Organizing for a Just Recovery in Puerto Rico and Beyond

Puerto Rico and Hurricane María
Puerto Rico’s humanitarian crisis started long before Hurricane Maria hit the shores of the island in 2017. Years of austerity-driven measures ​made​ the island vulnerable ​to natural​ ​disasters and has forced more than 10% of Puerto Ricans to leave the island. 

In the wake of Hurricane Maria, over 200,000 Puerto Ricans left the island and 130,000 have stayed in the U.S. Cities in the U.S. have taken in tens of thousands of domestic climate refugees—people arriving in desperate need of scarce housing, education, and jobs. Since then, the federal government’s response to the natural disaster has been negligent and racist, and has undermined a just recovery for the island. Puerto Ricans have experienced this first hand with FEMA’s inept bureaucratic reaction and a death-toll of more than 3,000 loved ones. 

CPD in Puerto Rico
On September 20th, the day that Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico, CPD quickly mobilized to support the creation of The Maria Fund. The Maria Fund—now transitioning to be its own organization—is dedicated to supporting emergency relief efforts in conjunction with long-term organizing efforts to build an equitable Puerto Rico. 

At the same time, CPD partner Taller Salud has been at the front lines of hurricane relief efforts, providing much-needed support to the residents of Loiza, one of the most marginalized communities in Puerto Rico.

CPD Diaspora Organizing: After the Hurricane
CPD has worked with our partners in Florida, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania (areas with high densities of Puerto Rican diaspora and descendants) to support newly arrived hurricane refugees to rebuild their lives and fight for a just recovery for the island. 

The work has included:

• Building local committees that connect newly arrived Puerto Ricans with the services they need;

• Fighting against companies that are foreclosing on Puerto Ricans on the island and successfully pushing these companies to extend moratoriums on payments;

• Successfully fighting against threats from FEMA to cut support for vouchers that allow thousands of families to stay in hotels while they arrange to relocate;

• Convening national days of action to highlight the needs of families in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and maintain media coverage of the ongoing crisis; and

• Building political power through popular education, voter registration, and deep engagement of municipal elected officials.

CPD Diaspora Organizing: Beyond the Hurricane
Since the hurricane, an unelected Fiscal Management and Oversight Board (FOMB) has been negotiating with bondholders in court to finalize the bankruptcy process. This has come at a great cost to Puerto Rican families who have suffered through cuts in services, school closings, and damage to labor rights. Worse yet, as those cuts were forcing local residents to leave the island, wealthy individuals were able to come to Puerto Rico and pay virtually no taxes. 

CPD has worked with Construyamos Otro Acuerdo to fight back against this injustice under the #CanceltheDebt Campaign. Through the work of this campaign we’ve been able to

• Call on Congress to support debt cancellation, along with an independent, community-led, and comprehensive audit of Puerto Rico’s debt;

• Demand that Congress exercise their jurisdiction over the FOMB by holding them accountable for their conflicts of interest, and by pursuing legal action against Wall Street to reclaim the billions of dollars made through Puerto Rico’s illegal debt; 

• Work with Congress to avoid further impositions of federal control and secure a relief package and economic policies that allow Puerto Rico to achieve a just recovery; and

• Mobilize stateside Puerto Rican support during key court dates to opposes bad deals.