This Hurricane Season, Puerto Ricans Are Imagining a Sustainable Future

Puerto Rican movements are rebuilding their island in a way that not only enhances climate resilience, but also reclaims their political power.

MintPress News Desk
By MintPress News Desk
Puerto Rico

Nine months after Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico, the Caribbean island faces another potentially devastating hurricane season, while much of its infrastructure and land still remain in tatters. The category-5 hurricane that ripped through the Caribbean last fall not only caused nearly 5,000 deaths, but also exposed the fragility of

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Recovery of Hurricane Ravaged Puerto Rico is Still “Decades” Away: Sonia Sotomayor

The island’s difficulties are compounded by “a great deal of red tape” from the federal government.

Mark Gruenberg
By Mark Gruenberg
Two women embrace after a May Day march turned violent, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, May 1, 2018. (AP/Carlos Giusti)

WASHINGTON—Relying on constant communication with family and friends there, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor says Puerto Rico’s recovery from last year’s smash by two hurricanes is still decades away. And, she adds, the island’s difficulties are compounded by “a great deal of red tape” from the federal government. Hurricanes Irma

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Education in America: On the Mainland Teachers Marched, in Puerto Rico 95% of Students Did

Approximately 50,000 people showed up in the streets of San Juan to demand the fiscal belt-tightening end in the depression-plagued commonwealth.

Mark Gruenberg
By Mark Gruenberg
In this Friday, Oct. 13, 2017 photo, a youth sits in the courtyard of Ramon Marin Sola Elementary School, which opened its doors as a daytime community center after the passing of Hurricane Maria in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, Most schools remain closed, leaving kids to pass the time playing on downed trees or using precious phone battery on video games, waiting for life to return to normal as the adults around them struggle to put their own lives back together. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti)

SAN JUAN – On the U.S. mainland, teachers have been marching, organizing at the grassroots, for more money for schools. On Puerto Rico, it was the students – 94 percent of them. That’s how many of the island’s students stayed out of class on May Day, the commonwealth’s Education Secretary admitted. The students were part of a mass nationwide

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Nearly 6,000 People Died in Puerto Rico — 70 Times Official Count

A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine estimates that nearly 6,000 people died in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.

Jessica Corbett
By Jessica Corbett
In this Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017 photo, Arden Dragoni, second from left, poses with his wife Sindy, their three children and dog Max, surrounded by what remains of their home destroyed by Hurricane Maria in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico. The Dragoni family has been living in a shelter set up at a school since the storm destroyed their wooden home in late September. They lost everything: clothes, household goods, and an old car. Dragoni supported his family by working construction, but his employers are currently out of business, leaving him and his family without a source of income. (AP/Ramon Espinosa)

A study published Tuesday in The New England Journal of Medicine estimates that nearly 6,000 people died in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, with a survey indicating the mortality rate is likely more than 70 times the highly contested official death toll of 64. https://twitter.com/People4Bernie/status/1001469543074512897 Researchers with

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May Day Repression Reveals Savagery of U.S. Colonialism, Resilience of Puerto Rico’s People

The island remains a stomping ground for U.S. corporations and the U.S. Armed Forces, which maintain significant military infrastructure across the island. Meanwhile, the over 3 million citizens on the island are denied their basic rights to self-determination.

Elliott Gabriel
By Elliott Gabriel
Police detain a protester after a May Day march to protest pension cuts, school closures and slow hurricane recovery efforts turned violent, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, May 1, 2018. (AP/Carlos Giusti)

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO -- Puerto Rico’s capital was the site of massive scenes of brutal repression as police clamped down on an International Workers Day march using overwhelming violent force, scattering thousands of protesters who gathered to resist austerity measures and anti-worker attacks on the people of the U.S colonial territory. Despite

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FEMA’s Work Following Harvey vs. Maria: Disaster Relief Difficult but Effort Counts

In addition to the disappointingly sluggish nature of federal relief efforts in general, it is clear that the timeline for recovery on the mainland is markedly different from that of a U.S. territory. At this point there is no concealing the double standard.

Emma Fiala
By Emma Fiala
With photographs of hurricane damage on Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands below them, Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, left, Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., attend a Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing on hurricane recovery, Nov. 14, 2017, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP/Jacquelyn Martin)

Three months after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas, more than 47,000 flood victims continue to live in hotels. Tens of thousands more are living with relatives, in barely habitable homes, or scraping by with other arrangements. Local Houston officials estimate that Harvey destroyed or damaged more than 311,000 individual housing units -- a whopping

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