US Imposing Junta to Rule Puerto Rico with Rafael Bernabe, candidate for Governor of Puerto Rico for the Partido del Pueblo Trabajador (PPT) 2012; professor and director of the Federico de On s Hispanic Studies Center at the University of Puerto Rico at R o Piedras; economist; and who has published three books including Puerto Rico: Crisis y Alternativas
Just in time to celebrate the Declaration of Independence by the 13 colonies which came together to form the USA,, Congress passed and Pres Obama signed The Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, or PROMESA, which established an independent control board or Junta de Control Fiscal, as it is locally known. It will be responsible for managing Puerto Ricos spending and debt recovery with sweeping powers to run Puerto Rico s economy. It also imposes a retroactive stay on litigation from the territorys creditors against Puerto Ricos government and includes a provision that could lower Puerto Rico s minimum wage for workers 25 and younger below the current federal minimum of $7.25. The bill was opposed by progressives including Senator Bernie Sanders, who said [W]e are taking away virtually all of the political and democratic rights of the people of Puerto Rico. We are treating them as an absolute colony. While the legislations supporters say it will help the island cope with its debt crisis by allowing an orderly restructuring of its $72 billion debt, critics say it is a reversion to old-style colonialism that removes democratic control from the people of Puerto Rico. They say that this colonial junta is nothing but a glorified collection agency for the hedge funds and the vulture funds and will call for further austerity in an economy reeling from a long term depression instead of ways to fix the broken economy which led to the debt in the first place. In Puerto Rico, students, union members, politicians and environmentalists have launched a series of protests against the bill, including marches and a protest camp outside the U.S. Federal Court in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico.
Plus Bernie Sanders speech against "colonial" Puerto Rico bill PROMESA Sen. Bernie Sanders harshly condemned what he called the "colonial" Puerto Rico bill PROMESA on the Senate floor on June 29
produced by Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg
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