Latino Rebels Radio: April 3, 2021

Amendments proposed in Congressional hearing reinforce “modern-day colonial relationship.”

“The Board has been tangled in conflicts of interests, and its wealthy members have no grasp of the realities faced by working families in Puerto Rico.”

Live from New York City

Speakers call for an end to the island’s debt.

Punish the people with more taxes, while those who stole billions administering the colonial regime are enjoying absolute impunity.

Will we see more resistance in Puerto Rico?

Ahead of the National Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York on Sunday, members of the Puerto Rico Not For Sale campaign are set to protest on Friday outside National Puerto Rican Day Parade Inc.’s scholarship gala at Gotham Hall in Midtown Manhattan.

This is the story of two Puerto Ricos—a phantasmagorical island cooked up by Pierluisi and the one Boricuas endure daily.

On Thursday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Puerto Rico’s unelected fiscal control board has “sovereign immunity” and does not have to answer journalists’ requests for government documents.

Last week a federal judge nullified Puerto Rico’s Labor Reform Law approved only months ago, saying that Gov. Pedro Pierluisi did not provide evidence that the law would not impact the oversight board’s fiscal plan.

On Thursday the House passed the Puerto Rico Status Act, which received a floor vote after its approval by a House committee on Wednesday. Now, the race is on to get approval from the Senate before a new Republican-controlled House is sworn in on January 3.

On the same day it was set to expire, the Puerto Rico Public-Private Alliances granted LUMA Energy an extension of its provisional contract that will only end once the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s debt restructuring is completed.

Protesters arrested last Wednesday in the Puerto Rican capital and later released without charges were surprised when police officers gave them a manual on how they should protest.

Puerto Ricans are pushing for sustained interconnectivity between stakeholders doing the rebuilding in the islands and the diaspora and its allies advocating for long-term investment from the mainland — and these coordination efforts are largely driven by women’s networks.

As Hurricane Fiona bore down on Puerto Rico two weeks ago, the U.S.-imposed fiscal control board and the U.S.-based judge who handles the public electric utility’s debt restructuring deal forced Puerto Rican lawyers to file motions even as the archipelago was experiencing an island-wide blackout.

In the five years since Hurricane María tore through their country, the people of Puerto Rico have made efforts to rebuild in hopes that they would be ready for the next disaster. Hurricane Fiona, a Category 1 storm that swept through the island on Sunday, has shattered such hopes.

On Sunday, August 28, a coalition of Puerto Rican independence groups and their allies gathered outside a hedge fund’s office building in Midtown Manhattan to protest its predatory lending practices.

Rep. Grijalva, chair of the House Natural Resources Committee which has jurisdiction over Puerto Rico, says the sudden increase in lobbying against the Puerto Rico Status Act is not about process but instead about maintaining the island’s current colonial status.

On Monday afternoon, the United Nations (UN) Special Committee on Decolonization —by consensus and for the 40th time— adopted Draft Resolution L7, which formally recognizes Puerto Rico’s right to self-determination and independence.

As anticipated, there was no overarching agreement over the future of the political status of Puerto Rico—although the predominantly shared sentiment from speakers was that the discussion draft was a good start to relinquishing themselves of colonialism.