Puertopia

Puerto Rican Series

The Battle for Paradise by Naomi Klein

“Puertopia” is a sweeping vision that sees Puerto Rico transforming itself into a ‘visitor economy,’ one with a radically downsized state and many fewer Puerto Ricans living on the island. In their place would be tens of thousands of high-net-worth individuals from Europe, Asia, and the U.S. mainland, lured to permanently relocate by a cornucopia of tax breaks and the promise of living a five-star resort lifestyle inside fully privatized enclaves, year-round.

Aggressively advanced by Gov. Ricardo Rossello in meetings with bankers, real estate developers, cryptocurrency traders, and the Financial Oversight and Management Board, an unelected seven-member body that exerts ultimate control over Puerto Rico’s economy, Puertopia is being conjured up in the ballrooms of luxury hotels in San Juan and New York City. In February 2018, Gov. Rossello told a business audience in New York that Maria had created a “blank canvas” on which investors could paint their very own dream world.

It even seems to have its own religion: an unruly hodgepodge of Ayn Randian wealth supremacy, philanthrocapitalist noblesse oblige, Burning Man pseudo-spirituality, and half-remembered scenes from watching Avatar while high.

 

Puerto Rican Exodus – Post Hurricane Maria 2017

Puerto Rican Series

The Battle for Paradise by Naomi Klein

Since Hurricane Maria, some 200,000 people have reportedly left the island, many of them with federal help. This exodus was first presented as a temporary emergency measure, but it has since become apparent that the depopulation is intended to be permanent.

Instead of helping people here, providing shelters here, bringing in more generator power to the places that need them, getting the electric system up and running, they’re encouraging people to leave instead. The disappearance of so many people in such a short time operates as a political escape valve. The exodus also conveniently helps to create the “blank canvas” that the governor bragged about to would-be investors.

 

Puerto Rican Debt

Puerto Rican Series

The Battle for Paradise by Naomi Klein

Before Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans were already in a state of shock and severe economic policies were already being applied there. The government had already been whittled down. By early 2017, parts of San Juan looked very much like they had been hit by a hurricane – windows were broken, buildings were boarded up. But it wasn’t high winds that did it, it was debt and austerity.

The island had/has an extreme dependence on imported fuel and food; had/has an unpayable and illegal debt that has been used to impose wave after wave of austerity; and has a 130-year-old colonial relationship with a U.S. government that has always discounted Puerto Rico.

Post-Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico finds itself locked in a battle of utopias. The Puertopians dream of a radical withdrawal from society into their privatized enclaves. The other group’s dreams is grounded in a desire for people to exercise collective sovereignty over their land, energy, food, and water.

At the core of this battle is a very simple question: Who is Puerto Rico for? Is it for Puerto Ricans, or is it for outsiders? And after a collective trauma like Hurricane Maria, who has a right to decide?

Gag Law 1948

Puerto Rican Series

War Against All Puerto Ricans

On March 9, 1948, J. Edgar Hoover placed the Nationalist Party on the FBI list of organizations working to subvert the US government. The passage of Public Law 53 (the Gag Law) was nearly a word-for-word translation of Section 2 of the Anti-Communist US Smith Act, and it authorized police and FBI to stop anyone on the street and to invade any Puerto Rican home. If the police found a Puerto Rican flag, the residents could all be arrested and jailed.

 

United States Capitol Shooting - 1954

Puerto Rican Series

Wikipedia

On March 1, 1954, four Puerto Rican nationalists, seeking to promote Puerto Rican independence from the United States, attacked the United States Capitol. They fired 30 rounds from semi-automatic pistols onto the legislative floor from the Ladies' Gallery (a balcony for visitors) of the House of Representatives chamber within the United States Capitol.

The nationalists, identified as Lolita Lebrón, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Andres Figueroa Cordero, and Irvin Flores Rodríguez, unfurled a Puerto Rican flag and began shooting at Representatives in the 83rd Congress, who were debating an immigration bill. Five Representatives were wounded, one seriously, but all recovered. The assailants were arrested, tried successively in two federal courts and convicted. All received long consecutive sentences, amounting to life imprisonment. In 1978 and 1979, their sentences were commuted by President Jimmy Carter. All four returned to Puerto Rico.

Lolita Lebron

 

Attempted Assassination of Truman - 1950

Puerto Rican Series

Wikipedia

On November 1, 1950, Puerto Rican secessionists Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola attempted to assassinate President Harry S. Truman at the Blair House during the renovation of the White House. Both men were stopped before gaining entry to the house. Torresola mortally wounded White House Police officer Leslie Coffelt, who killed him in return fire. Secret Service agents wounded Collazo. Truman was upstairs in the house and not harmed.

Two days before the assassination attempt, Puerto Rican nationalists had attempted to overthrow the government of Puerto Rico. Uprisings occurred in many towns, including Jayuya, where the one of the would-be assassins was born, and in neighboring Utuado. During the uprising, the U.S. Air Force bombed and strafed both towns, badly damaging them. Collazo was convicted in federal court and sentenced to death, which Truman commuted to life in prison. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter commuted the sentence to the time served and Collazo was released.

Albizu Returns to Puerto Rico – 1947

Puerto Rican Series

War Against All Puerto Ricans

On December 11, 1947, he boarded the SS Kathryn and returned to Puerto Rico. From the moment Albizu set foot in San Juan, Hoover became obsessed with following and recording his every movement. Thousands of Puerto Ricans and dozens of FBI agents met Albizu at the dock. They packed into San Juan cathedral and followed him in a heaving mass to Sixto Excobar Stadium, where he would address a standing-room only crowd of 14,000. Albizu began his speech: “My name is Pedro Albizu Campos. You are my people. And this is our island.” A roar filled the stadium, For over an hour, he thundered about independence. Every newspaper on the island reported Albizu’s dramatic return.

Juan Emilio Viguie filmed Albizu’s return on the SS Kathryn, the tumultuous crowds, the march down Calle San Augustin, the flags, the motorcades, the speech to 14,000 supporters at Sixto Escobar Stadium. He made a short newsreel of it, Recibermiento a Don Pedro (Reception of Don Pedro).