Puerto Rico known as the island of enchantment has fallen under an ocean of debts, missed payments and bankruptcy…or even worse insolvency.
Who is disenchanted? The US at PR or PR at the US? I think it depends on who you ask. Many US Citizens ask me: “well, why do we have to bail out Puerto Rico if their local government screwed up? Simple…. When Detroit screwed up what happened? The federal government intervened and gave them access to Chapter 9 Bankruptcy law. Why? Because there were a number of US Citizens suffering due to their fiscal and financial foes. The federal government has the responsibility to protect its citizens, and that should also include their US Citizens in Puerto Rico.
National and local press have been covering all the economic and fiscal developments in Puerto Rico for months and still to date the federal government and Congress have yet to take action: Some will probably ask why bailout Puerto Rico if we are the “worst Mexicans”…and to comments like that I understand what the real issue is… the root to ALL of our problems is the lack of knowledge towards our colonial status.
I think Congress should have a session to discuss this in order to bring light to the conversation. Not sure why Congress and the federal government have trouble understanding the word “US Citizen”, which you are given the right for (before or after birth) if you:
- Have been born in the United States or certain territories or outlying possessions of the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction of the United States; OR
- had a parent or parents who were citizens at the time of your birth (if you were born abroad) and meet other requirements
U.S Citizenship doesn’t come with capitulations, it’s a right that was granted to us in return for becoming a U.S. territory.
We need to look at the bigger picture… it’s not about Puerto Ricans becoming insolvent, it’s about 3.5 million US Citizens that are going to drown in its government insolvency. You have unpaid tax refunds, municipalities and government agencies that are bankrupt; all of this because of our disenchanted colonial status. Just as all of US laws, our status needs an amendment. Our colonial status served its purpose a century ago (as an initial relationship with the US), but it is currently drowning whatever enchantment we have left. The Jones Act, is an example of some inequalities that need to be amended. How do we expect our economy to grow internally (along with small businesses), if foreign-flagged vessels who want to do commerce with Puerto Rico have to pay taxes and import fees that often double the price of the goods?
Congressmen, If you want to win the next elections, you need to make Puerto Rico an issue for your district. The bigger picture is that if Puerto Ricans continues to drown on debt along with the government they will flee to your districts in the US mainland with our US passports. We are not another one’s problem that you can just ignore, because it will eventually become your problem. The United States, as the liberal and democratic hegemon it claims to be to the international world, needs to take one for the team and step up to steal a base before Puerto Rico strikes out and loses United States’ chance for a world championship.
References:
http://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship
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