PDP joins May 1 strike called by Puerto Rico unions

[1peacelover]

SAN JUAN – The Popular Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday urged its mayors, legislators and municipal presidents to join the island-wide strike convened for May 1 to demonstrate their rejection of the fiscal and labor policies of the Gov. Ricardo Rosselló administration and the fiscal control board.

The so-called National Strike has been promoted by Puerto Rico’s main unions, as well as by multisector organizations and University of Puerto Rico (UPR) students.

“The people must unite to make their voice heard and confront this administration’s abuse against workers, against students and against the most vulnerable sectors,” PDP President Héctor Ferrer said.

The party leader also urged every “good Puerto Rican” to join the massive demonstration against the government’s actions.

“It is time for all Puerto Ricans, outside party lines, to assume our responsibility for the future of our country and to unite in defense of the rights of our public employees and of all groups that have expressed themselves against this government’s austerity measures,” Ferrer said in his written statement.

“We cannot allow the leadership of the NPP [New Progressive Party] to impose its criteria at the expense of Puerto Ricans’ pockets, much less undermine the rights acquired by workers,” he added.

The minority party leader maintained that all the measures proposed by the government and the fiscal board prioritize paying the public debt before meeting the “real needs” of Puerto Ricans. “We must go out together and defend our rights,” he said.

http://caribbeanbusiness.com/pdp-joins-may-1-strike-called-by-puerto-rico-unions/

 

[1peacelover]

The People were out peacefully protesting. The highway to the airport was closed. You could see passengers walking to the terminal to catch flights out. After 2pm, the police started firing tear gas canisters at the protestors. As well as there were military helicopters flying overhead. Totally unreal. The Puertoricanos did not borrow this money, but continue to be taken advantage of by those in power as well as the vultures on Wall Street & those in Congress.

Some Video, but it is in Spanish.
https://www.wapa.tv/noticias

“How Wall Street Bankers Committed Massive Fraud in Puerto Rico and Stayed out of Jail”

Mike Papantonio exposes Santander Bank for defrauding investors in Puerto Rico through a massive municipal bond scheme and speaks with attorney, Peter Mougey, about how Santander was able to pull off this scam and why no one was sent to prison as a result.
http://investmentwatchblog.com/how-wall-street-bankers-committed-massive-fraud-in-puerto-rico-and-stayed-out-of-jail/

 

[angelburst29]

Puerto Rico is set to file the largest public sector bankruptcy in history after vulture capitalist hedge funds that bought big pieces of the island’s $73 billion in defaulted debt for pennies-on the-dollar refused to take $24 billion haircut.

Puerto Rico to File Largest Public Sector Bankruptcy in History
_http://www.breitbart.com/california/2017/05/01/puerto-rico-to-file-largest-public-sector-bankruptcy-in-history/

The U.S. territory made its last-ditch offer to try to avoid a May 1 bankruptcy filing, but failed to negotiate a financial restructuring that would force creditors to take a 23 percent loss on their general obligation bonds and a 42 percent loss on their Cofina sales-tax-backed debt, according to EMMA, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board website.

Puerto Rico’s bond defaults last summer caused the Obama administration to team-up with a bipartisan majority in Congress to pass “The Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act” (PROMESA), which turned over the island’s finances to a federally appointed committee and created a “Title III” bankruptcy process.

Breitbart News reported that the big motivation for taking over America’s worst welfare den was the fear of up to a million Puerto Ricans migrating to the mainland” if hedge fund “vulture capitalist” investors, who bought up the island’s bonds debt at about 30 cents on the dollar, were able to use lawsuits to shake down the U.S. government for a bailout by jeopardizing the island’s ability to pay for schools, police officers and health care.

PROMESA gave the control board defacto authority to sell government assets, consolidate agencies, and fire government workers to restructure the island’s balance sheet. It also put a retroactive stay on bondholder lawsuits to grab assets liens.

One key reason Puerto Rico’s economy has imploded was that the Popular Democratic Party-controlled legislature made Spanish the official language in 1991 for all schools and government use. Partly as a result, 86 percent of the island does not speak English in the home and almost a third of the residents are on welfare. Poor language skills have prevented the reaction of call centers and other U.S. service businesses to Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico Catholic Archbishop Roberto Gonzáleziocese and Reverend Heriberto Martínez, the head of the Puerto Rico Bible Society, issued a joint statement this week: “If the oversight board and Governor do not act by April 28th, we fear that Puerto Rico could be held hostage by predatory actors and ‘vulture’ funds.”

But negotiating a settlement with the vultures became much more difficult after August, when an new audit of the union controlled Puerto Rico Employees’ Retirement System and two smaller public pension plans revealed that there are only about $1.8 billion in assets to pay $45 billion in pension liabilities.


With about 1 in 10 Puerto Ricans either government public employees, retirees, or beneficiaries, the audit revealed that Democrat Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla spiked the island’s cash contribution to Puerto Rico’s pension plans from $400 million in 2015 to $747.3 million last July, rather than paying the defaulted bonds.

According to Jubilee USA’s executive director Eric LeCompte, who advises 650 local faith communities and worked on the Title III legislation, the Puerto Rico oversight board met in New York on April 28 to consider authorizing a Title III filing to prevent creditor lawsuits from liening the island’s assets and tax streams. He commented, “Puerto Rico’s time is almost up and it is the responsibility of the oversight board to now authorize the bankruptcy process.”

Prior to Puerto Rico, the largest public sector bankruptcies were: $19 billon on July 18, 2013 by the City of Detroit, Michigan; $4.2 on November 9, 2011 by Jefferson County, Alabama; and $2.6 billion on December 6, 1994 by Orange County, California.