Puerto Rico

How Disaster Capitalism Has Ruined Puerto Rico

October 11, 2018 By Vijay Prashad, Independentmediainstitute.org/globetrotter Educate! Capitalism, Puerto Rico, US Imperialism

Amnesty International’s Secretary General Kumi Naidoo was recently in Puerto Rico. During his trip, Naidoo looked carefully at the aftermath of Hurricane Maria—the Category 4 hurricane in 2017 that tore through the Caribbean. No island in its path was spared, with Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit rightly calling the damage “mindboggling.” Puerto Rico, a part of the United States of America, was struck hard, but not much harder than the other islands. Yet, the relief, rehabilitation and recovery on this island have been slow—paralytically slow. Naidoo’s visit to Puerto Rico comes a year after Hurricane Maria and yet, as he wrote, “it is shocking that so many people are forced to live in such a precarious situation; even worse when they are part of one of the richest nations in the world.”

Call For The Convening Of A People’s Tribunal On US Crimes Against The People Of PR

October 10, 2018 Staff, Puertoricotribunal.org Create! Crime, Puerto Rico, Tribunals, US Imperialism

Puerto Rico is mired in the most momentous crisis in its history as a United States colony. Never before have converged so many edges that to follow the course imposed by imperialism, negatively impact their future as a culturally boricua nation that can be developed for the benefit of its people. Once again, the US wants to use Puerto Rico as a model against the Latin American and Caribbean region. Although in the fifties and sixties he injected resources to establish his "showcase of the Caribbean" giving the appearance that PR was the most developed and prosperous region, to hostilely contrast it with the development of the Cuban Revolution, now also tries to show how the American dominion can - simply because it can...

Puerto Rico Governor Calls For ‘Elimination’ Of Venezuela’s Government

October 7, 2018 Staff, The Morning Star Educate! Puerto Rico, Regime Change, Venezuela

Governor of Puerto Rico Ricardo Rossello has called for the “elimination” of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and announced that a summit of opposition leaders will be held on the occupied US island later this month. Mr Rossello called for the overthrow of the democratically elected Bolivarian government during a joint press conference on Tuesday with ex-mayor of Caracas Antonio Ledezma. The pair signed an agreement to “support the return of democracy” in Venezuela, promising to open “humanitarian channels of support to that country, by land, air, and sea.”

Puerto Rico One Year Later: We’re Fighting For Justice And Prosperity

September 27, 2018 By Amira Odeh, 350.org Create! Crisis, Hurricanes, Natural Disasters, Puerto Rico

As the wind blew I could hear things falling and breaking outside. The walls of my (concrete-built) home were vibrating and water was coming in through every single window and door. At the moment I could only think of how to prepare for the worst and to be ready to seek refuge inside a closet or a bathroom. On September 20, 2017, I was fighting to keep my home and family safe during those long 24 hours that we endured Hurricane Maria. I would have never imagined what the next year would look like.

Agroecology In Puerto Rico: Building Alternatives To Colonialism And Capitalism

August 6, 2018 Staff, Resumen-english.org Create! Agroecology, Capitalism, Colonialism, New Economy, Puerto Rico

Jesef Reyes Morales: The movement is composed of different collectives that carry out regional work in the island. Collectives of agroecological agriculture, community processes, educational work, artistic initiatives – all these have been brought together under the Movimiento de Agroecología Popular. It was founded about five years ago and is quite a young movement. Our objective, in addition to taking forward initiatives for agroecological production, is to help in the process of the empowerment of our peasantry. They are a sector of society where we can see a lot of cultural resistance but it is still dispersed in other aspects. So currently, it is not a politically organized sector of society but it should be. We see agroecology as resistance in our territories with respect to our seeds and our culture.

Puerto Rico’s Carmen Yulín Cruz Shreds Trump Over New Hurricane Death Toll Study

June 2, 2018 Hayley Miller, Huffingtonpost.com Educate! Hurricane, Puerto Rico, Trump Administration

The mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, tore into President Donald Trump after a study released this week estimated Hurricane Maria’s death toll was at least 70 times higher than the government’s official count. Carmen Yulín Cruz blamed the Trump administration for not doing more to save the 4,645 people estimated by Harvard University researchers to have died as a result of last year’s historic storm. The government’s official death toll remains at 64. “It was about creating a narrative that made him and his administration look good,” Cruz said in an interview on Wednesday with the Latino Rebels radio program. “And many in the political class in Puerto Rico looked the other way, disregarded the truth and played into his narrative, that he gets a 10 out of a 10” for the federal response to the storm.

Puerto Rico’s Uncounted Dead: Study Says Hurricane Maria Toll Far Higher Than Official Count

May 31, 2018 Aaron Maté, Therealnews.com Educate! Hurricane, Puerto Rico

DONALD TRUMP: Every death is a horror. But if you look at a real catastrophe, like Katrina, and you look at the tremendous hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died, and you look at what happened here with really a storm that was just totally overpowering, nobody’s ever seen anything like this. What is your death count as of this moment, seventeen? Sixteen people certified, sixteen people, versus in the thousands. You can be very proud of all of your people, all of our people working together. Sixteen versus literally thousands of people.

How Climate Change Impacts Poor People

May 18, 2018 Kate Harveston, Popular Resistance. Educate! Climate Change, Food Security, Poverty, Puerto Rico

“Climate change affects everybody." You'll hear this from time to time, particularly when someone is trying to advocate action on a global scale. It's a way of binding us to a collective issue — letting us know that we're all in this together, so we might as well work together to resolve it. After all, climate change is, by definition, a worldwide phenomenon and issue. The more global temperatures rise, and the ice caps melt, the stranger and less predictable the weather will get for all of us. It is not true, however, to assume that climate change affects us all equally. Those living in poverty find themselves particularly impacted by the changes associated with the rising tides and temperatures.

Hidden Employment Stats & Puerto Rico’s Ongoing Disaster

May 17, 2018 Eleanor Goldfield, Occupy.com Resistance Report Natural Disasters, Puerto Rico, Unemployment

Next up, unemployment rates may be going down but what does that actually mean? Hint: no, our economy is not doing well. And neither are the soon-to-be-homeless elderly of Louisiana – because you know, budget cuts – and screw grandma. Finally, Alex Cohen of Earth Defense Coalition joins us to talk Puerto Rico – a colony wrestling with both climate change and colonial capitalism – and what aid and autonomy look like on the ground. ALSO: we will soon lose funding from occupy.com. WE NEED YOUR HELP TO KEEP ACTING OUT! Please visit our Patreon page - anything you can contribute will help us keep producing these weekly activist news updates AND there are some activist give-aways in store...

Police Unleash ‘Brutal Attacks’ On Austerity Protesters In Storm-Ravaged Puerto Rico

May 3, 2018 By Jessica Corbett, Commondreams.org Resist! Austerity, May Day, Police State, Protests, Puerto Rico, Repression

Police in Puerto Rico deployed tear gas and fired rubber bullets to shut down May Day protests as thousands of people took to the streets of the U.S. territory, which is still battling the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria—and a debt crisis that preceded the storm. While people worldwide demonstrated Tuesday to demand improved labor conditions on International Workers Day, Puerto Ricans also turned out to protest the Trump administration's failed response to the humanitarian crisis that followed the hurricane as well as austerity measures imposed by the federal government both before and after the storm struck last September.

From 1937 To 2018: The Militarized Suppression Of Protest In Puerto Rico

May 3, 2018 Jorge Juan Rodríguez V, Jjrodriguezv.com Educate! History, Protests, Puerto Rico, Repression, US Imperialism

As I look on at my beautiful Puerto Rico and see the people rising against colonialism and economic tyranny only to be beaten and illegally searched and arrested by a militarized police, I keep thinking about the 1937 Ponce Massacre where 19 protestors and 2 police officers were killed. On March 21, 1937 members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party held a peaceful march in Ponce, Puerto Rico to commemorate the abolition of slavery (1873), protest US colonialism, and challenge the arrest of nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos. Gaining word about the march, then appointed Governor Blanton Winship ordered the Insular Police of Puerto Rico to stop the demonstration in Ponce—approving the use of force in this mission.

Amid School Closures, Puerto Rico’s Teachers Fight Privatization

April 9, 2018 By Emily Wells, Truthdig.com Educate! Class Struggle, Privatization, Puerto Rico, Schools, Teachers

Puerto Rico’s Department of Education announced Thursday it will close 283 schools this summer after a sharp drop in enrollment, thought to be partly a result of displacement of families after Hurricane Maria. However, many teachers in the island’s school system say the issue might be more complicated and believe the system’s recent acceptance of charter schools and voucher programs could be contributing to the deprioritizing of public schools. The Associated Press reports that Puerto Rico is currently operating 1,100 public schools with 319,000 enrolled students. Puerto Rico’s Education Secretary Julia Keleher said of the closings, “We know it’s a difficult and painful process. For this reason, we’ve done it in the most sensible way, taking in consideration all the elements that could impact the daily lives of some families and the school communities in general. …

Six Months After Hurricane, Puerto Ricans Are Still Without Light

March 26, 2018 EL Jennings-Maldonado, We Act Radio. Educate! Colonialism, Energy, Hurricane, Puerto Rico

Yabucoa is a municipality located in the southeastern part of Puerto Rico. On Wednesday September 20th, 2017 at 2 AM, Hurricane Maria made landfall in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. Now, six months later, only 35 percent of Yabucoa has access to some form of power, which is provided by generators. Of this 35 percent, it is mostly comprised of municipality buildings (i.e. grocery stores, hospitals and local businesses), and the very few families who can afford a generator. A generator is used to run household utilities such as a few lights, a refrigerator (a place where medicine & food is stored), as well, if fortunate enough, a washer and dryer.

Media Ignoring Puerto Rico’s ‘Shock Doctrine’ Makeover

February 12, 2018 Reed Richardson, Fair.org Educate! Corporate Media, Natural Disasters, Puerto Rico

Nearly five months after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, more than a hundred thousand US citizens there still lack clean drinking water, and almost one-third of the island has no reliable electric power. As initial life-sustaining recovery efforts still grind toward completion, Puerto Rico’s Gov. Ricardo Rosselló has wasted no time using his territory’s recovery as an opportunity to push a number of policy proposals right out of the “disaster capitalism” playbook: from privatizing the island’s power utility to converting nearly all of its public schools to charters. And while the mainstream US press has been mainly focused on the Trump administration’s woeful institutional response to the storm, it has barely noticed this much more radical political transformation of Puerto Rico, and the potentially disastrous long-term consequences for the citizens who live there.

Puerto Rico Pt 1: Disaster Is The Colony, FEMA Is The Problem + Aid On The Ground

February 1, 2018 Eleanor Goldfield, Occupy.com Resistance Report Natural Disasters, Puerto Rico

This week on Act Out! A special two part episode all on Puerto Rico. In part one, we look at the disasters before the hurricanes that made the disaster afterwards inevitable. Puerto Rico’s economy was in shambles thanks to both colonial capitalism and local government corruption. Post storm, FEMA has done its usual bang up job of providing people with little to no help but plenty of additional headaches. Finally, we take a look at some aid efforts on the ground, scratching the surface of part two...

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