Puerto Rico – Politics Enter Relief Efforts

Posted by Tina

Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the United States but that status is complicated. During the last election, for instance, the majority of Puerto Ricans voted yes on the question of statehood. The enthusiasm that motivated that vote has turned to despair in the aftermath of Hurricane’s Irma and Maria.

The back to back 4 and 5 grade hurricanes leveled the island and destroyed infrastructure and both air and sea ports making immediate relief efforts nearly impossible. At this time ports have been repaired and opened but there’s a shortage of truck drivers to deliver the mounds of food, water, medicines, clothing and goods that arrived in transport containers. Many Puerto Rican truckers don’t have gasoline even if they have a working vehicle and were able navigate the roads. Pones and cell phones don’t work. President Trump dispatched navy ships and troops, including a three star general, to oversee and coordinate the efforts of the military and volunteer organizations. FEMA, various aid organization and charitable donations and acts have poured forth. The response has been amazing. Problems on the ground, however, slow efforts of relief. Many of the people are cut off from help entirely…

The Governor and the Mayor of San Juan complimented President Trump early on for his concern and quick response but that sentiment changed for the mayor of San Juan, apparently as quickly as the flip of a switch. Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz seems to be doing her part by taking advantage of photo ops in an attempt to turn this tragic event into Trumps “Katrina.” One such interview with Heraldo Rivera found her complaining about the lack of supplies in front of palets of supplies…hello! Sad that those leaders of the socialist persuasion are willing to lie to the people and use use suffering as a political hammer:

“We are dying here,” Cruz said in a September 29 press conference. “And I cannot fathom the thought that the greatest nation in the world cannot figure out logistics for a small island of 100 miles by 35 miles long… People are drinking off a creek. So I am done being polite. I am done being politically correct. I am mad as hell… So I am asking the members of the press, to send a mayday call all over the world. We are dying here… And if it doesn’t stop, and if we don’t get the food and the water into people’s hands, what we are going to see is something close to a genocide”. [28]

(Geez…get the hook!)

President Donald Trump on Twitter accused Cruz of poor leadership and suggested that Democrats had told her to badmouth him.[29][30] Cruz said in response, “I have one fight: To save lives. This isn’t personal.”[31]

FEMA director Brock Long when asked about Cruz’s statement by CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield stated: “The problem that we have with the mayor unfortunately is that unity of command is ultimately what’s needed to be successful in this response….What we need is for the mayor, the good mayor, to make her way to the joint field office and get plugged into what’s going on and be successful….I think that’s the bottom line on that tweet.”[32][33]

The mayor of Guaynabo, Angel Perez Otero, a neighboring city to San Juan, stated that his experience with FEMA has been very good and questioned why Cruz used the term “genocide” stating: “I don’t know why she is saying that. What I can tell you is my experience. She is not participating in any meetings and we had a couple already with the governors and with representation of FEMA and of HUD, of these whole federal agencies that have given us help and she’s not participating in those meetings and some mayors from her political party have been participating, so I don’t know why she is saying that. My experience is very different.”[34][35][36] (emphasis mine)

The New York Times noted that Mayor Cruz is “an unapologetic supporter of Oscar López Rivera, the Puerto Rican militant associated with a group that carried out a deadly campaign of bombings in New York and other cities in the 1970s and 1980s.”

Hmmm…perhaps a socialist in the Castro vein?

A desperate police officer called in to a radio station; audio and transcript at The Conservative Treehouse, “Puerto Rico Cop Calls U.S. Radio Station Reporting Corrupt Mayor of San Juan and Request For Help…”:

A very emotional female police officer from Puerto Rico’s police department in Guaynabo calls in to a U.S. Spanish speaking radio station to tell listeners what is going on in Puerto Rico. The police woman is very upset, crying and sobbing often, and shares how the Mayor of San Juan is politicizing the situation and not offering help.

A September 29, 2017 Reuters article, “Factbox: Relief efforts in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria,” provides a partial list of available resources:

1,600 National Guard members sheltered in place during the storm; 4,500 U.S. active duty and National Guard troops with an additional 1,400 National Guard members on the way; Forty-three FEMA officials; teams of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; USS Kearsarge and Oak Hill; amphibious assault ships; USS Wasp on the way; USNS Comfort-equipped to carry up to 1,000 hospital beds, 12 operating rooms and one of America’s largest trauma units; Fifty-two tilt/rotary-wing aircraft; Defense Logistics Agency shipment of 100 trucks with diesel and fuel on the way will distribute potentially 160 million meals in 30 days; 15,000 gallons of propane; a C-5C aircraft landed with a generator to help radar approach operations; 5000 people to restore electricity; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has completed a damage assessment at the Guajataca dam and are consulting on repair; 50 percent of people on the island had access to water on Friday, according to Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA); eight (of nine) airports are open; Five of the six FEMA-priority sea ports are open or open with some restrictions; 400 out of 676 gas stations are open; one hospital was fully operational, 55 were partially open; only 10% of cell phone sites are operational.

A Puerto Rican engineer and CEO, Jorge Rodriguez, may have hit the nail on the head when he said that he “bypassed local officials and went straight to FEMA.” he said the reason is that:

“for the last 30 years, the Puerto Rican government has been completely inept at handling regular societal needs, so I just don’t see it functioning in a crisis like this one.”

“Even before the hurricane hit, water and power systems were already broken. And our $118 billion debt crisis is a result of government corruption and mismanagement.”

President Trump will visit Puerto Rico on Tuesday. Puerto Rico will recover under his leadership. Whether they can overcome the far left leaders that are determined to destroy the country with socialism, lawlessness and corruption is another story.