Trump, the GOP and related cronies will exploit Puerto Rico recovery for financial gain. His September 25 tweets tell the story.
Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble..
…It’s old electrical grid, which was in terrible shape, was devastated. Much of the Island was destroyed, with billions of dollars….
…owed to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with…
First is the implication of inferiority and a need for colonialist intervention. Then is the preoccupation with debt. Lastly, a mention of infrastructure and specifically, the government-owned electric utility. Nothing about the people of Puerto Rico.
Trump links debt and recovery without any necessary connection. So aid will be tied to making Wall Street whole for the financial crisis Puerto Rico faced before the storm, in addition to paying corporations for infrastructure rebuilding. Those are the priorities.
There is already a Fiscal Control Board in place, imposed by Congress prior to the storm. Much like the District of Columbia Financial Control Board created by a GOP congress in 1995, this board will leverage the gentrification of the island and, along the way now, use its control to drive redevelopment funding to politically connected corporations.
Facing devastation, residents are leaving with one way tickets, many will stay away permanently, leaving cheap property in their wake. Land developers are already pouring over satellite maps to find targets to acquire land for redevelopment and identifying ways to make those acquisitions.
Federal aid will be tied to public-private partnerships or outright privatization to break the strong public sector unions. A forced sale of the municipal-owned electric system to a investor-owned mega utility is also likely on the horizon. Current community land trusts will be broken. All to skim money from the suffering, as the GOP-connected did in Iraq and Afghanistan, and lay the groundwork for the future.
There is no great hurry by Trump and the GOP to help Puerto Rico as they plan to carve up the money from redevelopment. The island’s current misery benefits them. Breaking down social bonds between residents, tearing up families, leaving people hopeless, all this benefits Trump and his cronies poised to gain from it. These profiteers dream of a tropical Delaware, with corporate secrecy and the added bonus of a tropical home. Its status as a territory will be exploited to create expanded tax havens, under the guise of “investing in Puerto Rico’s rebirth” to hide personal and corporate money, all while diminishing local power.
A slow, hope-draining recovery that drives away residents makes this possible.
There is much suffering today in Puerto Rico we all must fight to end. But everyone who cares about the island’s future must be vigilant because, unchecked and after the news cycles, the slow march of federal policy during the decades of recovery will be to profit the privileged few at the expense of Puerto Rico’s many.