The Puerto Rico Crisis: A Diasporic Update

By Angelo Falcón

The NiLP Report

As the end-of-March deadline set by House Speaker Paul Ryan for the US Congress to produce legislation to aid Puerto Rico with its debt crisis and the Democratic and Republican Party conventions looming, Puerto Rican politicians and activists are organizing on a number of fronts to impact on these developments. Meanwhile in Puerto Rico, attention is being increasingly focused on the November gubernatorial elections, in which the Governorship has become an open seat since the incumbent, Alejandro Javier García Padilla, decided not to run for reelection.

The Diaspora Summit

Building on October's gathering in Orlando, Florida, that group is following up by convening a Puerto Rico-Puerto Rican Diaspora Summit of the National Puerto Rican Agenda (NPRA) on the weekend of April 22-23 at the CUNY Center for Puerto Rican Studies (the Centro) at Hunter College in New York City. Top scholars and leaders will come together to explore solutions to the critical problems facing our community at "Puerto Rico/Puerto Ricans: A Diaspora Summit." The weekend-long event will examine the crisis on the island and focus on the impact it has had on Puerto Ricans living in the United States.

This summit is expected to be attended by the three Democratic Party Congresspersons, Luis V. Gutierrez of Chicago, and Jose Serrano and Nydia Velazquez of New York City, NYC Council Speaker Melissa Mark Viverito, Illinois State Senator Iris Y. Martinez, New York State Assemblyman Marcos Crespo, and Counselor to the Secretary of the U.S. Treasury Antonio Weiss. They will be joined by labor leader Dennis Rivera and journalist Juan González, along with other policy experts and religious and community leaders, to explore the crisis in Puerto Rico and the economic, social, and political implications on stateside Puerto Ricans.

The Caucus of Puerto Rican Elected Officials

This Diaspora Summit is being coordinated with the convening of the Caucus of Puerto Rican Elected Officials and coalition leaders on April 23rd elsewhere in New York City. This Caucus was one of the products of the Orlando convening, whose interim leadership was selected in February. In a letter to Puerto Rican elected officials inviting them to this Caucus meeting, NYC Council Speaker Mark-Viverito and NYS Assemblyman Marcos Crespo explain that "This historic gathering will take place concurrently with a meeting of the National Puerto Rican Agenda. After a closed-door strategy session, we will join our coalition partners to map a comprehensive strategy to support Puerto Rico and to move forward with a unified voice in the upcoming presidential, state and local elections." (for further information on the Caucus, contact Pedro Julio Serrano at pjserrano@gmail.com or 787.602.5954).

The purposes of this caucus are described as follows by its organizers:

1. Coordinating efforts to address the fiscal crisis in Puerto Rico and hold the U.S. government accountable;
2. Intensifying the offensive to Free Oscar Lopez Rivera;
3. Promoting and unifying efforts for a Puerto Rican centered, voter registration and education campaign; and,
4. Discussing the coordination of inside/outside efforts in the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia during July 25-28.

Concurrently with the elected officials' caucus meeting, other committees of the Diaspora Summit will be meeting in separate rooms. They will then all gather to receive reports from the caucus and all other committees and approve a joint action agenda for the months leading to the July events, including the first national meeting of the National Puerto Rican Agenda (NPRA) on July 24th, the day before the Democratic Convention, in Camden NJ.

Economist Edwin Melendez, Director of the Centro, which is hosting the Diaspora Summit, has developed a comprehensive analysis of the crisis facing Puerto Rico. In his PowerPoint presentation, he concludes that "The U.S Congress and the President should: Extend territorial bankruptcy to restructure the debt; Eliminate Medicare and Medicaid

disparities; and Extend the EITC and the CTC to help mitigate the plight of 3.5 million Puerto Rican citizens.

At the March 8th Capital Awards of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) held in Washington, DC, New York Comgressweoman Nydia Velazquez, an honoree at this event, spoke passionately about the crisis facing Puerto Rico and the need for broad Latino support.. Representative Velazquez has been a leading voice in the Congress for measures to address the Island's debt crisis and has been a major supporte of the develoment of the National Puerto Rican Agenda..

Pressure on the US Congress

As preparations for this summit proceed, there has been a campaign to put pressure on the US Congress to provide Puerto Rico bankruptcy protection and other support. On March 9th, the Puerto Rican Agenda in Chicago held a press conference issuing a statement calling on the US Congress to address the Puerto Rican fiscal and humanitarian crisis. Similar statements were issued by the Connecticut Congressional delegation and the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.

On March 15th, the Hispanic Federation is sponsoring a press conference with US Senator Gillibrand of New York in Washington, DC to lobby the Congress on behalf of Puerto Rico and showcase individuals who are affected by the crisis who live in Puerto Rico or have moved stateside recently and have compelling stories that help to put a human face on the crisis (for further information on this press conference, contact Jose Davila at jdavila@hispanicfederation.org).

In addition, the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, a coalition of 40 of the leading national Latino civil rights organizations, has formed a Puerto Rico Working Group under the leadership of Juan Cartagena of LatinoJustice PRKDEF and has included the need for Congressional action on the Puerto Rico crisis in its 2016 Public Policy Agenda that it will be presenting to the Democratic and Republican parties and Presidential candidates.

There have also been efforts to put pressure on the Federal Reserve Bank to provide aid to Puerto Rio on its debt problem by designating it in a state of crisis. Earlier this month, the Alliance for Puerto Rico-Massachusetts held a protest at the Boston Federal Reserve Bank and met with its President, Eric S. Rosengren, presenting him with the Hedge Clipper's report, Puerto Rico: Pain ad Profit.

VAMOS4PR Network

In early February, SEIU 32BJ and Make the Road New York convened a first meeting od the VAMOS4PR Network, a stateside-based extension of Puerto Rico's VAMOS Network, a group of labor, community, cultural and human rights organizations and individuals with the following goals:

1. Securing a moratorium on debt payments, a thorough and complete audit of the debt and a restructure of the debt that does not place an undue burden on Puerto Rican families;
2. Supporting working families in Puerto Rico by protecting and expanding workers' rights, including the right to organize in unions; raising the minimum wage as we are seeking to do in New York and other localities to create good jobs; as well as protecting public services and rejecting austerity as the solution;
3. Advancing development proposals that can sustain the Puerto Rican economy in the long term, in areas such as renewable energy, tourism, and agriculture, rejecting the notion that the only long-term economic solution is to keep the island a low-wage labor source for multinational corporations;
4. Educating and mobilizing the Puerto Rican diaspora and its allies, and make Puerto Rico once again an issue of concern and priority for progressives.

Hedge Clippers' Role

Another group addressing Puerto Rico's debt crisis is the New York-based Hedge Clippers, funded by some foundations, labor unions and community organizations. They have identified the major hedge ("vulture") funds that have invested in Puerto Rico and have been putting pressure on them to negotiate fairly with the Puerto Rican government and are opposing the austerity measures the funds are advocating for in Puerto Rico. They have also commissioned an opinion poll of Puerto Rican voters in Orlando, Florida as part of their strategy to mobilize for the Presidential election.

Calling Out Colonialism:

A Call to Action for Puerto Rico (CTA)

Another group, A Call to Action for Puerto Rico, using Facebook to organize, has also coordinated a series of panels and discussions with Puerto Ricans from the diaspora and Puerto Rico and continues to work with leaders and activists throughout the diaspora. However, in contrast to groups pursuing electoral strategies like the Hedge Clippers and labor unions, one of the leaders of A Call for Puerto Rico, David Galarza, points out that, "On the contrary, we are the only ones who continue to raise the issue of colonialism as the major reason for the current state of affairs." On March 22nd, they are demonstrating at 26 Federal Plaza to oppose the proposed imposition of a financial control board on Puerto Rico by the US Congress.

Challenges Forward

As these various campaigns and movement evolve to address the debt and colonial crisis facing Puerto Rico, they face a series of serious challenges. These include:

• The need to mainstream the issue of Puerto Rico with the American public. So far this issue has been largely confined to discussions and organizing within Puerto Rican communities. Most of the mainstream coverage of the Puerto Rico crisis has been driven by the financial press from the perspective of the investors and not the people of Puerto Rico. Has there been enough done to secure the support for Puerto Rico at least by Mexican-American, Dominican, Cuban and other Latino communities?
• The development of a coordinated strategy. There are different grouping involved in addressing the crisis both stateside and on the Island. There are those on the left raising issues about Puerto Rico's status as a colony of the United States. Others are promoting policies to return Puerto Rico to a Commonwealth status quo. Others are just focusing on one aspect of the crisis, such as Medicaid/Medicare funding, reform of the Jones Act, etc. Is this campaign to aid Puerto Rico essentially a reformist or anti-colonial one? Can it be both?
• The need for a more coherent strategy for affecting the Presidential campaign. There is clearly a need to impact on the Presidential campaigns and convention delegations from states with large Puerto Rican and Latino populations. Should he focus be only on the Democratic Convention and ignoring the Republicans?
• The perception of Puerto Rican voters being captives of the Hillary Clinton camp. With almost all of the Puerto Rican elected officials endorsing the Clinton campaign, does this allow for her to take this support for granted? Should there be more Puerto Rican grassroots support for her opposition in the Bernie Sanders campaign? Is the reliance on a strategy focused on Puerto Rican elected officials already in the tank with Clinton and not with more independent community activists the right way to go? Then there is the more basic question: why hasn't there already existed a national caucus of stateside Puerto Rican elected officials and why did it take a disaster like Puerto Rico's massive debt crisis to organize one?
• What if Congressional support for legisltion to address Puerto Rico's debt crisis fails to materialize? Will the Puerto Rican diaspora and its allies have enough clout in Democratic circles to get the White House to use executive actions to come to the Island's aid?
• How to overcome the Trump Effect in terms of its setting back any movement on immigration reform by its focus on nativist racism and the terrorist threat? This is especially a problem for those advocating the release of Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera, whose case becomes more politically radioactive than usual in this especially toxic environment.
• Does the fact that in Puerto Rico the focus will be on the race for Governor, especially since that seat is now wide open that the current Governor has decided not to run for reelection, complicate coordination with stateside efforts? For example, the endorsement of Marco Rubio by Puerto Rico's Republicans despite his rightwing positions on the Island's crisis?
• The proposal for the Congress to impose a financial control board to oversee the economic recovery of Puerto Rico as part of a Republican aid package would represent the further ersion of Puerto Rico's already limited autonomy . If opposition to it fails, the issue becomes what form should it take that would be fuly transparent and inclusive of all affected sectors?
• How can the strategic political importance of the Puerto Rican vote in the battleground state of Florida be effectively leveraged in the Presidential election? Who will be taking the lead on this and what level of resources will be marshaled? Can an effort of a sufficiently large scale be mounted to make a difference?
• What exactly is the role of the stateside Puerto Rican in the deliberations on the Puerto Rico debt crisis? During the Congressional hearings held on the subject, there has not beena single witness testifying from the perspective of the Puerto Rican disapora. Groups in Puerto Rico do not seem to be including stateside boricuas in their discussions either, as was evident in last week's forum in Washington, DC on the financial control board issue sposored by Puerto Rico's Center for a New Economy.
• What are the longterm plans for the economic development of Puerto Rico? Addressng the immediate crisis without a vision for a viable future would ultimately resolve little.

No one is clear where the situation of Puerto Rico will wind up, with all signs pointing to a continuing economic and social disaster that will either deepen Puerto Rico's dependency on the United States or precipitate a political crisis that will challenge it. As this drama plays itself out, the role of the diaspora could be a critical one.