Aside from the fact that since 1898 the United States has constantly intervened in Puerto Rico and keeps us as a territory, has destroyed the independence option through persecution and increased the anexationists in the Island, there is a more recent intervention that should be remembered.
The US Department of Justice intervened in Puerto Rico in the past elections and is responsible for the present chaos that prevails in the Island. By persecuting, accusing and processing the former Governor (no era Santo de mi devoción tampoco) right before the elections, the Federal (US) Court in Puerto Rico made him unelectable. Thus a huge majority voted for Luis Fortuño, the first truly Republican,(in the worst manner) governor in our history (Ferré was Republican in the mainland but not in Puerto Rico). Fortuño is so Republican that members of that party in the mainland were hoping he is chosen as Mitt Romney’s vice presidential candidate. (That would be the best intervention that the USA can do right now!!) By winning with such a majority the Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP), which is pro-statehood, controls the Legislature, the Courts and the Executive in almost a totalitarian manner. They act with total impunity.
As a true Republican Governor Fortuño has provoked chaos, violence and despair since January 2009 by:
- Firing almost 30,000 government workers because of the “fiscal crisis” he encountered even though he had promised to fire only the former governor (the first of many lies)
- The domino effect of such action has been catastrophic for the economy (we have a huge debt and the bankrupcies have tripled) and has increased social unrest of all kinds: crime, theft, violence and a huge emigration
- Naming members of his PNP party in new positions
- Spending millions in contracts for his friends
- Favoring the rich over the middle class which has gotten poorer (the philosophy has been named "Such is life")
- Dismantling public education and favoring private entities
- Privatizing everything: from the airport to the roads and the prisons
- Openly favoring religious groups, of the extreme right, virtually eliminating separation between Church and State
- Spending millions in advertising for all government agencies
- Dealing violently through the police with a student strike at the University of Puerto Rico (his main assistant said publicly that “heads should be broken”)
- Distabilizing our public university most probably to turn it into a private enterprise
- Dismantling(or trying to) the Colegio de Abogados
- Distabilizing the Supreme Court: increasing the judges who belong to his party, called by some "the gang of six"
- Dismantling the electoral system making us lose faith in it for the first time in decades
- Distabilizing the prison system by permitting three gangs to rule so as to make sure that the prisoners will all vote for him en November
- Imposing English as first language in public schools in the name of "bilingualism" when we all know it is a ploy to convince the US that we can be a state of the Union
- Saying that Standard & Poor (which has just pronounced Puerto Rico's credit as negative) has told him they favor his reelection (proving, if true, that he answers to our creditors and not to us)
- Last but not least, submitting a budget this week which his own legislators are finding hard to balance, where the only items that have increased enormously are donations (no mention given of who is going to benefit but we all know that the millions thus allocated will be used during these four months for the electoral campaign).
- A long etc..
