Junta de Control Fiscal, Dictadura Colonial: 9 Years of Austerity
La Junta de Control Fiscal is the latest evolution of the US’s colonial lawmaking meant to control and exploit the archipelago of Puerto Rico. It is a foreign, unelected, and parasitical institution forced upon the people of the archipelago through the federal PROMESA law signed by President Obama in 2016. This law is a custom made “bankruptcy” law in order to restructure the massive debt that the colonial government amassed over the decades in order to ensure payment to the vultures of Wall Street. La Junta forces cuts in essential social services, and has caused the largest wave of displacement from Puerto Rico in history. La Junta is supposed to leave when 4 balanced budgets are passed by the Puerto Rican Legislature. This has yet to occur, as La Junta continuously creates new requirements to achieve a balanced budget which won’t be achieved until at least 2030.
During the year of the 9th anniversary of La Junta there have been significant changes, as Donald Trump has removed 6/7 of the board members, citing the board’s ineffectiveness in addressing Puerto Rico’s debt. Specifically, since the historical tension between the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) and its bondholders has yet to be resolved, Trump has taken action to expedite the process of satisfying the bondholders. In other words, the austerity measures imposed on the Puerto Rican people are not enough, as the bondholders demand MORE, and have convinced the fascist president to take action to fulfill their greedy demands.
In the past 9 years, while the PROMESA law was projected to cost $370 million, La Junta has wasted $2 billion on useless mediations and consultations, investing in coal plants that contaminate our land, and paying for services that never actually happen. Much of this money has been pocketed by corrupt politicians and hired entities who do not place the interest of the people at heart. For example, $500,000 was allocated to a consulting firm to evaluate healthcare services within prisons in Puerto Rico. These evaluations never happened. As a result of the mismanagement of funds, Puerto Rico continues to suffer from widespread blackouts during massive heatwaves, lack of adequate healthcare access, and the destruction of public education.
La Junta particularly crushes the opportunities we have as youth. The largest industry offered to young Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico is in the restaurant and food services industry, promoting tourism in Puerto Rico. While the majority of Puerto Rican youth work in the service sector, La Junta has simultaneously attacked public education, threatening to cut programs from the University of Puerto Rico that serve to nurture Puerto Ricans in areas such as agriculture, social work, and education, among many others.
While young people are restricted in their ability to find fulfilling employment and attain education, the Puerto Rican government fails to provide basic human resources such as electricity, healthcare, and affordable housing because of the intense cuts and corruption created from La Junta. At the same time, the government exaggerates the impact of crime in Puerto Rico in order to justify fascist policies, such as the $36 million allocated to recruit 800 police officers, and passing laws that expand the ability for 14-18 year olds to be tried as adults in court. Because La Junta works to destroy public resources in favor of the bondholders, the Puerto Rican government continues to ignore the basic needs of the people and tries to fool us to believe that the problem in Puerto Rican society is young people.
Displacement has always been a problem for Puerto Rico, due to the colonial status that keeps it in a perpetual state of limbo where even if a democratically elected Puerto Rican Legislature were to enact progressive laws, Congress or the President can just veto it; the monopoly on import transportation created by the Jones Act, forcing our native family to pay extra S&H to the world’s most expensive merchant fleet.
This causes a lack of economic opportunities for both graduated and ungraduated individuals, forcing both to either seek employment abroad which depopulates the island and continues on the massive brain drain or work for slave wages as the cost of loving climbs through the roof with no help from the state in sight.
This is exasperated by the lack of quality social services, suffering from either lack of funding and large distances such as mental healthcare; complete inexistance, such as with public transportation; or inconsistency, privatization, and overcosts, such as with LUMA, forcing many families between deciding to between eating, keeping a roof over their heads, or keeping the fan on specially with the drenching heat waves and the home breaking hurricanes caused by global warming. All of these factors have become difficult to tackle, especially with the atomization of society, making it hard for everyday Puerto Ricans to connect, communicate, and organize for a better future.
As Puerto Ricans both in the diaspora and in Puerto Rico march for independence on the 9th anniversary of the implementation of La Junta it is clear that we are growing as a movement. Now, more than ever, we must be united as Puerto Ricans in the fight against the colonization of our land. Wherever you are located, we urge all Boricuas to strengthen the bond between Puerto Ricans in the archipelago and diaspora. United we are stronger and capable of winning against US imperialism!
