Description
‘We are More, and We are Not Afraid’—Puerto Rican Summer 2019
Martha Quiñones Domínguez (Professor of Social Sciences, Research, Economics and Statistics of the University of Puerto Rico in Arecibo)
The ‘Summer of 2019’ is a scream of outrage at the neoliberal policies and capitalist crises. These crises are represented by the PROMESA Law, as well as by corruption and impunity that take away economic resources through adjustment and cuts policies in areas such as basic education, university education, health, housing, social security and other essential services.
The people of Puerto Rico have endured many years of oppression, sacrifices, institutional abuse, intense colonial status, followed by a hurricane; and they have also endured rampant corruption during a so-called economic crisis. They occur as a result of arrests on corruption charges at the federal level of senior government officials, as well as the dissemination of a chat of 889 pages on Telegram administered by the Governor himself.
The level of citizen participation in the Summer of 2019 is determined by a colonial break with the existing political order and the repudiation and indignation that everyone has due to the comments of the elite of the colonial political power. That led the people to ask for participatory democracy in addition to the resignation of the Governor.
