"We must hold la Junta
accountable—otherwise Wall Street vultures will continue to be prioritized over
the needs of the people."
Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are leading an effort to end austerity in Puerto Rico
and let the people of the island territory determine their own path
forward.
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez were
joined in the effort by 11 other Democrats, all of whom signed a letter (pdf)
demanding the "end of the Financial Oversight and Management Board
(FOMB) control over the economic decisions of the island." The FOMB, also
known as "la junta," has been at the forefront of forced austerity on
Puerto Rico as the island continues to reel from over a decade of financial
crisis and the effects of Hurricane Maria, the 2017 storm that decimated the
territory.
"Puertorriqueños will
continue to die in the face of a severe health crisis and others are using blue
tarps as roofs two years after Maria," Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat,
said in a statement. "We must hold la Junta accountable—otherwise Wall
Street vultures will continue to be prioritized over the needs of the
people."
The letter, said Sanders, an
independent from Vermont who is running for the Democratic nomination for
president, is aimed at "telling the unelected austerity board that enough
is enough."
"Two years after
Hurricane María, they are still working hand in hand with ultra-rich investors
to try to squeeze blood from a stone," Sanders said. "We are saying,
stop dictating Puerto Rico's economic decisions and let the people decide their
own future."
The letter is also signed by
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkeley (D-Ore.), Kirsten Gillibrand
(D-N.Y.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Robert
Menendez (D-N.J.), and Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Jesús "Chuy"
García (D-Ill.), Adriano Espaillat (N.Y.), and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.).
Puerto Ricans flooded the
streets over the summer in protest of the island's leadership, forcing
Governor Ricardo Rosselló out of office on August 3. As Common Dreams reported,
the protest movement was heralded as a huge success at the time, though the
resignation was seen as the beginning, not the end, of the movement to many
demonstrators.
"We didn't demand the
resignation of a corrupted government, for having another equally
corrupted," Gabriel Nasario, a protester, said at the time. "We are
demanding a real alternative."
The Sanders/Ocasio-Cortez
letter echoed that sentiment.
"We agree with the
demands of the Puerto Rican people who came into the streets," the letter
says. "Puerto Rico must no longer be treated as a colony."
