The Free Associated State has fallen into moratorium and what used to be presented as the "show case of the Caribbean" has been discredited. Now no one considers it solvent, neither in Wall Street nor among the three powers of the Union, since in addition to the economic disaster, the FAS has proved to be a political fiasco. But when it comes to define who will pay for the disaster, they have decided that since the situation comes from decades of bad Puerto Rican administration, the costs should fall on those who elected them. The mainstream press and the highly paid consultants and official lobbyists do not bother to note who installed the regime that gave rise to these administrations and limit the question to deciding the "technical" measures required to fix it.

There’s nothing new here in the neoliberal repertory. Like the European "PIGS" -- Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain -- the island became exorbitantly indebted and now the "only" way out is to demand extreme austerity. This is a malicious distortion of the term that does not suggest sobriety but orders making jobs more precarious, lowering wages, shrinking pensions, eliminating days of rest, reducing public services and raising taxes. These measures do not chastise those who implanted this economic model, nor those who contracted the debt or enjoyed squandering it, but rather falls on a people that had no other political options. Puerto Rico is a "territory" that belongs to the United States but does not form part of that nation, the Congress in Washington exercises power over the island and defines the modest monetary attributions of the local government. In plain language, this is a colony.

 
Where did this debt come from?  From a long-running unsustainable model, that for decades contracted additional and increasingly onerous loans to cover previous debts, until the government was unable to pay. The seductive lenders of yesterday are the implacable vultures of today who now claim -- neoliberal dogma in hand -- that by consuming less and paying more taxes the island will be able to pay off the debt and the interest. But according to federal legislation, the "territories" have no right to aid in the case of bankruptcy: the White House makes it clear that it can only "advise" the San Juan government and Congress has other priorities.

 
At the same time, they make no mention that, before discussing any payment, each loan should be audited, because in the total debt load, inadmissible costs or losses are concealed. And equally there is silence over the fact that for over a century, Puerto Rico never failed to subsidize the US economy, having to adjust to the needs of the mainland, even at the expense of their own subsistence.

 
When the United States needed sugar, the island was converted into a cane plantation, eliminating other crops and their food security until the US farmers filled the need with beet sugar. Then they imposed the industry of petroleum products until the crisis of 1973 made supplies more expensive and damaged the business. After that, Congress encouraged the installation of light industry and pharmaceuticals in the island, via exonerations, until they moved out when the attractive Asian locations and the FTAs with Mexico and Central America offered greater advantages. Invariably, these businesses took out enormous profits without reinvesting in Puerto Rico, and each of these experiences reduced sustainability of the economy of the country, whose people never thought them up, nor did they benefit from them. And each one left a human -- and demographic – crisis, so that millions of Puerto Ricans' only solution was to leave their country.

More than a century of history shows that the real debtor is the United States, and that the sharpies that created the debt knew where they were going and could well assume this responsibility without claiming additional benefits. This is a long way from being a "technical" problem, and it is impossible to tighten the screw of austerity further without it breaking.  Within the colonial system that created the problem and recycles it, there is no package of measures that will take the island out of the chaos. The crisis comes from the regime that prevents Puerto Ricans from seeking their own alternatives and employing the same sovereign resources as neighbouring Caribbean and Latin American republics.
 
In order to overcome the crisis "technical" measures are not enough. A transition to convert Puerto Rico to an independent and sustainable republic is needed.

(Translated for ALAI by Jordan Bishop)

- Nils Castro is a Panamanian writer and University teacher.