Puerto Rico governor concedes in close race

(Photo: Jerry Guillen, AP)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Gov. Luis Fortuno conceded to challenger Alejandro Garcia Padilla
Fortuno is a Republican and campaigned for Romney in Florida
Fortuno congratulated Garcia and thanked supporters at a news conference

12:21PM EST November 7. 2012 -

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico's governor is conceding defeat in a close election in the U.S. island territory.

Gov. Luis Fortuno said a few thousand outstanding ballots would not be enough to close the gap with his main challenger, Alejandro Garcia Padilla. The margin was less than 1 percent.

Fortuno congratulated Garcia and thanked his supporters at a news conference Wednesday.

Fortuno is from Puerto Rico's pro-statehood party while his rival supports maintaining the island's semi-autonomous status. Fortuno, also a Republican, had been a supporter of Mitt Romney and campaigned for him in Florida.

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Spotlight on Puerto Rico

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http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-06-15/spotlight-puerto-rico

Wednesday, June 15, 2011 - 10:06 a.m

President Barack Obama waves to a crowd gathered inside a hangar at the Muniz Air National Guard Base, shortly after his arrival in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Tuesday, June 14, 2011. Obama's visit to Puerto Rico marks the first by a sitting U.S. President since John Kennedy. Obama is backed by Puerto Rican and American flags.
AP Photo/Brennan Linsley

Spotlight on Puerto Rico

President Obama's official visit to Puerto Rico is the first by a sitting American president in five decades. An update on the U.S. territory's economy, political status and relationship to the mainland.

As a U.S. senator, Barack Obama visited Puerto Rico and promised to return. Yesterday, he did. It was the first official visit to the territory by a sitting U.S. president in 50 years. Home to high unemployment and beautiful beaches, Puerto Rico gussied itself up and gave the president a warm welcome. The trip was fulfillment of a past promise, but also a look to the future. 2012. Nearly 10 percent of Latino voters in the U.S. are of Puerto Rican descent. And they don't always vote Democratic. We'll talk about Puerto Rico - its people and economy, and whether it will ever become the 51st U.S. state.

Guests
Luis Fortuno Republican governor of Puerto Rico.

Rafael Fantauzzi president and CEO, the National Puerto Rican Coalition.

Mauricio Cardenas director, Latin America Initiative, the Brookings Institution; formerly Colombia's minister of Economic Development and Transportation.

Fernando Pizarro Washington correspondent, Univision.

Laura Meckler White House correspondent, The Wall Street Journal.

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Student Protests Tie Up Campuses in Puerto Rico

Students protesting budget cuts at the University of Puerto Rico sat in the road in front of the San Juan campus last week as riot police officers stood guard.

By OMAYA SOSA-PASCUAL and EMMA GRAVES FITZSIMMONS
Published: May 20, 2010

SAN JUAN, P.R. — The seven entry gates on the largest campus of the University of Puerto Rico system remained chained shut on Thursday. Beyond improvised barricades were hundreds of students in makeshift camps, some with portable showers and stoves, hardly engaged in the typical college springtime routine of studying for final exams and preparing for graduation.

Ricardo Arduengo/Associated Press
Students have been on strike for over a month, living in makeshift camps behind university gates.

The students here have hunkered down, bringing the academic calendar to a halt. They are a month into a strike that has crippled an 11-campus system with more than 62,000 students, intent on persuading the administration to revoke austerity measures that they believe will unfairly hamper low-income students. Only one campus, for medical sciences, is operational.

Ricardo Arduengo/Associated Press
Supporters of the students held a rally Tuesday.

The Río Piedras campus here in the capital has been closed since the strike began on April 21. When the students locked the gates, a confrontation with the police ensued, and university officials later decided to shut down the school. The territory is grappling with a huge budget deficit and an unemployment rate of 16 percent. The strike is the latest, most contentious protest against Gov. Luis G. Fortuño, a Republican elected in 2008. Thousands of union members rallied against planned layoffs by the government in a national protest last October.

As the university system announced budget cuts, students demanded an alternative and a greater transparency for university finances. One point of tension is funding for music, athletics and honors scholarships for students who also have federal grants.

“We understand this is social marginalization and discrimination against the people with less resources,” said Fernando Espinal, a law school graduate and former president of the student council.

University officials did not respond to requests for interviews.

Many public universities in the United States have faced tuition increases and cuts in funding because of states’ financial problems. In March, thousands of students and faculty members protested at the University of California.

But the strike in Puerto Rico has continued for weeks and grown increasingly tense, with reports of the police preventing the students from receiving supplies, food and water last weekend.

The fiscal crisis set up the conditions for the student strike, said Miguel Soto-Class, executive director of the Center for a New Economy, an independent research organization here.

“The University of Puerto Rico is receiving a significant amount less than it has received in the past,” he said. “It has forced the administration to undertake some cost-cutting measures that have not been popular with the students and some of the staff.”

Mr. Fortuño has encouraged both sides to work together to reach a solution, a spokesman said.

The governor said in an e-mail interview: “It is unfortunate that a minuscule group of students, that do not represent the vast majority of university students, have decided to take matters in their own hands and closed the university gates, thus precluding the vast majority of students to continue their studies, the teachers to impart their classes and the researchers to continue their research projects.”

The protesters spend their time reading and using computers with wireless Internet access to spread the word about the strike. They have received support from union leaders, writers and performers, including the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano and the Puerto Rican musician Ricky Martin, who posted a supportive message on Twitter.

After negotiations between the administration and students fell apart on Thursday, Aura Colón Solá, a member of the university’s law school action committee, said she was prepared to continue the strike for several more months. She said she was upset that university officials had sued some student leaders to try to end the strike.

“You do not sue students if you really intend to negotiate,” she said. “It is ridiculous. They would have to sue the 200 students in here and the thousands that voted in favor of this.”

Maritza Stanchich, an English professor at the Río Piedras campus who supports the strike, said many professors viewed the strike as a “teachable moment” to show the students how to stand up for themselves.

“It has been an enormous disruption,” she said, “but it’s meant to be that way to force the administration to negotiate.”

Students said the administration tried to end the strike through a court injunction, but public backlash intensified and Mr. Fortuño revoked the court order after three days. This week, the police chief ordered a reduction of the police presence.

On Thursday, the mood was calm at the main gate, where about 20 police officers stood guard. A large sign on the fence read “You may cut all the flowers, but will never eradicate spring.”

A version of this article appeared in print on May 21, 2010, on page A14 of the New York edition.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/us/21students.html?ref=us
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Puerto Rico’s National Strike: “Peaceful Insurrection” Against the Wall Street Bankers

by Ivan Gutierrez del Arroyo

Global Research, November 11, 2009
- 2009-11-08

San Juan, Puerto Rico – The aftermath of Puerto Rico’s 200,000 persons National Strike is the transformation of a civic struggle into a “Peoples Peaceful Insurrection” against the real power behind Republican Governor Luis Fortuno: the Wall Street’s Bankers, who control the Island $47 Billions public debt. The Oct. 15’s one-day strike was led by a broad Coalition for Puerto Rico (CPR) spearheaded by the Methodist Bishop Juan Vera Mendez (JVM), including all key sectors of Puerto Rico’s Civic Society and all the labor unions. The big losers were the corrupt two-party system and the US repressive agencies operating in the Island, such as the Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI), the Federal Prosecutor and the FBI-controlled National Police Superintendent and his anti-riot elite units.

Bishop Vera: War Against US “Brutal Capitalism”

Bishop Vera Mendez concluded the all-day National Strike with a very energetic and emotional address, which reminded many of the participants of Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speech in 1963 in Washington, D.C. “Today our People’s dignity and solidarity have defeated the God of fear” of Gov. Fortuno and his bankers, stated the spokesman for the CPR. “At this democratic assembly the Puerto Rican Nation demanded the repeal of Law #7…which blamed the state workers for the alleged financial crisis, the same brutal capitalist model which push the world’s economy into a deep recession,” stated the Methodist Bishop. Up to now close to 25,000 unionized state employees have been fired because of Law #7, and about 100,000 workers have been lay-offs in the private sectors during the recent fiscal years. Although the official unemployment rate is 18%, the real unemployment is between 25-30%, if you include permanent unemployed workers who gave up and are not looking for jobs anymore.

In spite of the FBI and Police’s anti-riot brutal repression, stressed Vera, “our response is the non-violence’s moral force. Guided by Jesus’ words we affirmed that those who work for peace are fortunate. .. Today we go from simple protest to resistance and civil disobedience, as we did between 1999-2003 to rescue the Island of Vieques (from the US Navy).” Like Rev. King, Bishop Vera Mendez combined his social struggle analysis with a Christian hope for social justice and freedom. This was Gandhi’s moral and spiritual strength, which he used to liberate more than a billion persons in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The End of the Corrupt Two-Party’s System

The pro-Statehood New Progressive Party (NPP) is an state of denial of the Island’s new social and political reality, which is breaking apart the typical behavior of the ruling colonial elite. The only exception is radio commentator Ignacio Rivera. In his daily two-hour radio program, the former CIA agent, urged GOP Gov. Fortuno to face reality and start negotiations with Bishop Vera Mendez and the leading Puerto Rican trade unions leaders. I am not questioning the Governor’s harsh austerity measures, which are modeled in Reagan’s neoliberal policies, but his refusal to even consider negotiations with his labor and civic opponents, stressed Rivera in his radio show.

The situation in the Opposition Popular Democratic Party (PDP) is even worse because it is being run by a pro-Statehood clique led by former Gov. Rafael Hernandez Colon, who is a 100% behind Fortuno’s brutal assault against the 4 millions-island population. The former Governor is trying to force out a growing youth faction, which wants to forge a liberal-leftist coalition with Labor unions, pro-Independence and Women groups, organized poor communities and civic groups, such as the lawyers and social workers associations. Although this youth faction forced the PDP to join the National Strike, is still perceived by the population as a corrupt and traditional political party.

In spite of the fact that the pro-Independence forces represent today only about 10-15% of the total population in the Island, they embodied the moral and intellectual strength of the Puerto Rican Nation. After more than 500 years of Spanish and American military occupation, our culture and nationality is alive and still resemble more the traditions found all over Latin America. Many of the 4 millions Puerto Ricans, who lived in the US mainland, still considered themselves part of our nation and our mix afro-hispanic-indian culture, including US Supreme Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

Because of all the above reasons pro-Independence leaders, such as radio commentator Wilda Rodriguez and Juan Mari Bras, the former head of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP), are the best qualify to understand the present economic Depression hitting the Island. In addition, they are the most capable to propose short and long-term solutions to the ongoing political and economic crisis.

The Coalition Transformation Into a National Reconstruction Alliance(NRA) & the Formation of a Pro Independence Congress

In a recent newspaper analysis, Ms. Rodriguez put forward a futurist scenario, where Bishop Vera’s Coalition become a NRA Party to be able to participate in the 2012 election against the corrupt NPP-PDP’s two party system. This new liberal-leftist alliance has a 10-point program, which is based in the Island struggle to regain its own sovereignty, which was taken away by the US Congress through the military occupation of Puerto Rico in 1898. Among the key point of the NRA program is the power to make our own trade accord with other foreign nations, including the US, Europe, Africa and Asia. We could also join the South American Common Market Union (UNASUR) and America’s Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA). The UNASUR and ALBA are two trade and economic alternatives to the US-led North American Trade Agreement (NAFTA), its affiliates in Central and South America and the Caribbean.

During the last year, Mari Bras has spearheaded a nation-wide campaign to forge an alliance among all the pro Independence groups through the creation of the Third Pro Independence Congress. Although this organizing drive is being torpedoed by the odd alliance between the conservative Puerto Rican Independence Party and the ultra-leftist Socialist Workers Movement, Mari Bras and his allies are still very optimist because the economic Depression will force a new realignment of all the political forces in the Island.

According to the former head of the PSP and founder of the 50 years-old weekly pro-Independence newspaper Claridad, the present task of a revolutionary living in the Island is to propose short-term and practical solutions to the people’s daily struggle, and in that way, “we get closer to our strategic goals.” This means supporting the proposal put forward by leaders of different political ideologies, which urged Gov. Fortuno to tax by 10% all US corporations doing business in the Island. This would solve our immediate financial crisis, and put back to work the 25,000 state workers, which have been lay-off during the last two month. This represents a creative way “to find real solutions in order to go through turbid times, like the present one, and thus, at last enter the XXI Century,” concluded Mari Bras in a recent analysis for Claridad.

Ivan Gutierrez del Arroyo can be reached at gutierrezdelarroyoivan@yahoo.com


Global Research Articles by Ivan Gutierrez del Arroyo

Source: http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16028

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Puerto Rico Oil Explosion Prompts White House to Declare State of Emergency

(Photo)http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/10/25/puerto.rico.explosion/

Date Published: Sunday, October 25th, 2009


The White House has declared a stated of emergency in Puerto Rico, following Friday’s massive oil explosion and fire at the Caribbean Petroleum Corp. storage facility outside San Juan. According to a CNN report, the fire is still burning out of control, and the FBI is treating the site of the blast as a crime scene.

According to the Washington Post, on Saturday shifting wind threatened to bring plumes of toxic smoke closer to populated areas of the island. However, Puerto Rico’s Gov. Luis Fortuno said he does not believe more evacuations will be necessary. The number of people evacuated because of the disaster now stands at about 1,500.

Eighteen of the facility’s storage tanks have been destroyed. Five are still burning, four have collapse into the flames the Post said. According to CNN, 12 tanks are smoking.

At least 130 firefighters and National Guard troops are working to bring the inferno under control, but it is expected that it will take several days to extinguish the fire. The National Guard took the lead in coordinating management of the disaster yesterday. According to The Washington Post, heavy equipment from the National Guard and island pharmaceutical firms have been moved to the site, and a temporary pipeline from San Juan Bay to supply seawater to fight the fire has been erected. Foam used in putting out oil fires was shipped from the U.S. Virgin Islands.

President Obama’s declaration of a state of emergency frees up federal aid to the island. Gov. Fortuno has said that the blaze has cost Puerto Rico at least $6.4 million.

According to CNN, the FBI’s decision to treat the blast site as a crime scene is “routine.” But as we reported previously, officials have said they were concerned by some graffiti found Friday in two San Juan highway tunnels. The graffiti reportedly included the message: “Boom, fire, RIP, Gulf, Soul, ACNF.” It is not known who or what ACNF refers too, CNN said.

The Caribbean Petroleum Corp. is the owner of the Gulf brand in Puerto Rico. The facility where the explosion occurred is a gasoline warehouse and distribution center where jet fuel, bunker fuel and gasoline are stored. The facility also includes a 48,000 barrel-per-day (b/d) refinery, but according to the company, the refinery was not in operation at the time of the explosion.

The explosion at the Caribbean Petroleum Corp. facility occurred around 12:30 a.m. Friday. According to the Puerto Rico Seismic Network, the blast produced a shock wave equivalent to a 2.8 magnitude earthquake. The explosion was so strong that it tore up a nearby highway, and shattered windows on nearby homes.

According to CNN, the Caribbean Petroleum Corp. had been sited with violating the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and was operating under a corrective action plan. The Act is the major U.S. law dealing with the disposal of solid and hazardous wastes.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 at 7:16 am




Fuente: http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/13562