It does not seem an exaggeration to say that Hurricane Maria has left the island of Puerto Rico in a state of great devastation. The cyclone has caused damage of $8 billion, 43 deaths, 80 per cent of the harvests of the shattered peasants, three out of four people without electricity, condemning the population to survive for months without basic services...

The US authorities are in a hurry to crush the independentists, as Óscar Pérez Rivera, who has returned home in May after 36 years in prison, is well aware, but when it comes to helping the people of the island, they behave with serenity: Donald Trump had to spend a week occupying Puerto Rico... and how to occupy! In the shameful photographs that turn around the world, the Oligarca slug throws hygienic paper bags at people who are harmed.

Puerto Rico, however, was in a crisis long before the arrival of Irma and Maria, a debt prisoner, with a public debt of 74 billion dollars, and 49 billion more to guarantee the pensions of the elderly. Following the hurricane, media The Intercept has targeted banks and financial institutions benefiting from public debts and asked whether they are willing to help Puerto Rico. Only three of the 51 companies have provided some form of aid to those affected, including $1.25 million.

In a few days, however, the group of creditors has informed the authorities of Puerto Rico of their readiness to forgive 150 of the 74 billion that make up the debt and to refinance some of the others... with more debt. The authorities have replied that not for dignity, but because their institutions cannot take on more loans.

If for anything these cycles have served, it has been for the Puerto Ricans that in the world several people remember the drama of this colony that the United States has in the Caribbean and that thrills when they know each other closely. It is the end result of a hundred years of colonial servitude, so it is important to look at history.

When Spain lost Cuba in 1898 – 120 years later still shed blood in the Spanish subconscious – it also lost the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico. The last two are still in the hands of the United States today. Puerto Rico was given partial autonomy in 1952, with a peculiar status: it has never become independent, but has never become a total component of the United States.

Puerto Ricans, who are nationals of the United States, do not participate in the lehendakari vote, but they must risk their lives in the wars of the presidents who have not voted. So important is the Washington Merchant Marine Act in 1920, which prohibits the landing of a colonial rule in the ports of Puerto Rico to all vessels of the world that are not Yanks. All purchases from the island have to go out and enter the vessels of the American flag, necessarily passing through one of the docks on the continent. When the ban was recently proposed to be lifted, the shipping companies’ lobby cut them off with a tough campaign, because that would jeopardise the security of the United States in times of anti-terrorist war.

In Puerto Rico Rules a “Board”

In the CADTM calculations, Puerto Rico's debt is 10 percent of the average of all other states in the United States. This staggering indebtedness is based on the colonial character of the island. On the one hand, the effect of making maritime transport available to the Yankees throughout the economy.

Another factor is the reduction of local government revenues, the losses of the tax haven condition. Since Washington decided to use Puerto Rico as a tax haven for financial companies, it gives those who bring their salaries there their triple lack of tax:they do not pay taxes either to the U.S. government, or to the Puerto Rico government, or to the municipalities. These imbalances have been affected by the 2008 crisis, the weakness of tourism and the austerity measures imposed on the population by right-wing authorities over the past two years.

From the CADTM, Pierre Gottiniaux summarized in 2016 the consequences of the bankruptcy of Puerto Rico: “The population is experiencing a real humanitarian crisis with the worsening of impoverishment and inequality. Hundreds of schools have been abolished, hospitals have been closed for lack of staff or money, the number of young people travelling to continental America has increased by four, and social security is about to explode: the fall in wages has led to a drop in contributions, this reduces subsidies... In Puerto Rico today more than half of children live under the limits of poverty.”

Seeing how this illegitimate debt has accumulated shows that neither the greed or greed of banks and financial institutions nor the ability to invent new systems for attracting public money are limited. Half of the debt that Puerto Rico has incurred in recent years is in the hands of so-called CAB Capital Appreciation Bonds. From Bonoon, the administration does not initially pay interest to the banks, which accumulate in the capital each year by adding new interest... In the end, it happens that the 4,300 million dollars issued by Puerto Rico in CAS have over time become... 785% interest!

Today, the technique has also been used with public companies to cover the outstanding debt of tomorrow. These debts, in addition to the above-mentioned debt of the Government of San José, owe another $13.4 billion to banks and funds, of which 61.5 million correspond to refinancing of previous debts.

In 2016, the Washington authorities created a control cabinet that, despite being officially designated Prosecutor Control Board, people call The Board: With a law that has adopted the provocative name of promise, it has led to more cuts to citizenship, more slimming of the administration and more privatisations. Same recipe around the world.

Whoever wants to know what it is to be a colony in the twenty-first century has nothing but to look at who is the Board that orders the order of Puerto Rico in economics. Along with the governor of Puerto Rico, with a voice but without a vote, two presidents of the Banco Santander, consultants specialized in the bankruptcy of the companies, lawyers of the corporations...The Maria disaster will not be wasted to further squeeze the slaves.