as the
now infamous Homan Square<a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/12/next-target-puerto-rico/#_edn2"
name="_ednref2">[2]</a>, maintained by the Chicago Police in
which the torture of civilians has been carried out are just
two patent examples of this tendency.</p>
<p>In an age of the historical decline of its system, the only
solution proposed by the capitalist class is war, both against
the working masses within national borders and foreign rivals
abroad. In fact, the practice of domestic military exercises
is consistent with the recommendations made in a recent
Pentagon study<a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/12/next-target-puerto-rico/#_edn3"
name="_ednref3">[3]</a> that warns of the need to revise
military doctrine in preparation for the eventuality of future
interventions by the US Army in large urban areas. According
to military theorists, the social and economic crises within
so-called <em>megacities</em>, which they describe as ‘petri
dishes’ for radicalism, will be particularly acute. The
incipient wave of working class resistance, which is evidenced
by recent strikes by west coast longshoremen and US refinery
workers, coupled with the massive protests within working
class communities of color subjected to brutal police
repression, appear to be just the beginning of a new phase of
intense class struggles within the center of world
imperialism. As such, despite their rhetoric to the contrary,
the strategists of US capitalism know very well that they are
not immune to the type of social convulsions that have
recently rocked other countries.</p>
<p>The objective conditions for popular opposition to the system
have become particularly acute in Puerto Rico. Massive
structural unemployment as well as economic stagnation over
the past 8 years has highlighted the complete bankruptcy of
the economic solutions imposed by the capitalists and their
acolytes in the colony. In a recent report by the US Bureau of
Labor Statistics it was revealed that in 2014 Puerto Rico
registered the lowest labor participation rate in last 22
years, seeing a reduction of 37,000 people employed. It is a
well known fact that this prolonged unemployment crisis has
provoked a massive exodus of Puerto Ricans from the island,
many of which are highly skilled, in what can only be
described as <em>brain drain. </em>All of this is taking
place within the context of a $70 Billion public debt, which
represents almost 70% of GDP, and serves as a pretext for a
campaign of austerity measures carried out against the mass of
working class Puerto Ricans. And in an effort to guarantee the
steady transfer of wealth to the financial parasites of Wall
Street as well as their junior partners in the colony, the
colonial administration has recently proposed an increase to
the consumption tax as part of what it cynically calls ‘tax
reform’.</p>
<p>This panorama of social and economic crises increasingly
provokes a popular questioning of all the political
institutions within the colony. As such, the planned military
exercises represent a policy of psychological intimidation
being carried out in anticipation of a new wave of popular
protests within a colonial society that is crumbling from
within. From the perspective of US imperialism and its
defenders within the colony, there is a concern that any
political change that takes place within its colony be carried
out under terms that are acceptable and consistent with its
strategic interests.</p>
<p>Notwithstanding, the military exercises planned for Puerto
Rico cannot only be understood within the context of a
response to the deepening of the social crisis in the colony.
It must also be understood as an imperative of US imperialism
within the context of the sharpening of geopolitical
conflicts. Undoubtedly, the recent rapprochement between
Washington and Havana as well as the destabilizing campaign
carried out against Venezuela form part of the same strategy
of the US ruling class to reassert its hegemony in the
hemisphere against the threat of emerging rivals like China.</p>
<p>There exists in recent Puerto Rican history a powerful
precedent for popular opposition to US militarism in the
struggle to remove the US Navy from the island of Vieques. The
task of assessing the strengths and weaknesses of this
experience now falls upon those popular forces most committed
to the working masses. Their capacity to foster the
reorganization of popular resistance and international
solidarity against this most recent example of US militarism
is more urgent than ever.</p>
<p><em><strong>Carlos Borrero</strong> is a New York-based
writer.</em></p>
<p><strong> Notes.</strong></p>
<p><a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/12/next-target-puerto-rico/#_ednref1"
name="_edn1">[1]</a> <a
href="http://www.primerahora.com/noticias/puerto-rico/nota/anuncianmasivosimulacromilitarenpuertorico-1069556/">http://www.primerahora.com/noticias/puerto-rico/nota/anuncianmasivosimulacromilitarenpuertorico-1069556/</a></p>
<p><a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/12/next-target-puerto-rico/#_ednref2"
name="_edn2">[2]</a> <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/27/chicago-abusive-confinment-homan-square">http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/27/chicago-abusive-confinment-homan-square</a></p>
<p><a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/12/next-target-puerto-rico/#_ednref3"
name="_edn3">[3]</a> <a
href="http://usarmy.vo.llnwd.net/e2/c/downloads/351235.pdf">http://usarmy.vo.llnwd.net/e2/c/downloads/351235.pdf</a></p>
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