These days, the “For sale” sign on houses
can be seen all over the place in San
Juan, Puerto Rico and other cities on the
island. These signs have been put up by
more than 144,000 Puerto Ricans who
are leaving the island to go abroad in
search of employment. Some of these ads
read, as a sort of retaliation against those
responsible for their misfortune:
“THIS HOUSE IS FOR SALE, BUT
NOT TO AMERICANS”
The current plight of Puerto Rico, however
painful, could be the harbinger of a new
awakening of patriotic awareness among
the Puerto Rican people. This could open
the way to their deserved inclusion in the
part of America where they rightfully
belong.
Puerto Ricans cannot be blamed for their
misfortunes in the current crisis when
foreign trade, currency, communications,
citizenship and nationality laws and
procedures, internal and external
navigation, migration, labor and wage
procedures, the land, airspace, coasts, and
borders, ports, forests, minerals, as well
as citizen military service and defense of
the country are all the responsibility of a
foreign power.
Since the US invasion of the island
in 1898, Puerto Rico has successively
experienced: military occupation in the
first two years, a civilian government with
a governor and supreme judge appointed
by the president of the United States
until 1948, and a native governor of
annexationist orientation (Luis Muñoz
Marín), also appointed by Washington,
with a bicameral legislature restricted
to bilingual property owners subject to
imperial veto.
In 1952, it became a “Associated Free
State” and. to mask its colonial status,
Washington gave the island the right
to a constitution and the election of a
governor and parliamentarians, while
maintaining and ensuring the country’s
colonial subordination to the United
States.
Currently on the small territory of Puerto
Rico there are about 15 bases commanded
by the US Atlantic Command
(LANTCOM). The current state of
bankruptcy of Puerto Rico is because –as
its governor, Alexander Padilla said– the
country does not have money to pay its
debt of $73 billion dollars to its creditors.
This amount represents 100 percent of its
Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The country has not even been able to
honor a partial payment of $58 million
to the Public Financing Corporation
(PFC) of which it has only managed to
pay the amount of $628,000. The colonial
government has officially declared itself
unable to pay the debt (default), and there
is not a glimpse of a solution for now.
Neither Washington nor the IMF have
ruled on the matter, or have contributed
remedial solutions that would prevent the
country from becoming insolvent by the
end of this summer.
Peruvian journalist Vicky Pelaez, in the
Russian magazine Sputnik, expresses
the view that “actually, the country’s debt
began to grow in the 1970s. “Its economy,
since the middle of last century was based
mainly on the pharmaceutical industry;
but with the appearance of maquiladoras
in Mexico and Asia, this sector began
to move to those regions in search of
cheaper labor and higher productivity.”
“To attract multinational corporations
to the island, Washington exempted
them from paying taxes and thus
further weakened the local economy.”
The country, with its policy of mortgage
liberalization, was further affected by the
mortgage crisis of the beginning of the
21
st
Century. In 2006, the governor of
Puerto Rico, alarmed by its weak GDP
growth, made the decision to suspend the
tax exemption for corporations. This led
to the exodus and closing of companies.
The country went into recession and the
migration of Puerto Ricans, mainly to
Florida and New York, grew alarmingly.
Today, 45% of the total 3.5
million inhabitants of the
island live in poverty, and
83% of it’s children live in
poor areas.
Puerto Rico suffers the
consequences of classic
colonialism, in which a
foreign country makes
decisions for it and has the
military and political capacity
to manage the public and
collective life of another
country.
But the news coming from
the island reflects a deepening awareness
that the elimination of the US colonial
system –which has been in place over
the past 117 years – is the only road to
achieving independence and the full
exercise of its national sovereignty. These
will bring about the recognition and
international support indispensable for
the country’s development.
www.englishmanuelyepe.wordpress.com
*Manuel E. Yepe, is a lawyer, economist and
journalist. He is a professor at the Higher Institute of International Relations in Havana.
He was Cuba’s ambassador to Romania, general director of the Prensa Latina agency; vice president of the Cuban Institute of Radio
and Television; founder and national director of the Technological Information System
(TIPS) of the United Nations Program for
Development in Cuba, and secretary of the
Cuban Movement for the Peace and Sovereignty of the Peoples.
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
www.walterlippmann.com
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