Great Oppressor Tells Puerto Rico “Pull Yourself Up by Your Bootstraps”

“Mosquitoes. Rats…malaria and hookworm, and in about every other house someone with tuberculosis, …” was how President Franklin D. Roosevelt and others in his administration pictured Puerto Rico.(1) As a result of “imagining one big swamp, with stagnant, scum-covered, muddy water everywhere,” the Caribbean nation became a prime target for Operation Bootstrap, another condescending plan added to Roosevelt’s 1933 Good Neighbor Policy that was to lend a “helping hand” to Latin American countries.

Wall Street, Population Control, and Militarization of Puerto Rico
In reality, the plan invigorated Wall Street and U.S. businesses to enter into money-making schemes with Latin American leaders and dictators so that all parties involved could gain power and wealth at the expense most Puerto Ricans. By 1940, for instance, wealthy Americans had not only bought up the best lands while making the locals work for them, but the U.S. controlled 60 percent of banks, 60 percent of the public utilities, all of the shipping, 50 percent of the sugar production, and 80 percent of the tobacco.(2)

Wall Street’s corporate and financial institutions also taught Puerto Ricans how to borrow money and crave what they did not produce and export what the U.S. dictated. Entire agricultural regions were transformed into industrial centers of mass production. Beaches became a second playground for America’s wealthy. Meanwhile, surplus population was checked by sterilizing a third of the women of child-bearing age.(3) The offshore islands of Vieques and Culebra became bombing ranges in preparation of World War II and future military outposts for U.S.-led low intensity conflicts throughout Latin America.

U.S. Still “Totalizing” Puerto Rico Through Debt
No wonder, then, that some Puerto Ricans are upset over a $70 billion dollar debt restructuring program. Not only will the U.S. Congress ensure that Puerto Ricans will continue to lose more of their national sovereignty with the imposition of a fiscal control board, but the minimum wage and pensions will certainly be slashed, both of which are aimed at the economically disadvantaged and elderly. Moreover, the board will be responsible for the “legal rights” of creditors while deciding on market investments. In effect, the new austerity measures will favor the wealthy and transnational corporations.

Some think The Great Oppressor-a name given to the U.S.-is now enforcing Operation “Pull Yourself Up by Your Bootstraps” to squeeze more wealth and resources out of Puerto Rico. To be certain, since the U.S. seized the nation in 1898 it has never been able to succeed solely on its own volition. Indeed, the U.S. has repeatedly intervened in Puerto Rican affairs, vetoing attempts at independence, suppressing uprisings while purging their leaders, and sabotaging any popular movement towards national self-determination.

Puerto Rican Movements for Independence Pacified, Leaders Purged
At the outset of America‘s pacification of Puerto Rico, attempts to achieve independence were brutally repressed. Even during the era of Roosevelt‘s Good Neighbor Policy, a series of confrontations between the U.S. and nationalists led to the massacre of Ponce where police fired upon a Nationalist Party meeting, killing 18 and wounding 200. In addition, 3000 party members were arrested for sedition. The entire nationalist leadership was imprisoned too, some remaining there until they died.(4)

In retaliation for the CIA-ordered bombing of an independista rally in Puerto Rico that murdered two innocent young workers who supported the Puerto Rican Independence Party, the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional bombed a location in New York’s financial district. They also caused over $3.5 million in property damage due to ongoing suppression by U.S. authorities.(5) And when Angel Rodriquez was killed for protesting against the U.S. militarization of Vieques, Los Macheteros killed two U.S. sailors.(6)

Reparations and Who Needs Enemies With U.S. as a Good Neighbor
Instead of Wall Street managing Puerto Rico’s debt crisis, some Puerto Ricans lean towards either debt forgiveness or reparations. Indeed, Operation Bootstrap caused debt to skyrocket. The militarization of Culebra and Vieques led to environmental damage and health risks, even early deaths. And while some feel humiliated for not being a territory or state, others recall how their nation was used to fight a Cold War against Cuba, and how the Good Neighbor claimed their nation was in danger to justify the invasion of Grenada.

If history is an impartial judge and arbitrator, Puerto Ricans have every right to be weary of the Great Oppressor’s latest “Pull Yourself Up by Your Bootstraps” Policy. In fact, some continue to maintain that with good neighbors like the United States who needs enemies?

Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John‘s Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.worldnews.com.

Notes:
(1) Smite, Michale K. Portraits Of Empire: Unmasking Imperial Illusions from the “American Century” to the “War on Terror.” Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2003., p. 321.
(2) Davis, Paul K. Encyclopedia of Invasions and Conquests From Ancient Times To The Present. Millerton, New York: Grey House Publishing, 2006., p. 272.
(3) Smite, Michale K. Portraits Of Empire: Unmasking Imperial Illusions from the “American Century” to the “War on Terror.”, p. 321.
(4) Hewitt, Christopher and Tom Cheetham. Encyclopedia Of Modern Separatist Movements. Denver, Colorado: ABC-CLIO, 2000., p. 240.
(5) Ibid., pp. 106, 107.
(6) Ibid., p. 180.