How US-imposed austerity and privatization schemes are crushing Puerto Rico

Moderate Rebels

Ben Norton speaks with Ángel Rodríguez Rivera, president of the Puerto Rican Association of University Professors, about the devastating neoliberal economic policies forced on Puerto Rico.

Washington imposed an unelected fiscal control board, called the junta, to control Puerto Rico's finances. Now it is pushing through so-called "debt restructuring," in law PC1003, that will slash social benefits, defund public universities, and crush working-class people in order to pay off foreign corporate debt vultures.

Meanwhile, the US-imposed privatization of Puerto Rico's electrical grid in a neoliberal public-private partnership has caused chronic blackouts, while executives at LUMA Energy make huge salaries.