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<h1 id="reader-title">A fake Promesa for Puerto Rico: the “new”
Financial Control Board bill</h1>
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<p><span>A new Caribbean dictatorship will soon take
charge of Puerto Rico. The final PROMESA bill finally
arrived…and it is the WORST one of all.</span></p>
<p><span>After five months of “hearings” and “analysis,”
the US Congress announced HR 5278…the law which will
officially kill the economy of Puerto Rico. Here is
the bill, all 148 pages of it:</span></p>
<p><a target="_blank"
href="http://naturalresources.house.gov/uploadedfiles/promesa_hr_5278.pdf">http://naturalresources.house.gov/uploadedfiles/promesa_hr_5278.pdf</a><br>
<br>
<span>The economy of Puerto Rico will soon be handed
over to a “Financial Oversight and Management Board,”
and the billionaires behind them.</span></p>
<p><span><strong>AUTHORITY TO RECEIVE GIFTS</strong></span></p>
<p><span>One of the more astounding “good government”
powers of the Board will be its right to “accept, use,
and dispose of gifts, bequests, or devises of services
and real and personal property.” There is no
explanation of how these gifts will “aid or
facilitate” the work of the Board.</span></p>
<p><span>This incredible invitation to bribery, influence
peddling, and money laundering appears on pages 24-25
of the PROMESA bill.</span></p>
<p><span><strong>ABSOLUTE BUDGET POWERS AND POLITICAL
CONTROL</strong></span></p>
<p><span>The Board will “re-structure the workforce of the
Commonwealth government,” ensure “the payment of debt
obligations,” and reduce or freeze public pensions.</span></p>
<p><span>It will also supervise the budget and finances of
the entire Commonwealth government, its pension
system, courts, legislature, public authorities, and
all leases, union contracts, and collective bargaining
agreements.</span></p>
<p><span>Anyone (public official or otherwise) who defies
or obstructs the Board, will be found guilty of
“criminal misdemeanor” and will be subject to
suspension without pay, and removal from office.</span></p>
<p><span><strong>NO MINIMUM WAGE</strong></span></p>
<p><span>Section 403 of the bill contains an extreme wage
cut, from $7.25 to $4.25 an hour. It will apply to
everyone aged 20-24 in Puerto Rico, whenever they
start a new job.</span></p>
<p><span>If this bill is passed then over 200,000 young
people, many of them paying student loans, will soon
be working for $4.25 an hour in Puerto Rico…because
that will be their new “minimum wage.”</span></p>
<p><span>The supply side argument that this will “create
more jobs and economic development on the island” is
woefully myopic. At $4.25 an hour, $170 a week, $8,840
a year, a young worker will make 25 percent of the per
capita income of a resident of Mississippi, the
poorest state in the US. Someone needs to explain to
the House Committee on Natural Resources that this is
not “economic development.” It is indentured servitude
that smells of racism.</span> </p>
<p><span>No tortured logic, no trickle-down theorist or
hedge fund hustler can credibly argue that a minimum
wage reduction to $4.25 will help the island —
especially when the rest of the US is pushing for $15
an hour in all 50 states.</span><br>
</p>
<p>
<span><strong>CREATION OF DEBT, WITH NO ACCOUNTABILITY</strong></span></p>
<p><span>The government of Puerto Rico must appeal to the
Board for any possibility of bankruptcy. Through a
“certification procedure” controlled by the Board
itself (see Sections 206 (a) and 206 (b) of the bill),
the Board decides if and when any bankruptcy
re-structuring will be allowed. The Board will also
decide which part of the Puerto Rico physical
infrastructure (electrical grid, water supply, roads,
bridges, highways, schools, prisons, airports,
beaches) will serve as collateral for the debt
re-structuring.</span></p>
<p><span>The Board can also directly encumber the physical
infrastructure of Puerto Rico…because any and all debt
issuances of the Puerto Rican government must receive
the prior approval of the Board. In other words, the
Board <strong><em>will be</em></strong> the debt
issuing authority of Puerto Rico.</span></p>
<p><span>The physical infrastructure of Puerto Rico
(highways, bridges, schools, prisons, electrical grid,
water supply, public housing, prime coastal real
estate) will all be available as “collateral” for the
debt decisions of this Board.</span></p>
<p><span>Despite all of this power, neither the
chairperson nor any of the seven Board members, will
be accountable or liable to the government of Puerto
Rico.</span></p>
<p><span>The PROMESA bill is careful to mention that “the
United States is not responsible for any principal or
interest on any bond, note, or other obligation issued
by the Board.” This means that Puerto Rico – its
taxpayers and its physical infrastructure – will be
solely and exclusively responsible for repayment of
the Board’s debt decisions.</span></p>
<p><span><strong>PUBLIC PROSECUTOR</strong></span></p>
<p><span>The Board will also have prosecutorial powers.</span></p>
<p><span>It is authorized to “conduct necessary
investigations” into the government of Puerto Rico. It
is empowered to hold hearings, secure government
records, demand evidence, take testimony, subpoena
witnesses, and administer oaths (under penalty of
perjury) to all witnesses.</span></p>
<p><span>Anyone who fails to appear, refuses to testify,
or withholds evidence, can be held in contempt of
court. The result of any Board investigation can lead
to criminal and civil penalties – including, but not
limited to, getting fired from your job.</span></p>
<p><span><strong>AN EMPTY PROMESA</strong></span></p>
<p><span>This Financial Control Board will be the
governor, banker, judge, jury, and prosecutor of
Puerto Rico.</span></p>
<p><span>It will manage the entire Puerto Rican economy,
and be accountable to no one on the island. It will
tell the entire Puerto Rican government what to do,
when to jump, and how high. It will issue debt, spend
the money in any manner it sees fit, and leave Puerto
Rico to pay the bill.</span></p>
<p><span>It will do nothing about Jones Act reform, the
privatization of the island’s public schools, or the
hedge funds that will own the physical infrastructure
of Puerto Rico – its schools, prisons, highways,
electrical grid, and water supply.</span></p>
<p><span>This is where our “Commonwealth” relationship to
the US has gotten us: a dictatorship in the Caribbean,
owned and operated from Wall Street, all disguised as
a “management assistance board.”</span></p>
<p><span>The branding is very catchy, though.</span></p>
<p><span>With a wink and a nod to George Orwell, the US
Congress took five months of hedge fund bribe money,
slapped some lipstick and high heels on Senate Bill
2381, and called it PROMESA for Puerto Rico.</span></p>
<p><span>There is no “promesa” in this bill. It simply
creates a collection agency in the Caribbean.</span></p>
<p><span>It is one great big lie.</span><br>
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