 Welcome to what the F is going on in Latin America and the Caribbean. CodePink's weekly YouTube program of hot news out of the region. In partnership with Friends of Latin America, Massachusetts Peace Action, and Task Force on the Americas, we broadcast every Wednesday on CodePink YouTube Live, 4.30 p.m. Pacific, 7.30 p.m. Eastern. Today's episode is The War Against Puerto Rico Continues. Political and economic tensions within the U.S. occupied Latin America and Caribbean nation of Puerto Rico have resulted in another major uprising led this time by teachers and other workers in the public sector. A national strike is scheduled for the 18th of February. This has come after a teacher fell asleep at the wheel when leaving his third job and he died in that car accident. I want to give all of you a little bit of background leading up to the strike on February 18th before I introduce our next guest. And you'll recognize her. She's been with us before. So let me just share a few things. In 2016, U.S. Congress imposed a financial oversight and management board, FOMB, as part of the Puerto Rican Oversight Management and Economic Stability Act, PROMESA, P-R-O-M-E-S-A. So there's two organizations that are mouthful to say. So this was formed to rule the Commonwealth or colony, as some of us call it, and impose IMF style austerity measures to pay off an illegal debt. And we'll talk about why the debt is illegal. This came at the request of the current PNP governor, Piola Rusi, when he was the resident commissioner under PDP government, governor, excuse me, Padilla. Since then, there have been numerous protests and a massive uprising with some features of a color revolution that forced the resignation of then governor, I hope I say this right, folks. Rossello of the statehood party, protests against the austerity measures have begun again in response to the FMOB's actions. The FMOB has been heeded by none other than Natalie Giresko, former Ukrainian minister of finance 2014 through 2016. She implemented the largest IMF program in the institution's history, the impact of which severely harmed the Ukrainian people in 2017. She was sent to Puerto Rico to do the same as executive director in interim revitalization coordinator of the FMOB. And again, the FMOB was set up by the United States Congress in 2016 and it is officially called the Financial Oversight and Management Board. So joining us today to discuss all of this and most importantly the strike on the 18th later this week and how all of us can can help support that. So joining us today is return guest Monisha Rios. She was with us last fall, some of you may recognize her. She is a Puerto Rican psychologist and social worker. So Monisha, I'm so happy you had time to join us today. So it was great to talk with you. Yeah, I'm really, really happy to be back talking with you, Terry, especially right now. Well, this is a, this is a big week. And yeah, I think I was sharing with you before we went live that when I was putting my notes together for today's program and, you know, we were looking at the title and the title was, you know, the war against Puerto Rico continues and it probably should be more appropriately named the 124 year war against Puerto Rico continues. So, meaning, you know, referring back to the more 1898. So, let's talk about this week specific, let's talk about what's happening on February 18, and then back up from there and give the audience. Let's give them some real solid in from, you know, historical context as to what has led to this management of debt crisis I hate to say debt crisis is really the management of it that's that's disastrous. So, this Friday on February 18, we're having a national strike in Puerto Rico. So, all employees, the majority of employees from the public sector are tired of living under austerity they're tired of their pensions being stolen their salaries being stolen and the wage slavery the injustice associated with that the hike in electricity bills because of privatization, the loss of jobs because of privatization and so on and so forth the closure of schools the closure of our universities, and on and on and on and on and on and on. We're going to the streets to say that we've had enough. And also to call for the resignation of Pedro Pierluisi, who is the governor that you mentioned, one of the. Well, that would be huge. I mean that we start to have him out of office but it's not going to be the complete solution. One of the things you, you mentioned to me. Before we went live is that the minimum wage has for restaurant workers the minimum wage for restaurant workers has not been raised in 30 years. Yeah, about yeah like 31 years or so. So they're relying on tips in a country that's been severely whose tourism industry has been severely depleted with coven and the result of the hurricanes and on and on and on. What are they participating in the strike on the 18th as well as everybody. Everybody. Yeah, they had their own strike to on Valentine's Day. Oh, okay, that's right I do apologize. This, the strike was kind of the match that lit the fire is was the death of this teacher that, or that was the real motivation to do the strike now. The death of the teacher who died in a car accident fell asleep at the wheel of his car, created an accident in which he died and he was working three jobs. I just, I would just exhausted coming home from work. Is that I mean, is that normal at this point for people to be working three jobs. I mean I suppose you're lucky if you can even find one job right now. Yeah, and you know it's been building up over time. It has been talked about a national strike for a long time before his passing, but it just sort of pushed people over the edge, especially because, you know, leading up to the recent imposition of the debt readjustment plan. There were protests teachers. The same workers out there demanding that the, and I apologize for my neighbor's dogs, but everyone out demanding that you know this dictatorial fiscal control and management board stop overruling the will of the people and our own elected officials. I'm questionably elected of course but that's the nature of the colonial relationship and the nature of the imposition of these austerity measures and that what happened to this, this teacher is the lived experience of austerity and colonialism. Gosh, I have like, I'm thinking of like five things simultaneously now that I want to ask you and expand on. So let me just start with the debt itself and the FM OB because Puerto Rico is not a sovereign nation, it's a commonwealth is the nice word for it, a commonwealth in reality, a colony. It's not a sovereign nation. So because of that, it cannot take on debt or sovereign nation debt. The debt actually belongs to its parent, the United States, and I don't say that to be derogatory just as a, you know, is looking at this as an umbrella, you know where Puerto Rico is not on equal footing. It's not a state in the union and it's not an independent nation. So how I can just really see how people, how Puerto Rican people are just really upset. The nation is burdened with an enormous debt with enormous debt service. Those of you living there are not considered sovereign people of a sovereign nation so you have no say in taking on the debt much less how the debt is managed. And in 2016, the FM OB was created by an act of Congress of which you have no representation in Congress because you're not a state union. So it sounds much like saying that I mean that's I mean you wouldn't run your household that way. You know, an individual person would never run their household that way much less, you know, looking at an entire nation of people being managed this way. It sounds and it sounds just really crazy as I'm describing this to you and our audience. So can we talk about that a bit about the sovereignty and national sovereignty, the independence and free association, because these are things that I, you know, I get caught up in as well, especially since I know you and I have talked about this before but it's really important to understand sovereignty independence free association. So, before I jump into that I, it's really interesting to mention that promessa this the Puerto Rico. I'm not going to get the acronym. I got it. Okay, thanks. Where to read. Yeah, why would you want to remember. oversight management and economic stability act from a doesn't that sound nice. But the way part of how promise I came about was because current governor Pedro Pier, we see, along with who was resident commissioner at the time just like you said in the intro, under governor body. He, along with a representative from the Puerto Rican government bank went and petitioned Congress to do something like this in 2015. And they carried with them a report that they had commissioned from former World Bank economists who assessed what we know to be an illegal debt that does not belong to the people of Puerto Rico. And it made recommendations on how Puerto Rico could resolve this debt, which, as we know, leads to International Monetary Fund style debt restructuring that we see happening all over the world. And so, you know, coming back component is the imposition of austerity on a nation and its people. Exactly. That's the key component. We put that in the context of colonialism and in the context of sovereignty, right. So Puerto Rico is sovereign when it's convenient for the United States. And this is why this is why, you know, the creation of the freely associated states status that we currently have which in itself is a lie. We have never freely associated ourselves with the United States because we've never had the opportunity to decide for ourselves through a truly self determining process on whether or not we even want that. So the imposition of all of this has been done without the consent of the people, the corrupt members of the Puerto Rican government to, you know, just like how in all of these other countries that are basically vassal states for the United States, you have your corrupt government officials who whose values and worldview align with that of the settler colonial empire. And they want to profit from that relationship and we have similar players in the Puerto Rican government. And once again, it's these people working together to take on illegal debt, selling things that they don't actually have the right to sell to the same hedge fund vultures that have been buying bonds from other countries and setting their peoples up to fail. Argentina being a recent case. Yep. And Ukraine and and so when it comes to sovereignty for Puerto Rico, we are an occupied sovereign nation. And the question over free association versus independence means that as an independent nation, we would have full control over our foreign policy. We would have full control over our military, or, you know, whether or not we allow a foreign military to be in our country, such as the United States, whereas a compact of free association would allow, in theory, some political and economic sovereignty to exist. But it would continue to allow the United States to determine our foreign policy, and to keep its military here. So what the compact of free association would do would be to maintain basically the same relationship that we have, we would just have a little bit more freedom. I cannot not even, but this is not even a statehood status. No, no, it's not even that. I don't even talk about statehood because to me that's not an option, but some people believe that as an activity colonization but it's just the completion of colonialism. Yeah, integrate as a state look at Hawaii. Oh, look what happened to Texas after the album. I mean, you know, the condition of the indigenous sovereign nations that are trapped inside the US borders, you know, it's why would we want to be part of that. Yeah, that's like, you know, just like how women throughout history have been bought and sold as property after war. You know, you're forced to marry your conqueror and make their babies. That would be no different. It's the same thing just with a country, because we never had to say ever, ever when the United States went to war with the Spanish Empire to conquer its conquered territories that included Puerto Rico, Cuba, Philippines, Guam. The two empires decided what happened to us. The people of Puerto Rico and Guam and the Philippines and Cuba did not have any say we didn't have a vote. There was no play the site. So, you know, you were, you were the property of one empire passed off to the next. And you can go and still are. Yes. So this you mentioned when we were talking about, you know, this debt and vulture funds, hedge funds and I, you know, mentioned Argentina and our audience may, you know, really remember the law, the lawsuit that the US hedge funds filed against vulture funds filed against Argentina and that lawsuit was settled in New York inside the United States when the investments were actually made, you know, outside of the United States. But this is, and you jumped in and said, well, the same as Ukraine. And so we should talk about Ukraine because Ukraine is in the news today. You know, as a very volatile subject, literally and figuratively at the moment. So let's talk about what happened there and the replication of the project in Puerto Rico and by the same people. This is very interesting. It's fascinating to me when you brought that up. I should probably know that but I mean, Well, I mean it's a lot of these things are just so buried underneath everything else that's happening it's hard to keep track of it all. Well, intentionally buried. Yes. You would argue. Yeah. Yep, I agree. And so part of what was intentionally buried is that the after the US backed coup in Ukraine. Natalie Jarresco, who was a former State Department employee, she is Ukrainian American, and she was appointed finance minister after the coup. Prior to that also she, aside from her stint at the State Department she also was, she did economics type of work for the US Embassy in Ukraine. She was, I can't remember if she was a founder or just a CEO of Horizon. I need to look it up. I apologize. Horizon Group or Horizon Capital or something like that. Oh, yeah. Horizon Capital. Horizon Capital. Yeah. And that was part of a larger a larger group called the Western New Independent States Fund, which targeted Ukraine and Moldova. And was funded by the United States and other European nations. So this is the individual who, who after the coup, who had already had a presence through, you know, finance capitalism funding fascism in Ukraine, who later after the US had their puppet in power in Ukraine was appointed as finance minister. And the same austerity measures. She's the one who, who negotiated and implemented the, as you said in the intro, the largest IMF nonsense in that institutions history. And it resulted in the same things that were going through here, the, the harm to the well being of the working class in Ukraine. And it was debt in Ukraine that the people didn't want either didn't want themselves. It was this imposed government that wanted it. And things sold to bondholders. Yeah, these faceless people and corporations who just buy countries in order to then hold them hostage through debt. It's, it's all evil. To put a face to that word, I would put it on. It is evil. It is. Yeah, it's a grab for capital. It's also a grab for natural resources and public institutions and an infrastructure because all of that is is held as collateral on the loans and then the country back and then guess what it's all privatized the private corporations come in the global capitalists come in and buy it all up and privatize it. And Greece is another excellent example of the failure, when the dire poverty that that system creates very quickly and very deep poverty. So the selling off of the land, definitely, I was reading that that was part of the motivation and the pressure to sell off farmland in Ukraine and Ukraine is known as the bread basket right. So selling off all of the farmland. Again to private industry. Yeah. And foreign investors. So is the land being, well I suppose it is I think we've talked about this before the land in Puerto Rico, the same thing happening. Oh, gosh, yeah. It's that's never ended. It just seems to be accelerating now because the way that real estate is working so the tourism industry in the real estate industry. And so basically the tourists that come here, especially the ones with money are coming here on like a try before you buy adventure. Oh, is this a country that I want to live in. You know, let me see where I want to buy my third home or retire to retire to. It's not that usually, well there are a lot of people who call themselves expats here but they're also the crypto colonizers that are buying up every single inch of Puerto Rico to turn it into their crypto to utopia. They call it port Portopia. And, but people like myself and people who who are less resource than I am. We can no longer afford to live here so it's it's yet another version of all of the forced migrations that the US has implemented and imposed upon us in these 124 years. Like through operation bootstrap and so on. And now it's just another land grab. Because of these austerity measures, it makes the land even more available. We've got people from all over the world coming here to develop projects like buying up our coastline destroying our coastline which Yeah, climate change hello and then destroying our art. What's the word I'm looking biodiversity, you know, taking, taking away a key parts of our forest key parts of our beaches key parts of our rainforest. So they can make hotels. And this is an issue that that a lot of the audience is probably well aware of but you know you mentioned the austerity and capitalists and foreign investment and, and the resource the land grabbing for resource this is happening all over And what happens is people are financially forced out of their homes you have to sell you end up selling for pennies on the dollar, which someone who is, you know, capital rich can just come up and buy an entire neighborhood, especially if it's homes on the beach, and they're, and then start building your four and five star resort that only a very small percentage of the world's population can participate in that project and everyone else, if they're even if they're lucky enough. And I say that sarcastically, you know, can be a house key, you know, can can clean the rooms and bust the dining room tables, if they're lucky, though, and they'll have to learn how to speak English in order to be able to, to get one of those jobs. So really, it's this upward push of capital and this downward spiral for average people, workers, even middle class people, not just working class people middle class people too are effective. Very heavily by this. So this isn't in large part, which being protested on the 18. This is why this gentleman who died in the car accident because he fell asleep at the wheel was working three jobs. And so something else that people who are watching and listening should know is it's not only that the land is getting bought up, and, and all of these businesses are being taken. Basically, the opportunities that we have, we would have to develop ourselves develop our own nation are being stolen from us. Also by the working class in the United States, because not only do they buy up the land and the properties not only do they start up these businesses. Most of the time they also bring their own workers. When you go to be a case and you go to a lot of the restaurants in Esperanza, which is predominantly owned by colonizers, all the businesses are owned by colonizers, you go into a colonizers restaurant and you're greeted by white American workers, the pantheists and the Puerto Ricans maybe work in the back in the kitchen. Yeah. And oftentimes a lot of these people will come in here and they will advertise for jobs and they don't want even an accent, not even the hint of an accent you have to speak perfect English as if you were born and raised in the United States. So, yes, so it's all it's a very interesting dynamic with colonial tendencies within the US working class that doesn't get addressed, just like how our, our electrical workers union got scabbed by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers chapter 222 in Florida. Wow. Wow. So this is, I mean, for this is really, this is really, really deep. I feel like we're just peeling, just peeling away the very top layers of the onion regarding this, the subject so this would lead me to say, this is the, this is and we, and we talk about this a lot. And this is really important about that the movement needs to be a class war, and not a race war, and this keeping people separate working people specifically middle class people to separated over race, language calls and other cultural issues is, is a tool. We're way back to plantation days in the states that they are the definitive in specific separation of, of white cotton pickers over, or over the black people picking cotton. And that's still, I mean what I'm hearing from you is that basically still exist. It's just a difference just instead of a cotton plantation it's now, you know, in the electric in the electrical industry in the energy industry, but it's the same thing. And it's, it's always been the case for Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico has always been exploited. Even but I mean this is the nature of the exploitation anyways right just as you said like the, the intention is to divide us and weaponize us against each other and set us up in a hierarchy where we are exploiting one another to make their exploitation of all of us possible. And the same is true in relations between the settler colonial state of the United States, and its colonies. And so sometimes you know that whole concept of labor aristocracy is true. It's true. And it's unfortunate, because we need to be in solidarity with each other. Right. Yeah, it's a, it's a way to keep everyone from thinking about class and economics. And yeah, and of course, I would say people in the electrical unit union in Florida thinking well this is a good job opportunity for me and Puerto Rico and not necessarily or not necessarily thinking they're taking a job away, but that you're thinking it's an opportunity for, for me and we don't take that next step and say well what does this mean for all of us in the big picture and we're you know we're intentionally taught not to think that way for centuries now. So if there was a real mother or fraternity, or whatever a non sexist way I could say that if there were real, if there was real solidarity among workers. Ideally, the, that that chapter would not have scabbed our union here. They would have said no, we're with them, we're not crossing the picket line. Well, I don't know what happened. But to me, I do think you know the psychology of it that the psychological and emotional impact that happens on people is exactly that we get put into survival mode. And it's all about like, I need to feed my kids and keep the roof over my head and the lights on. Sorry. The opportunity is, you know, in Puerto Rico not yet. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So when did that happen. That was earlier, more toward the summer, or after the hurricanes, when yeah this was recent. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, this was recent this was during our struggle against the privatization of our electrical grid. Yeah, yeah. Okay, which we talked about last fall. Yeah, and I will share that with with the audience the link to that particular episode was a great, it was a great conversation and another great one, another great. So let's talk about solidarity among workers and various unions, because this is clearly the case in Puerto Rico there is solidarity among the working people, and that solidarity is coming together in a huge action on the 18th of this week. It's really beautiful. And I can show people what that looks like. So, in this article from radio Isla, this is from what is today today from today. There, this talks about the strike. And it says Union and social organizations informed that they will march this coming Friday, February 18, demanding from the government a fair salary for public servants that dignified retirement and zero privatization. We returned to the streets to demand from the government salary justice, a dignified retirement and zero privatization. And they go into the details of the March. Folks persons from a bunch of unions. 12345678910 and more detailed that public servants will be picketing in the morning hours at their work centers and then mobilizing to the stadium, and from the stadium they will go on their march. We will be making our presence felt from morning hours in the different work centers, we will send a clear message to Governor Pedro Pierluisi and the legislature that the teachers and the working class of the country have clear objectives and we will fulfill them. That is from Mercedes Martinez spokesperson for the teachers Federation. Angel Figueroa, Jeremy, your president of UTIR, which is the Electrical Workers Union added that the union will be decreeing a 24 hour work stoppage starting at 10pm tonight. Thursday night. Yeah, our retirement, despite being a trust is also being threatened by the fiscal control board and its austerity measures that will lead us to misery, plus the privatization of generate of our generations will have further increases in energy costs. We will be on strike for 24 hours and we invite all the people to join this march in the same way that we joined in October and send a clear message against Luma and the privatization of power plants. We joined the demand of the public servants and of the country for better salaries and a dignified retirement. Now is this happening across the country. Yes. How can. So this is the 18th and how can those of us in the United States support and uplift this action on the 18th. Well, first of all, where can we learn more about it and then what can we do. There are a lot of places you can learn more about it. It so going on Twitter and or any social media and just looking for national strike in Puerto Rico hashtags like battle national. Well it's all over Puerto Rico Twitter. Okay, so that's one way of following we can share that. People can follow a group called a call to action on Puerto Rico, New York, Puerto Rico resistance, the Puerto Rican Independence Party. There's, there's many different ways of getting information, and I'll also share another way that people can support so there will be a rally in New York at the same time that the nighttime rally is happening in Puerto Rico in San Diego. Okay. And this is a rally in solidarity with the worker strikes. Oh, great. And it's at Union Square, South New York City at 5pm on Friday, the Friday. Excellent. For people who are not in New York and can't show up to the rally, if there are not rallies in your respective locations, then definitely please go to social media, take pictures of yourselves with messages of solidarity and support. Oh, we can promote that. Social media. Yeah. With, you know, hashtags, hashtag Puerto Rico, hashtag Paro Nacional, hashtag. Yeah. Oh, excellent. And then continue the conversation like we're having this wonderful conversation and thank you again for making the space and amplifying what's happening here. We need to continue these conversations. We do. We do need allies in the US to, to get to the root of why this is happening, you know, and support us in our struggle for independence. Or also self determination if people are more comfortable with that word, but something to keep in mind around that is that word is actually being weaponized against us as well. Yeah, because we're as an occupied sovereign nation. We have consistently experienced us interventionism and our internal affairs, which includes election tampering which includes not allowing a truly self determining process to occur. Without interference from our colonizers trying to influence this way influence and sway the vote and then use whatever results from the corrupt process that they impose upon us to create a narrative that Puerto Ricans want statehood when that's not actually true. You know, this is a theme that and for those of you who watch our program, you know, regularly. This is a theme that keeps coming up particularly this past year, 2021 where there were. We saw so many presidential and national assembly elections throughout the Americas, and I have the very good fortune and luck to it to be an observer in a number of countries last year. And the results went predominantly, the majority leaned progressive to leftist, and I would say my own personal observations. People voted citizens of sovereign nations voted to preserve their national sovereignty voted to preserve their natural resource sovereignty, including beachfront land and voted for governments that had an economic plan to develop all the people of their country, and not just one specific demographic. And so this is what needs to happen in Puerto Rico to help you get there, because it's happening all over the Americas. I'm happy to say it's going to be a struggle for everyone to build this project that's overtly, you know, emerging in front of us. But, but it's happening. And so I, you know, I want you to feel encouraged. You have to bring the story to Puerto Rico now. Yeah, you know, yeah, because it is happening in Latin America and the Caribbean. I want to before I let you go, Monisha. I want to share a couple of questions because I have let me see who's on our YouTube chat. Here's Julio Manez. Manez. Am I saying that right Julio. He says, um, he wants to know about military US military in Puerto Rico, and also in Brazil the fascist Bolsonaro is cutting all the gains of the workers and promoting privatization. He is implementing a neoliberal government and is destroying the Constitution with amendments. So, you know, this is what I mean, we've talked about this this evening and we've and we're seeing that, you know, in the countries that have leaned including in Colombia as another example of this Honduras was, and is now, you know, has elected a government for themselves that may very well, you know, bring them a new future. It's an opportunity for them. So I would say for Brazil, there's some hope to in this in 2022 you have you have elections coming up and we're going to have to help change that government to help help the people change the government themselves. So, and there was a question. I can't let me see if I can find it. I thought I saw a comment about the US military. Oh, hold on a second. Okay, here, this is from Julio also, are there US military bases in Puerto Rico, and are there problems with drug trafficking like Colombia. Of course, the huge tourism trade that comes as well. Yes, there is. The US military is still here. And, and even though in, we have one of the relocatable over the horizon radar systems that the US uses to supposedly curb the drug trade. And in the island of Vieques where my family's from and where I've been living for a while until now. There's, there's absolute drug trafficking, sex trafficking, all of the trafficking and yeah so US military's presence here has only caused harm, which I encourage people to learn more about the history of Culebra and Vieques to learn about that. And they, you know, just like we do see in Colombia and other places in Latin America, the drug trade is part and parcel to the US's interventionism and how they often fund their interventionism. So, which is not a new model by the way, not a new model. Those of us are old enough to remember the Vietnam War we know that the war. The not real war that didn't really exist on Cambodia and Laos was all, you know, financed by the heroin trade coming from the Golden Triangle into the United States. So it's not a new model. Unfortunately, it's not it's a proven model that is a model that the US is used to finance, you know, black operations and non congressional approved interventions. We also facilitate our depopulation. Yeah, it creates such an unstable unsafe environment that people don't want to raise their families here. Yeah, which is the same thing that happened in Honduras, who's president who's former president who was in charge of that narco state was arrested yesterday, and may very well be extradited to the United States. So there are possibilities Monisha we are seeing things you know throughout the Americas this this shift, you know, to a more to a multilateral paradigm it's really happening before our very eyes and and again I will say you know just being in a number of countries last year. We really did vote to preserve their natural sovereignty, national sovereignty and their natural resource sovereignty, and that is something that, you know, we need to help uplift for people in Puerto Rico as well. And so again show our audience that flyer what they can do on Friday the 18th. Aside from checking social media for national strike Puerto Rico. So here we go this is in New York Union Square. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you Monisha. I want to remind our audience that you've been watching what the F is going on in Latin America and the Caribbean code pings weekly YouTube program of hot news out of the region we broadcast every Wednesday for 30pm Pacific 730pm Eastern. So catch us on Apple podcast, and be sure to catch code pink radio code pink radio broadcast on WBA I out of New York City, and WPFW out of Washington DC every Thursday morning 11am Eastern, and that also is available on Apple podcast so. Thank you. And thank you for coming back, and I'm always so happy to talk with you. And we're all with you in solidarity, and there's so much more that we can do. And so let's stay in touch. Let's have you come back. Yeah. Yeah. Be sure to to watch us next week.