Colonial Capitalism: Crisis and Response in Puerto Rico

Since 1901, when the first duties between Puerto Rico and the United States were abolished, the island’s economy has served as a kind of experiment in what we today call neoliberalism. Puerto Rico has long been notable for its deep integration into the North American system, the maximal fluidity of labor and capital flows between it and the U.S. mainland, and its dependence on U.S. imports. This century-old brand of colonial capitalism has been adjusted and readjusted over the years, often in response to system-wide shocks—most recently and dramatically in 2006, when the insular government ran out of money and temporarily laid off about 80,000 public employees.

November/December
2007
Volume: 
40
Number: 
1

Taking Note

Latin America and the 'Family Jewels'
Kate Doyle
When the CIA declassified its “family jewels” in June, a few small pearls about the agency’s programs in Latin America tumbled into view.

Intro

Colonial Capitalism: Crisis and Response in Puerto Rico
Pablo Morales
Since 1901, when the first duties between puerto Rico and the United States were abolished, the island’s economy has served as a kind of experiment in what we today call neoliberalism.

Updates

Taking on Big Cellulose: Brazilian Indigenous Communities Reclaim Their Land
Isabella Kenfield
With solidarity from landless and campesino movements, indigenous Tupinikim and Guarani communities in the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo have successfully reclaimed their land from Aracruz Celulose S.A., a mammoth multinational cellulose company that illegally appropriated it in the 1970s. A NACLA investigation supported by the Samuel Chavkin Investigative Journalism Fund finds that the growing unity of various factions of rural civil society, and their increasing militancy—especially as manifested in the tactic of nonviolent occupations—have greatly boosted the indigenous struggle.

Report

A Rare Happy Ending: Piñones Versus the Developers
Cándida Cotto
As tourism continues to grow into one of the most profitable sectors of Puerto Rico’s economy, many small communities have found themselves threatened by development companies. The small coastal village of Piñones, just outside the town of Loíza, has managed to defend itself from the designs of PFZ Properties, which belongs to a Puerto Rican developer named Joel Katz, an entrepreneur known to be close to the inner circles of the Partido Popular Democrático.
More Than 25 Years: Puerto Rican Political Prisoners
Jan Susler
Today, two of the original 15 pro-independence militants arrested in the early 1980s remain in prison: Carlos Alberto Torres and Oscar López Rivera, who have now served 27 and 26 years of their 70-year sentences.
Puerto Rico at the United Nations
Ana M. López and Gabriela Reardon
The United Nations General Assembly may review the ques­tion of Puerto Rico’s colonial status next year, thanks to a resolution passed in June by the Special Committee on Decolonization.
Puerto Rico's Social Movements: Decolonizing Step-by-Step
Michael González-Cruz
A branch of today’s Puerto Rican independence movement has turned to a potent new tool: popular education. La Nueva Escuela, a university-based collective, addresses the material needs and social realities of Puerto Rico’s marginalized communities, linking them to the independence cause.
Puerto Rico’s New Era: A Crisis in Crisis Management
Rafael Bernabe
Puerto Rico’s fiscal crisis of 2006 signaled a dramatic end of an era. The island economy has been faltering since the mid-1970s, prompting a series of reforms—and it is this experiment in crisis management that is itself now in crisis.
Reggaeton Nation
Frances Negrón-Muntaner and Raquel Z. Rivera
For many young Puerto Ricans, reggaeton is today what salsa used to be years ago: a “national” soundtrack and the culture’s international musical representative. Yet the genre was initially condemned in the mainstream and subject to hearings in the Puerto Rican senate. What accounts for this shift? In a nutshell: commercial success, achieved in the most unexpected of ways.
The Diaspora Factor: Stateside Boricuas and the Future of Puerto Rico
Angelo Falcón
With a pair of new bills on Puerto Rico’s future political status before the U.S. Congress, the role of the stateside diaspora—now larger than the island population—is more important, and mysterious, than ever.

Reviews

New and Noteworthy: The Prophet and the Power; The Stroessner Regime; and Cycles of Conflict, Centuries of Change
NACLA
New and noteworthy books on Haiti, Paraguay and Mexico.
Review: A Little Bit of So Much Truth
Teo Ballvé
In recent years, grassroots media have been critical to social uprisings throughout Latin America.
Review: To Save Her Life
June Carolyn Erlick
Martiza was abducted that day in 1992 by men who later identified themselves to her as members of “a very secret organization . . . that was not part of the army, but pursued any person who endangered the security of the nation.”

Interview

Body Shocks: A 40th Anniversary Conversation With Naomi Klein
Greg Grandin
Latin America, the first region where neoliberalism was imposed and the first to produce a sustained resistance movement to it, has long been a central focus of Klein’s work, which includes, in addition to her writings, The Take, a 2004 documentary she produced with her husband, Avi Lewis, documenting the takeover of La Forja, a Buenos Aires auto plant, by its workers following Argentina’s 2002 economic meltdown. NACLA editorial committee member Greg Grandin interviewed Klein on the occasion of NACLA’s 40th anniversary.

MALA

A Fleeting Moment of Balanced Immigration Coverage
Kristen Bodossian and Otto Santa Ana
As gauged by old-fashioned­ journalistic content analysis—which simply counts the number of words, headline size, and other plainly observable elements of newspaper copy—the Los Angeles Times’ coverage of Prop. 187 was balanced. But such analysis is limited.