Monday, August 29, 2016

The "rude awakening" for Puerto Rico and the US National Security | House speaker of Puerto Rico resigns post under pressure - The Washington Post

Would Puerto Rico Give Up U.S. Citizenship?

Updated on 8.29.16 | First Published on 7.14.16

The times of Puerto Rico as the "banana republic with American air conditioning" are gone. The times of statehood: equality and prosperity are coming.

"Did FBI and Justice Dept. Enable Puerto Rico’s Financial Meltdown?", asks Richard Lawless ("Observer", June 27, 2016), claiming that "the FBI and DOJ stood by while government officials in Puerto Rico committed $11 billion dollars in financial fraud". But deeper and much more sinister aspects, including the national security implications, emerge from this claim:

"I was told that Puerto Rico came on his agency’s radar years ago because the head of the PREPA fuel purchase office started making direct calls to the then-president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. An agency listened in and found out that PREPA was buying sludge oil from Venezuela and billing the utility for high grade oil. The difference in value—hundreds of millions per year (today it would be $700 million a year and is said to be still going on)—was allegedly kicked back to the fuel office manager and distributed to politicians and government officials on the island.

As the unnamed government agency continued to listen in on the calls, the caller claimed it became clear that family members of Puerto Rican FBI agents and family members in the Puerto Rico U.S. Attorney’s office were receiving payments based on these “kickbacks.”

He went on to tell me that the Puerto Rico’s FBI office and U.S. Attorney will do nothing about the oil kickback scheme and the bond rating scheme because they were participating in it."

What did Chavez get in return? I doubt that he did it just out of the goodness of his big leftist heart and his pure love for the Puerto Rican people.

Did he get some favourable terms in immigration matters, to get his agents on the Island, and then to the US mainland, for his (and Russian and Iranian Intelligence) purposes?

Were some of the stolen money ("today it would be $700 million a year and is said to be still going on") diverted to sponsor the anti-American activities?
This is a grave and alarming matter which might be just a tip of the iceberg, and it demands the very thorough, in-depth, and comprehensive investigations, from all points of view and angles, including the local branch of the FBI, the Police, and DOJ, for at least last 10-15 years.

"The irony in the Puerto Rico debt story is that the island is blessed with abundant sunshine, a resource that is all but ignored in the plan to switch the power authority from its current imported-oil-dependent grid to one tied almost completely to imported natural gas.

Indeed there is inexplicable and staunch institutional resistance in Puerto Rico to harnessing solar energy, which is now cost-competitive with traditional electricity-generation and spreading globally. A report we published in September shows how a new mindset among elected officials and utility managers would help right the ship."

Now it is understandable what are the reasons for this "resistance" to switch to solar energy: they will not be able to steal from the PREPA oil deals.

"The 2014 budget bill included $2.5 million in funding for a future vote in Puerto Rico's political status. This referendum can be held at any time, as there is no deadline attached to the funds.^[18]^[19] The referendum may be an issue in the 2016 Puerto Rico gubernatorial election.^[20]"
^{Where is the money for PR statehood referendum? Have they been disbursed?}
^{Do they intend to steal it too?}
^{Investigate the crooked governor AGP and his "parasites"!}
^{Investigate the PR branch of the FBI and its previous leadership!}
^{Investigate the PR division of DOJ!}
^{The much suffering Puerto Rican people, reduced to abject poverty, hunger, diseases,}
^{disenfranchised from the corrupt and rotten political system are the victims of their own incompetent}
^politicians.
^{Revamp this contagious, dangerous, stinking cesspool!}
^{Statehood for Puerto Rico is the only viable solution.}
^{Schedule the referendum simultaneously}^{with the 2016 gubernatorial elections.}
"FBI Director Hoover often complained that “Gov. Muñoz Marín wants his own banana republic, with American air conditioning.” This was an accurate and astute observation."
^{The times of the "banana republic with American air conditioning" (this is Hoover's brilliant phrase,}
^{and you have to give him a credit for it) are gone. Now it becomes evident that they were stealing}
^{even this little modicum of comfort and consolation from their people.}
^{The times of statehood: equality and prosperity are coming. This is the inevitable historical and}
^{political outcome and the way out of the Island's tragedy and catastrophe. The present political clique}
^{running the Island vehemently resists this change because it means for them the loss of their}
^{political power and a power to steal.}
^{The Puerto Rican people and the US Congress have to make their moves.}

Michael Novakhov

See also the recent posts, articles and searches:

House speaker of Puerto Rico resigns post under pressure - The Washington Post

By Associated Press August 29 at 4:57 PM

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The speaker of the Chamber of Deputies in Puerto Rico resigned from the leadership post Monday under pressure from officials in his party following court testimony that has linked him to a former fundraiser convicted in a political corruption case.

Jaime Perello said he was resigning as speaker because he did not want to be used as an “excuse” if his Popular Democratic Party lost control of the chamber in the November elections. He plans to retain his at-large seat in the lower house of the legislature in the U.S. island territory.

“I have not committed any illegal act and nobody has accused me of anything,” Perello said as he announced his decision. “But there are causes that are greater than mine and bigger than me. I will never allow evil to triumph over good.”

Perello was elected in 2008 and became speaker in 2012 after the Popular Democratic Party took control of the chamber.

He came under pressure in recent days to resign from the party’s candidate for governor, David Bernier, and others following testimony from the former fundraiser against other government officials in a federal corruption trial that is underway in the territory.

The former fundraiser, Anaudi Hernandez, has said at least three officials under Perello’s supervision took part in the alleged steering of government contracts as political favors.

Puerto Rico Journal

Monday, August 29, 2016

The "rude awakening" for Puerto Rico and the US National Security | House speaker of Puerto Rico resigns post under pressure - The Washington Post

Updated on 8.29.16 | First Published on 7.14.16

The times of Puerto Rico as the "banana republic with American air conditioning" are gone. The times of statehood: equality and prosperity are coming.

More on "Puerto Rico’s Rude Awakening":

House speaker of Puerto Rico resigns post under pressure - The Washington Post

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