While the news was focused on the Impeachment trial in the US Senate, Puerto Rico was once again struck by a significant earthquake on Saturday A 5.0 magnitude earthquake hit southern Puerto Rico on Saturday at a shallow depth, raising concerns about unstable infrastructure in a region that has been hit by quakes every day …
Tag: Puerto Rico
Oct 24 2017
The Grifting of the Puerto Rico Recovery
The grifting of the American economy by the Trump administration is reaching new levels in Puerto Rico with the awarding contracts to close friends of cabinet members and allies of Trump himself. The Washington Post reported that the largest contract to repair the severely damaged electrical grid has been given to a two year old …
Oct 12 2017
Puerto Rico: Americans Are Dying. Who’s In Charge Here?
It is over three weeks since category 5 Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico. The death toll has risen to 45, and 89% of the island is still without electricity. Drinkable water is a major issue with nearly 35% of the population without potable water and drinking water that is being obtained from hazardous waste sites. …
Sep 26 2017
Does Trump Know Puerto Ricans Are Americans?
In an interviews with MSNBC host Chris Hayes and Sirius XM’s Zerlina Maxwell, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton questioned whether Donald Trump is aware that Puerto Rico is part of the United States and its residents are US citizens. “I’m not sure he knows that Puerto Ricans are American citizens,” Clinton told Sirius XM’s …
Apr 25 2016
Making Sense of the Puerto Rican Debt Crisis
Puerto Rico is broke and in debt to the tune of $73 billion. It needs to be able to declare bankruptcy which can’t do unless the US Congress lets them. There is a bill (pdf) in the works that will do that and provide financial assistance but there are a group of people who don’t …
Mar 18 2010
Saturday is the day to take action against the wars
If you want to help end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, challenge the military industrial complex, fight for jobs not wars, or anything along those lines, SATURDAY IS YOUR DAY OF ACTION! There will be a massive peace march in DC – some say they are expecting hundreds of thousands to show up – and events all over the nation. On Sunday there will also be an event in Seattle, for those of you near there.
Please join me in DC – if you’re looking for me, I’ll be with the “We Are Not Your Soldiers” contingent (carrying a peace flag and with my brother, who will be videotaping) and for part of the day I’ll be marching with former US Senator and presidential candidate Mike Gravel.
Oct 16 2009
General Strike!
It’s been an incredible day here in Puerto Rico. Long, hot and sometimes stormy, but our General Strike got off to a great start, with no reported violence so far. Though University of PR students had a tense confrontation with the police, cooler heads prevailed and the students, refusing to back down, finally ended up going around the police and their barricade, continuing on with their march to join up with the rest of us demonstrators in in support of the general strike…
The woman with the microphone is begging whomever is in charge of the police to please come to the microphone, then she continues to tell the police: we are here in peace, we are against violence, we do not have firearms, we have nothing to defend ourselves with, God please take charge of the police…please come to the microphone…
Then, Danny Rivera, my friend and local folkloric singer, is saying to the reporter that we all needed to take great care, there are agents within the crowd in order to foment violence and tarnish the peaceful protest…so we all have to take very great care…
one of the student reps then confronts the police captain to try and resolve the standoff, telling him just remove the police barricade, it would only take 5 minutes, the students can pass, taking another 5 minutes… so in 10 minutes they could avoid any violent confrontation that could lead to bloodshed…
the students start chanting to the police, “que se muevan, que se muevan”… move out of the way, move out of the way…
please forgive the rough transcription
just a couple of choice quotes, and then the pics…