The Center for Investigative Journalism (CPI) located in Puerto Rico, breaks the news that armed and masked men with no ID’s are now patrolling the streets of San Juan. Members of the United States Air Force that were consulted by the CPI said that “both the shotgun and the machine gun carried by the men of Ciudadela are automatic or semi-automatic weapons, after seeing a photo”.
It’s the morning of Oct. 7 and a man stops traffic on Antonsanti Street in Santurce, behind the Ciudadela building. He is wearing a helmet, sunglasses, face mask, a vest with ammunition, gloves, plastic straps used for arrests, boots, camouflaged pants with knee pads, a knife and gun. There is a machine gun in his hand. He has no plaque or ID.
He works for a private security firm hired by Nicholas Prouty, the owner of the Ciudadela complex. Prouty turned to that service after Hurricane María, he told the Center for Investigative Journalism (CPI in Spanish) last week.
“With a substantial reduction in the number of police officers on the streets (due to the government’s reallocation of resources to protect diesel and supply chains), and most streets lights not functioning, Ciudadela has taken the necessary steps to make its residents and commercial tenants feel safe,” he said, without revealing the name of the security firm.
Who do you work for?, the CPI asked the armed man who was at Ciudadela.
“We work with the government,” he answered.
Which division?
“It’s a humanitarian mission, we’re helping Puerto Rico,” he said in broken Spanish.
And why the covered face?
“Because if I go with my daughter to eat at Burger King tomorrow and somebody identifies me, they could kill me,” he said.
snip
Security firm Academi, known by its former name, Blackwater for getting a $21 million contract with the U.S. government to provide security services during the Iraq war in 2003, said that they already have offers from the local and federal government and by the Red Cross to come to Puerto Rico.
“We’re ready to go,” said Paul Donahue, Chief Operating Officer of Constellis, Academi’s parent company, in a phone interview with the CPI. He explained that if the government of Puerto Rico accepts the proposal made by Academi to respond to the government’s offer, they would be providing security services for water transportation. The company already operates in the Caribbean islands of Dominica and St. Martin, where they arrived after Hurricanes Irma and Maria made landfall. This company, described as an army of mercenaries by investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill, has changed its name three times since its founding in 1997 by a former Navy Seal Officer (United States Marine, Air and Land Teams.)
Blackwater also operated in New Orleans after the passing of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. There they worked under a federal contract and for millionaires who left the city before the storm passed. They were hired to protect their properties.
On the entry of U.S. security companies into Puerto Rico, Mercado, Ranger America’s vice president of operations, said, “We have signed service contracts with U.S. security firms that have hired us to in turn provide security to clients they have here in Puerto Rico… I would say there are large numbers (of companies), but we have seen hiring (of U.S. security companies) in the area of communications and in the hotel area. They are companies that we don’t really know about, they have no presence here in Puerto Rico, but they have come and we know they are serving some corporations and multinationals.”
The Daily Beast reported on looting in the capital and gangs with bats roaming the streets of San Juan. Similar to the lack of truckers of which many are trapped and victims of Hurricane Maria, it makes sense that local police officers also share that predicament. We know conditions on the island are rapidly deteriorating. Cash is only accepted on the island as ATM’s are not powered. People are in survival mode and security is critical. But the idea of Eric Prince getting contracts in Puerto Rico is unsettling none the less.
Incidents like these are common in the capital, where men carrying bats and clubs have been seen on the streets during curfew hours. The mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz, told WAPA Radio, “We highly advise everyone not to be on the streets at night. It is not safe,” warning that reports of looting are on the rise.
“That is definitely something I don’t want to hear. Especially when the only lighting I have during the night is candlelight,” said Bianca Nevarez, who lives in Bayamon, where the scenario is much more tense since 13 prisoners escaped while they were being transferred to another criminal facility after the Category 5 storm caused severe damage in the prison. “We have captured eight of them, so five are still on the loose,” Ramon Rosario, secretary of Public Affairs of La Fortaleza told The Daily Beast.
Rosario added that 21 arrests have been made across the metropolitan area as a result of those breaking the curfew, which now runs from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. No expiration date has been set.
“We will leave it active until the emergency period that we are suffering settles,” said Governor Ricardo Rosselló, noting that anyone caught on the streets during curfew hours will face up to six months in prison.
Cash Only
‘Cash Only’ is reportedly a common phrase across many of the retailers on the territory. The majority of gas stations and grocery stores are only accepting cash payments. Citizens have little choice but to try and find cash.
However, shoppers have the same problem retailers do – they can’t get the cash they need. Reports the New York Times:
Fewer than half of Puerto Rico’s bank branches and cash machines are up and running, still crippled by diesel shortages, damaged roads and severed communications lines. Bank officials say they are struggling even to find employees who can get to work when there is no public transportation and gasoline is hard to find.
Across the island, people who have spent their last dollars on an $8 bag of ice or $15 for gasoline are waiting for hours outside banks and A.T.M.s in hopes of withdrawing as much money as possible.
“You’re broke even if you have money,” Mr. Jimenez told the New York Times.
But is there really a cash shortage? Zoime Alvarez, vice president of the Association of Banks of Puerto Rico told the New York Times that not only was there already enough cash on Puerto Rico but there was more arriving to meet what the New York Federal Reserve called “extraordinarily high demand.”
Does this matter though when there is electricity failure across the island? This isn’t the only problem – transport networks are down and organisations are struggling to deliver goods and services.
The infrastructure issues are unlikely to be fixed soon.
Donation links for Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and Caribbean wide
Tuesday, Oct 17, 2017 · 12:51:02 PM +00:00 · Pakalolo
Washington Post has this story up but I am behind the paywall. True Blue reports.
Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) went with a New York delegation to Puerto Rico. In an interview with CNN about what she had seen, Velázquez slammed Trump for obsessively tweeting about NFL players and the national anthem. She compared his reaction to former President George W. Bush’s infamously botched response to Hurricane Katrina.
“If you don’t take this crisis seriously,” she said, “this is going to be your Katrina.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) also visited Puerto Rico and had harsh words for Trump. After he returned, Rubio warned that there is the possibility of a “Katrina-style” disaster on the island.
“There’s going to have to be a lot more hands-on federal engagement for us to be able to successfully carry out the mission,” Rubio said.
Ten more members of Congress had plans to visit Puerto Rico, but the White House and Pentagon have denied permission to use military aircraft to make on-the-ground assessments. The administration is claiming that they need the resources for rescue and recovery, but would not speak to the Post to justify the sudden clamp-down.
Trump has since begun peppering his public remarks to Puerto Rico, a reversal of what he had focused on in the days before.
In a letter to Trump, 145 members of Congress have demanded a better response to the storm. The letter expresses the concern that the scale of Department of Defense assets “supporting the operation are inadequate.”
Thanks to this new directive from Trump, members will be unable to visit the island via the military to see if Trump and his administration is responding appropriately.