<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<div id="container" class="container font-size5">
<div style="display: block;" id="reader-header" class="header"> <font
size="-2"><a
href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Protests-Against-Colonial-PROMESA-Debt-Plan-Rock-Puerto-Rico-20160901-0015.html"
id="reader-domain" class="domain">http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Protests-Against-Colonial-PROMESA-Debt-Plan-Rock-Puerto-Rico-20160901-0015.html</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Protests Against 'Colonial' PROMESA Debt
Plan Rock Puerto Rico</h1>
</div>
<div class="content">
<div style="display: block;" id="moz-reader-content">
<div
xml:base="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Protests-Against-Colonial-PROMESA-Debt-Plan-Rock-Puerto-Rico-20160901-0015.html"
id="readability-page-1" class="page">
<div itemprop="articleBody" class="txt_newworld">
<p>September 1, 2016<br>
</p>
<p>Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in San Juan
Wednesday to block the first scheduled conference on the
installation of a <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/21st-Century-Colony-US-Picks-Businessmen-to-Rule-Puerto-Rico-20160831-0030.html">financial
control board </a>to remedy <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Puerto-Rico-Debt-Crisis--20160509-0059.html">Puerto
Rico’s crippling debt crisis</a> but slammed by
critics as an anti-democratic, neo-colonial policy that
will redistribute wealth from the island nation to Wall
Street. </p>
<p>Demonstrators formed protests lines and blocked roads
with rocks and bricks to disrupt the conference at San
Juan’s Condado Plaza Hilton. They carried signs and
shouted slogans against the federal control board, whose
authority will supercede that of Puerto Rico’s
democratically-elected governor, effectively handing
budgetary decision-making over to unelected appointees,
<a target="_blank"
href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/21st-Century-Colony-US-Picks-Businessmen-to-Rule-Puerto-Rico-20160831-0030.html">many
of them bankers</a>. </p>
<p>The U.S. law creating the control board, known by its
acronym PROMESA, grants the oversight panel the power to
cut pensions, labor contracts with civil servants, and
social services, to restructure its US$73 billion debt
load. </p>
<p>Despite lines of riot police and occasional use of
pepper spray, the protests managed to block
conference-goers on their way to the venue and forced
organizers to re-arrange the meeting agenda, local media
reported. </p>
<p>“The power of the people and their determination to
have control of their own destiny was so apparent,” Eli
Jacobs-Fantauzzi, a member of Defend Puerto Rico, told
Remezcla Wednesday. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, just hours after demonstrators gathered
early Wednesday morning for the day of action bringing
together various organizations, <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/21st-Century-Colony-US-Picks-Businessmen-to-Rule-Puerto-Rico-20160831-0030.html">President
Obama announced his appointments</a> to the
seven-member, Republican-dominated federal control
board. The group of experts, six men and one woman,
includes Andrew Biggs, described by The Intercept as an
“architect of conservative efforts to cut and privatize
social security.” </p>
<p>In a statement Wednesday, U.S. member of Congress Luis
Gutierrez, who has been a staunch critic of PROMESA,
warned against the potential of the control board
becoming an “occupying force,” calling on members to
commit to transparency. “Last I checked, Puerto Rico is
a colony, but still a democracy of U.S. citizens who
deserve respect and the trust of this appointed body,”
Gutierrez wrote. </p>
<p>PROMESA, the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and
Economic Stability Act in full, was rushed through U.S.
Congress—where Puerto Rico doesn’t have a vote—in late
June, ahead of the island’s July 1 debt payment default.
Passed with bipartisan support, the act was heralded as
a plan to rescue Puerto Rico. But critics have harshly
condemned the PROMESA control board as a <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/5-Leftists-Speak-out-Against-Colonial-Puerto-Rico-Debt-Bill-20160630-0008.html">pretext
to ramp up colonization</a> and undercut labor rights
and slash public services. </p>
<p>Protests have been ongoing on the island. Earlier this
week, anti-PROMESA demonstrators attempted to shut down
the local newspaper El Nuevo Dia, accusing the outlet of
promoting the control board with a pro-U.S. editorial
line. A group of protesters have also maintained an <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Ongoing-Puerto-Rico-Protest-Camp-Blasts-Colonial-PROMESA-Bill-20160712-0016.html">occupation
outside the U.S. federal court</a> in San Juan’s Hato
Rey area, launched at the end of June as a long-term
encampment against the so-called “junta.” </p>
<p>PROMESA has already brought changes to Puerto Rico,
including slashing the minimum wage to just US$4.25 for
people under 25 amid high levels of poverty and
unemployment. Funding for pensions, education, and
health care is also facing cuts, while basic services
are at risk of privatization. </p>
<p>Puerto Rico’s legal status and <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/5-Ways-the-US-Treats-Puerto-Rico-Like-a-Colony-20160603-0006.html">colonial
relationship with the U.S.</a> have crippled its
ability to tackle its debt crisis. As a U.S. territory,
the island is barred from declaring bankruptcy, an
option only available to municipalities in U.S. states
through the bankruptcy code. This legal conundrum has
meant that it is very difficult for Puerto Rico to
restructure its US$73 billion debt. </p>
<p>While Puerto Rico faces austerity and a financial
control scheme reviled as colonial, bondholders are
poised to reap massive profits. A recent report by the
ReFund America Project found that nearly half of Puerto
Rico's debt load is interest on loans underwritten by a
slew of Wall Street firms through what the researchers
of the report compared to a payday lending scheme. </p>
<p>In San Juan, demonstrators have pledged to continue
protesting PROMESA. </p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>