Puerto Rico

La preocupación por los problemas del desarrollo de los países pequeños y la consideración de la escala reducida como una variable importante debe estar presente al discutir medidas innovadoras para erradicar el coloniaje y cumplir con los Objetivos del Desarrollo Sostenible, enfrentando los retos ante el cambio climático. El problema de desarrollo alternativo en países pequeños requiere elaborar nuevos enfoques que permitan una planificación endógena apropiada, ante este problema, reconociendo que son ecosistemas frágiles, existen poblaciones con derechos humanos y enfrentamos los retos del cambio climático, evitando copiar modelos externos o exógenos y reconociendo el contexto histórico, social y cultural del país. Por eso la escasez de recursos económicos, físicos y la fragilidad de sus ecosistemas impone que se diseñen estrategias para garantizar su estabilidad económica y social, donde las condiciones políticas dentro del país deben cambiar para que el poder se asigne de tal manera que apoye estos cambios.

From Puerto Rico, the women's organization Cohitre also describes a “colonial condition that imposes agendas foreign to our people”. In September 2017 hurricanes Irma and Maria hit the island, destroying 70,000 homes and collapsing its electric network (still not completely restored), its transport system, hospitals and fuel and food supplies.

The catastrophic effects are sharpened by the absence of political powers -the island is a US 'unincorporated territory' since 1898- and the control of its finances by a US-imposed Fiscal Control Board, due to its indebtedness. “The diversion of funds to pay off public debt, adjustment plans, austerity measures, the reduction of the public sector and privatization has compromised the government's capacity to respond to the crisis” while “the response of the US government is slow, erratic and centralized” and “the US Congress has shown no rush to provide aid to Puerto Rico, given the debate over corruption and how to manage the funds”.

The archipelago of Puerto Rico is part of the Caribbean, is owned by the United States as an unincorporated territory, or better defined as a colony, since 1898, and is populated by people who theoretically possess US citizenship. It is a people in resistance to the processes of assimilation and to the process of colonization, its resistance manifested in its use of the Spanish language and in its Caribbean social- cultural structures. The systemic issues that we face in the economy and society are due to our colonial condition that imposes foreign agendas and a model of dependent capitalism and industrialization by invitation. The island adopts policies for accelerated economic growth based on foreign investment- that is, industrialization by invitation, and in the production of goods for export, that is, dependent capitalism.


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