Sunday, October 1, 2017

Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz of San Juan, the capital of the United States commonwealth, Puerto Rico, replied Saturday to United States President Donald Trump regarding her criticism of the response to Hurricane Maria, which hit the island commonwealth last month, the third major hurricane to hit U.S. territory since August. Puerto Rico had already been dealing with a severe economic crisis.

“Let us not talk about the debt; let us not talk about the cost of reconstruction. Let’s just talk about saving lives right now,” Cruz told ABC. “You put the people above the debt. People’s lives and avoiding death above the debt. That’s just how it’s done.”

President Trump said via Twitter, “Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble.” In a two later Tweets, “Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They … want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job.” And this morning, “We have done a great job with the almost impossible situation in Puerto Rico. Outside of the Fake News or politically motivated ingrates,…”

Mayor Cruz’ criticism has focused on logistics, saying the federal response has been “so slow that it’s put lives in danger,” and of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other federal agencies, “Their heart is in the right place, but we have to cut the red tape … Things have to be done in a sustained manner.” Of President Trump specifically, Cruz said, “I don’t care. He can attack me all he wants, you know, bring it on, I’m here, if it saves lives. If it gets the message in the right place, frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

According to FEMA, federal employees have delivered supplies to almost every town on Puerto Rico, in which USA Today numbers 1.3 million meals and 2.4 million liters of water, and that San Juan’s airport is up and running. United States Marines, who have been on the island since the day after the storm, have been clearing roads and restoring access to communications towers.

“What we [we] are going to see is something close to a genocide,” Cruz had said to the press last Friday, referring to the delays in the delivery of food, water and other supplies to much of the island. “Mr Trump, I am begging you to take charge and save lives.”

Last month, Puerto Rico was nicked by the same Hurricane Irma that left Florida in disarray but then pummeled head-on by Hurricane Maria. The crisis displaced thousands of people and led to record rainfall and flash flood scares after a large crack appeared in the Guajataca Dam. As of today, 95% of the island is without electricity and half without access to clean water, though half the gas stations and 30% of home phone service have been restored. About 10,000 people remain in temporary shelters.

Hurricane Maria grew from a category 3 to a category 5 over the course of two days, with wind speed more than doubling from Sunday to Monday. BBC forecaster Steve Cleaton attributes this to unusually warm ocean surface temperatures.

Maria has killed at least 30 people, including 16 in Puerto Rico. It also hit the British island of Dominica and the French territories of Martinique and Guadaloupe.

Complicating the relief effort, not all Americans understand that Puerto Rico is part of the United States. Puerto Rico was colonized by Spain and came under U.S. control in the Spanish-American War in 1898, along with Guam and the Philippines. Every person born in Puerto Rico is a United States citizen by birth. Puerto Rican residents do not participate in national elections, hold no seats in the electoral college, and have a non-voting representative in the U.S. congress. Most of them are exempt from federal income tax but not other federal taxes.

Every few years, the Puerto Ricans hold a referendum to determine whether they wish to remain a commonwealth, seek U.S. statehood or apply to become a free associated state. Cruz is part of the Popular Democrat party, which favors the first option.

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