So I’m on vacation but I see Hurricane Maria trending so I wanted to give some light to this situation. So the reporting say 4600 people died because of Hurricane Maria and I’m going to break it down for why it’s not just the Hurricane.
1. Let’s take it back with some facts Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States and has been since 1917 (Puerto rico before that was owned by Spain and there was the Treaty of Paris but that’s for a different day).
2. Puerto Rico for many years was known as a “commonwealth” which means it is an owner property of the United States where people born there have what I call “citizenship lite” meaning you get a passport but no vote in Congress, Senate or for who serves as President of the US
3. For years the US government said “you’ll love being a commonwealth” “you have all the benefits” AND we will never, ever, ever infringe on your ability to govern locally.
4. Ok before we go to that promise let’s give some examples of why Puerto Rican’s shouldn’t trust people in the United States. We were the testing grounds for birth control (without consent) we were sterilized (without consent) our land was taken from us to build Domino sugar.
5. Back to infringe on governing locally this is after the US put in place mad Puerto Rican Governors without the ability of islanders to vote. Oh and after the US banned then unbanned the usage of the Puerto Rican flag.
6. So fast forward to the islands economic crisis created by the current Governor Rossellós, father! We have the biggest mass exodus since the 1950s (starting in 2007/8 I believe) and in 2016 the island goes bankrupt.
7. Huzzah! Because PR is a commonwealth they can’t file for bankruptcy like any other state so the federal government of the US has a choice: Cancel the debt cc: @elizabethforma or do what happened to Detroit, NYC in the 70s......
8. The US decided to pass PROMESA aka basura. PROMESA puts in place an economic junta. A board of people chosen by Rubio and the like who don’t have to be Puerto Rican’s to review any law that gets passed on the island and to be able to veto it.
9. What in the actual? Yup that’s what happened in 2016 (Obama was President). Oh and in the legislation was the ability to pay humans below the age of 25 less than federal minimum wage salary.
10. A year later with threat of tuition fees rising, massive clashes in the streets protesting the junta, an occupation #SeAcabronLasPromesas movement, oh yea people fighting chemicals being dumped in their community and Hurricane Maria strikes.
11. The islands power goes out... PEOPLE STILL DONT HAVE POWER FOR 8 months y’all! And tragedy takes place because we have a messed up island. It takes forever for The Jones Act, which does not allow foreign ships to come to our port a week or so to be waived.
12. For weeks aid is still sitting on the god damn boats and on the water front because this @fema operating under pinche Trump is useless and didn’t #ReleasetheAid right away.
13. My family’s power was out until December and then went out when the ENTIRE ISLAND BLACKEDOUT RECENTLY. All while the god dang Governor is trying to defund public education and Trump says FEMA did a wonderful job.
14. So when you say that over 4 thousand people died due to Hurricane Maria, remember our colonization, remember PROMESA, Remember FEMA, Remember Rosselló because they all have blood on their hands. cc: @Steph_Llanes @JeronimoSaldana @ConMijente
