Puerto Ricans woke up this morning to the news that U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain issued a ruling on Tuesday giving the appointed and un-elected Fiscal Control Board — known on the island as “The Junta” — complete control over the island’s finances and debt restructuring, ignoring the duly elected government of Puerto Rico.
The immediate reaction last night from Governor Ricardo Rosselló was to defy the ruling, and he is being backed up by the three political parties on the island.
Following are a series of response tweets — starting with the Governor’s response:
NY Times reporter:
Wall Street Journal reporter:
Professor of Anthropology and Caribbean Studies:
NPR:
Some background on the Junta:
Puerto Rico’s Fiscal Control Board: A Parallel Government Full of Lawyers and Consultants
I am sitting here on the phone with Bobby — newpioneer, in Puerto Rico and he is wading through the news reports. They are in Spanish — and I’m just going to give you a sample of his tweets — he has done some translating — Thanks Bobby! .
Rivera Schatz is President of the Senate and Carlos Mendez is President of the PR House of Representatives
I am not a lawyer — and the ramifications of all this are unclear, though the PR government is currently deciding about whether or not they will appeal.
Stay tuned.
Pa’lante Puerto Rico
Wednesday, Aug 8, 2018 · 3:42:18 PM +00:00
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Denise Oliver Velez
Comment from newpioneer that gives some background:
Just a bit of background — the Junta “imposed” a retaliatory austerity budget when our legislators, senate and house, refused to repeal Ley 80 even against the governor’s wishes. Ley 80 is our worker’s rights law against indiscriminate firing on the books since 1976, and the Junta is determined to make PR a “right to work” territory, saying that the implementation of “right to work” is mandatory for the fiscal future of the island. Mandatory to the point of blackmailing the government if they refused.
Our house and senate refused to repeal, the Junta rejected the governor’s budget and made good on their blackmail by trying to impose their punative austerity measures.
Our government is fighting back.