Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE)
The Merchant Marine Act waiver now expired and the absence of international humanitarian aid after a month Maria struck Puerto Rico are two of the most despairing political realities that makes the possibility of reconstruction a far-fetched reality. If the needed international humanitarian aid, UN agencies and international vessels cannot enter freely into Puerto Rican ports, it is only because the White House, the Department of State and Defense do not allow them to do so. As we will see, these seemingly disjointed obstacles, amongst others, have been disconnecting Puerto Rico from the world, problematic because it forbids Puerto Rico’s engagement in the kind of multilateral humanitarian cooperation that could have in fact, saved it from the horrific Maria after-math it is now so crudely and inhumanely suffering.
Amid accusations that the US and Puerto Rican governments are more concerned about public relations while clearly lacking the capacity for a robust response, the news broke last week that Mexico, Venezuela and Cuba offered humanitarian assistance to Puerto Rico. Humanitarian assistance has not been yet authorized by Rex Tillerson’s State Department in what is perceived a failure of the Trump administration to mitigate the humanitarian catastrophe of its ‘destroyed’ unincorporated territory. Furthermore, last week airplanes from the Peruvian, Costa Rican, Colombian (184 Colombian citizens) and Mexican air force have landed in Puerto Rico to pick up stranded citizens, an action not including humanitarian assistance.
Furthermore, for puertorriqueños, one of the exhaustive talking points has been the incapacity of the US to mitigate the crisis in Puerto Rico when in fact, they successfully led the 2010 humanitarian operation in Haiti after its’ earthquake. An operation that was assisted by the United Nations specialized agencies such as the World Food Program (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) no less. Unequivocally, this issue brings to the forefront an overlooked dilemma now amplified with the humanitarian crisis: while Puerto Rico is isolated from the rest of the world, it is now more than ever an international concern.
If the world can assist Haiti, why not Puerto Rico? Why are there more American resources and speedy assistance available for Mexico, Haiti, Dominica and not for Puerto Rico? The issue of the international isolation of Puerto Rico has been a point of tension and negotiation in US-PR relations since 1898. Specifically, with the inception of the Estado Libre Asociado the desire of the Puerto Rican government and subsequent PPD (Popular Democratic Party) administrations to transcend its disconnect from the world and act autonomously has produced bitter political clashes with the White House and the State Department. The New Progressive Party has historically opposed Puerto Rico’s sustained international presence. Governor Ricardo Rossello prevented the establishment of what would have been the first Trade Office of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in Cuba, an initiative of his predecessor Governor Garcia Padilla.
For Washington, the international action of the government of Puerto Rico has been a matter of national security and geopolitical interests; for the Puerto Rican government the international political and commercial global engagement has been a matter of economic growth, security, national projection and development. These views have conflicted consistently, particularly after Puerto Rico lost its role within the US hemispheric and global agenda in its various attempts to restructure multilateralism after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In the period between the 1970’s-80’s, the Puerto Rican government attempted to join international cooperation and trade regional organizations with other countries and in regional multilateral organizations. In 1990 the administration of governor Rafael Hernandez Colon unsuccessfully requested permission from the State Department to apply for an associate membership in the Organization of Caribbean States; the associate membership to the Caribbean Community was authorized by the US State Department in 1994. However, since 1994 the State Department, under Democrat and Republican administrations, has consistently denied the entrance of Puerto Rico as an associate member to various multilateral cooperation groupings. The State Department and White House have been actively blocking the ascension of Puerto Rico as an associate member of the Organization of Caribbean States (2005). Among the latest show of force happened when the George W. Bush administration sent a diplomatic note to Latin American and Caribbean embassies remembering the territorial reality of Puerto Rico and that the government did not have the sovereign authority to engage in international dealings. A juridical reality the Supreme Court reaffirmed during the Obama administration with its decision on the Sanchez Valle case (2016), which reaffirmed the supremacy of Congress’ sovereignty as the source of the limited local home rule granted to Puerto Rico with the Law 600 of 1951.
The behavior of the Puerto Rican government to engage the hemisphere and the world with economic growth’ objectives has not been limited to regional organizations or strategic areas. Puerto Rico and its doctors, soldiers and humanitarian organizations have a long history of assisting other countries in need, with examples of Puerto Rican aid sent to Mexico after the 1985 earthquake, to Venezuela after the Tragedia de Vargas in 1999, and to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.
Paradoxically, Puerto Rico could accept technical humanitarian support from other nations, or United Nations agencies with the expertise on hunger mitigation and access to clean water, if the US State Department authorizes it. But the US has a conflicting record on whether multilateral organizations should establish operations in developing non-self-governing territories. The United States has unswervingly abstained and dissented resolutions drafted by Caribbean Community’ nations within UN’s Economic and Social Council and UN Decolonization Committee’ nations (June 2004) calling for the “Support to Non- Self-Governing Territories by the Specialized Agencies and international organizations associated with the United Nations” (October 2008). Equally worrisome, the international community recently disengaged non- self-governing territories from its most urgent global sustainable development goals as set in its Agenda 2030, a document where non- self-governing countries are absent.
Days ago, a video was posted on social media which used footage to compare the kind of food support that Haiti received at the aftermath of the hurricane and the one Puerto Ricans receive today after hurricane Maria. The difference was outstanding: American soldiers stacking 20-pound sacks of rice and beans featuring WFP and FAO logos in Haiti, while in PR, American soldiers threw boxes of bottled water and snacks like those served by some airliners. It seems obvious that the US Army is not prepared for the job and because it does not have the support of the specialized agencies and the key international players it always had, it cannot and does not possess the know-how to feed, hydrate and rebuild the livelihoods of millions in Puerto Rico.
At the height of its international isolation, Puerto Rico is on the road to a slow recovery led by organized communities, municipal authorities, Puerto Ricans living in the US and across the globe, US unions, Puerto Rican artists and athletes, Oxfam, Red Cross and Puerto Rican community-based organizations and local authorities. According to the Puerto Rican government 75% of gas stations have opened almost a month after the hurricane, all ports are ready to receive cargo, 75% of public transportation service has been reestablished and 11% Puerto Rican homes now have power. The immediate access to food and water in what will be a lengthy reconstruction, how the government of Puerto Rico will lead the recuperation of a country that will run out of cash in late October, how the reconstruction of infrastructure will be funded, how Puerto Rico will be rebuild its productive sector and economy in the next months (a task already impossible before hurricane Maria) and how Puerto Rico will access more cash with a Fiscal Board and a debt that will compromise any Federal monetary assistance in the next months are immeasurable challenges that escape statistical maneuvers.
The history of isolation of the Puerto Rican archipelago is now taking a dramatic toll that reinforces its perceived vulnerability in the face of an unprecedented natural disaster in which the US has not yet found robust ways to mitigate effectively. Within Puerto Rico’s political limbo as a territory, the island is out of the mandate of USAID and the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (which coordinates the humanitarian goals of US Army operations in other countries). As Puerto Rico will walk a long road towards rebuilding itself, it will be sustained if removes itself out of its isolation, and will be completed if United States-Puerto Rico relations are finally transformed.