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Monday, July 19, 2010

For George Will, A Quick Lesson on Puerto Rico


From a column by George Will that ran in the Washington Post on July 19, 2010:


"Many Republicans suspect that congressional Democrats support statehood for the same reason they want to pretend that the District of Columbia is a state -- to get two more senators (and in Puerto Rico's case, perhaps six members of the House). Such Republicans mistakenly assume that the island's population of 4 million has the same Democratic disposition as the 4.2 million Puerto Ricans in the Bronx and elsewhere on the mainland.

(Gov. Luis) Fortuno disagrees, noting that while Republicans on the mainland were losing in 2008, he was elected in the island's biggest landslide in 44 years. The party he leads won more than two-thirds of the seats in both houses of the legislature and three-fifths of the mayoralties, including that of San Juan. Fortuno, who calls himself a "values candidate" and goes to Catholic services almost every day, says that Puerto Ricans are culturally conservative -- 78 percent are pro-life, 91 percent oppose same-sex marriage and 30 percent of the 85 percent who are Christian are evangelicals. A majority supports his agenda, which includes tax and spending cuts, trimming 16,000 from public payrolls to begin eliminating the deficit that was 45 percent of the size of the budget." 


Dear George,
* Your newspaper can't even get the ñ to work in Fortuño's name.


* Fortuño won by a large majority in the 2008 Puerto Rico elections because the other contender, Gov. Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, had been hounded by the federal government on trumped up corruptions charges that resulted in A) discrediting Acevedo -- not Vilá, as many Americans wrongly assume is his surname -- B) propelling Fortuño to a position that is creating chaos in Puerto Rico.


* Acevedo Vilá was cleared of the charges, but the damage to his credibility had been done. Surely you know how influential the United States is in positioning its favored people in positions of leadership (Kharzi in Afghanistan; Saddam Hussein in Iraq until W. hung him, Augusto Pinochet in Chile, Reagan's beloved Contras in Nicaragua, etc.)


* A majority do not support his agenda. If you were truly informed by reading translations from different media sources AND respected political analysts, who are nothing like the pundit circus we see on CNN, you would know this.


* A majority of Puerto Ricans do not want statehood as you noted. Frame the questions about what they value, and a majority will tell you that they want the schools to be well-staffed, the roads paved, the garbage picked up, they want meaningful and well-paid jobs, they want politicians from all parties (pro-commonwealth -- the current status that is akin to what Spain has with Catalonia, the Basque Country, Valencia, etc.; pro-independence and pro-statehood) to be clean.


The decade of the 1990s, when pro-statehood Gov. Pedro Rossello headed the most corrupt administration in Puerto Rico's 50-years democratic history, with more than 40 close aides from his administration in prison for stealing millions of dollars from the departments such as of health, education and housing, still sets the tone in current affairs.
The current Senate President, pro-statehooder Thomas Rivera Schatz, had blocked the media from recording public hearings. His lawyer, a former Senate president also from the pro-statehood party, Charlie Rodríguez, has taken the position that because the public hearings are transmitted via public access TV, there isn't a need for other media to be present.


* Just this week, on July 18, there was march against the government repression. You must know about Plaza de Mayo in Argentina, when hardly anyone in the U.S. general population knew about the Dirty War. In Puerto Rico, a similar and worrisome growth in intolerance by the government is taking place  that people fear could lead to political violence. Hardly covered by the pro-statehood owned media, however. But


* Re: " The United States acquired Puerto Rico 112 years ago in the testosterone spill called the Spanish-American ..." How could you show such disrespect to Puerto Ricans and American soldiers? It was a war in which Puerto Rico was robbed of  its newly-gained right for autonomy from Spain. In the 100+ years that have followed, we have been subjects of American policies crafted by congressmen who by and large know nothing about Puerto Rico, much less Puerto Ricans.


* Fortuño's belief that Puerto Ricans on the island are more conservative than Puerto Ricans in the United States holds truth. Those of us who have lived here know the U.S. much better than those on the island who believe in the Hollywood version of the United States. 


* If Puerto Rican in the United States could vote for any political status, independence would win. Ironic, isn't it? But then, maybe we should be grateful that we don't have independence just yet. Not while Fortuño continues policies that recall the 1990s. Not while there is a strong chance that we could end up with a Pinochet, who, as you must know, grabbed power from Latin America's shining example of democracy on Sept. 11,  1973.


In sum, George, you are usually the best-informed analyst at the table. But this time, your sources ambushed you and your reputation is cementing half-truths. Next time you want to know about Puerto Rico, talk to some of the Puerto Rican congresspeople in DC like Reps. Nydia Velázquez of New York, Luis Gutiérrez of Illinois and even the pro-statehood José Serrano. You'll see just how complicated this is. Thank you.