Puerto Rico Crisis Update: October 5, 2015
By Angelo Falcón
Last week, on September 29th, the United States Senate's Finance Committee held
a hearing on financial and economic challenges in Puerto Rico. As the committee's chair, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) put it:
. . . these problems and any proposed solutions are multidimensional and extremely complicated. Questions of funding and resource allocation are always difficult, and they implicate a number of issues. It isn't as simple as just deciding to give more health funds to Puerto Rico, because doing so would necessarily mean reduced funding for other priorities, increased taxes, or even more federal debt.
The committee's Democratic ranking member, Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), pointed out that: ". . . policymakers in Washington and in San Juan need to take a hard look at the origins of the crisis. Puerto Rico won't be able to move forward until there's an understanding of what's holding it back."
In other words, despite the dire circumstances facing the people of Puerto Rico, there was no sense of urgency expressed by this committee's leadership and, one can assume, the majority of this Republican-controlled Senate.
The next day, Puerto Rico's Catholic Archbishop, Robert Gonzalez Nieves
of San Juan, and the Rev. Heriberto Martinez Rivera, general secretary
of the Puerto Rico Bible Society,
came to Washington to make the case for federal action with Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-California, House minority leader; Sen. Elizabeth
Warren, D-Massachusetts; the chief of staff for Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah;
and White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough. The Archbishop reported
that, "They listened. They asked many questions, they promised to
do more research and to become better informed. I sensed a desire to help."
But it was discouraging to read the findings of Puerto Rico's Civil Rights Commission of the widespread government corruption they documented on the Island over the years. At a time when the political leadership of Puerto Rico is trying to convince the federal government and its debt holders of their commitment to meet their financial obligations in seeking their support, this history of patronage and coruption undermines their position. The result is the people of Puerto Rico now having to pay, more than ever, for the sins of their political class, regardless of party.
However, contra mar y marea, the organizing in the stateside Puerto Rican diaspora continues as more
and more activists plan to travel to Orlando on October 13 and 14 for
a national convening in Orlando, Florida on October 13-14, 2015 to develop a National Puerto Rican Agenda in support
of Puerto Rico and stateside Puerto Ricans. This convening will feature
a briefing on the role of Congress on Puerto Rico's debt crisis by
Representatives Gutierrez (D-IL), Serrano (D-NY) and Velazquez (D-NY),
as well as sessions on Puerto Rico's fiscal and health crises, human
rights and civic engagement, and climate change. But perhaps the most
important part of this gathering will be the session limited only to Puerto
Rican elected officials on state and local political strategies. The idea
is for this organizing to spread throughout the Puerto Rican diaspora.
But one strategy that appears to be failing is one that demonstrates the
limitations of the poor use of social media. The
petition calling on President Obama to take immediate action to address
Puerto Rico's debt crisis will in all likelihood fall far short of its goal of
getting the 100,000 signatures needed by October 12th to get the President
to officially respond. As of October 5th, only 3,178 people had signed
on, meaning that to reach the 100,000 mark by the 1oth would require acquiring
13,832 signatures per day! Unless there is a super major mobilization.
In any case, this won't be much of a loss, since the result if they
got the 100,000 signatures would be some vague noncommittal statement
from the President. The people of Puerto Rico already have that.
Meantime, in Puerto Rico thousands of workers and students have been hitting the streets to protest against the harsh austerity measures being proposed by the government. There is also acall by unions for a general strike ("paro nacional") on October 15th. However, mainstream news coverage of these anti-austerity protests in Puerto Rico has been almost nonexistent.