Puerto Rico’s Governor Charges Wall Street, Vulture Funds Control U.S. Congress

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In a Dec. 18 statement from Washington, where he had been for three days of talks, Puerto Rican Governor, Alejandro García Padilla, again warned that his island’s dire fiscal crisis “will soon become a humanitarian crisis under the American flag.”

Congress’s refusal to provide Puerto Rico with bankruptcy protection in the recently passed omnibus spending bill, at the behest of Wall Street and its vulture funds, García charged, means that

“the Commonwealth [of Puerto Rico] will be dragged into massive, costly litigation, which will prevent the Commonwealth from providing essential services to its citizens…. By not acting now, Congress has opted for the U.S. Commonwealth to default on its obligations and unfold into chaos. Once again Wall Street has demonstrated its control over Congress; Wall Street rules Congress. That power is clearly factored into the fundamental analysis of hedge funds and vulture funds that control our democracy.”

In Washington, Governor García met with a number of Democratic supporters, and with House Speaker Paul Ryan, who promised he will take action on restructuring legislation for the island by March 31, 2016, and will hold hearings on the situation as soon as Congress returns in January. Governor García Padilla said Dec. 18 that he will hold Ryan to that pledge, which, he said, “must include a broad comprehensive restructuring authority and an economic growth plan.” However, Ryan’s promise will have no effect on the fact that Puerto Rico has a $1.4 billion payment due on Jan. 1, which it cannot pay.

Despite the debt crisis, the Governor yesterday authorized payment of $120 million owed to public-sector employees for their Christmas bonus.

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