Nelson A. Denis

The Authority will be the governor, banker, judge, jury and prosecutor in Puerto Rico.

Editor’s Note: A longer version of this op-ed appears on the author’s site. On April 27 of this year, Latino Rebels published my op-ed How to End Puerto Rico’s Public Debt…Right Now. The central solution presented in that article was eliminating the Jones Act (aka the Cabotage Law) in Puerto Rico. In other words, Puerto Rico must […]

Editor’s Note: After we published a bilingual essay from four authors about Nelson A. Denis’ visit to Puerto Rico to promote his new book, we invited Nelson to share his own impressions from his seven-day book tour. Here is what Nelson sent us. Last month I went to Puerto Rico to introduce my book War Against […]

A recently published book, They Know Everything About You, discusses the loss of privacy in modern life. It shows how corporations, governments and the Internet have eliminated the privacy of virtually everyone on the planet. The combination of high technology, internet data collectors, the Patriot Act and global surveillance have created a world where our […]

Thirty-five years ago Rubén Berríos, the president of the Independence Party of Puerto Rico (PIP), made a very dramatic speech. He informed the world that both of the major parties in Puerto Rico were a complete fraud. The reason was very simple: both of them defined their candidates, and trolled for votes, and structured their […]

On October 31, 1950, a barber looked out the window and saw 40 policemen and National Guard soldiers surrounding his barbershop. “Ay coño,” said the barber, and started to prepare himself. He dimmed the lights in his shop. He pulled some weapons from a hidden stash, and distributed them around the shop. He prayed to a […]

The Ponce Massacre was a complete horror. Over 200 unarmed Puerto Ricans were seriously wounded. Dozens were maimed for life. Seventeen were killed, including a woman and a seven-year-old girl. 78 years later, many people have seen the famous photo of this slaughter. But few people know the antecedents, the sequence of events and the […]

An economic lunacy is gripping Puerto Rico. Wall Street has demoted the island’s debt to “junk bond” status. The government is teetering on bankruptcy and raising taxes in every direction. The latest proposals include a 16% “Value Added” tax and a tax on every obese child. In fact, despite the claim that Puerto Ricans “pay no […]

There is a most unusual TV interview of Gov. Luis Muñoz Marín on YouTube. The interview occurred in March 1954, just after the Nationalist attack on U.S. Congress that was led by Lolita Lebrón. (NOTE: This video was shared on Facebook by the Fundación Luis Muñoz Marín in 2013.) During that time, Muñoz Marín had […]

Originalmente escrito en inglés por Nelson A. Denis, traducido al español por Vlade. Este ensayo no juzga ni condena a Luis Muñoz Marín. Todos sabemos que el presidente Barack Obama, el gobernador David Patterson (New York) y el congresista Trey Radel (Florida) han usado cocaína, los alcaldes Marion Barry (Washington, D.C.) y Rob Ford (Toronto) fumaron […]

When we think of robber barons, the usual suspects include John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan and Cornelius Vanderbilt. But one robber baron has gone underappreciated: the man who stole Puerto Rico. His name is Charles Herbert Allen, the first U.S. civilian governor of Puerto Rico. He served only 17 months, but that was all he […]

(Spanish version here.) This essay does not judge or condemn Luis Muñoz Marín. We all know that President Barack Obama, Governor David Patterson (New York) and Congressman Trey Radel (Florida) used cocaine, Mayors Marion Barry (Washington, D.C.) and Rob Ford (Toronto)  smoked crack, and innumerable politicians and CEOs do a little “something something” on the regular. But […]

When a Puerto Rican wins the Powerball, it’s time to invoke the second amendment and load our guns. That is the message that went out when a $564 million Powerball lottery was held on February 11 and one of the three winning tickets was sold in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Almost immediately, Latino Rebels reported a national spate of offensive tweets, which […]