Few Puerto Ricans expect the Trump administration to help the island as it did hurricane-hit Texas and Florida, yet the island’s recent bankruptcy has left it facing a humanitarian disaster.
Reuters/Ricardo Rojas
Hurricane Maria has left 3.4 million Puerto Ricans facing shortages of food, health care and transit, an American humanitarian crisis fueled by the US territory’s May 2017 bankruptcy.
A satellite image of Hurricane Irma spiraling through the Caribbean.
NOAA/AP
Levi Gahman, The University of the West Indies: St. Augustine Campus e Gabrielle Thongs, The University of the West Indies: St. Augustine Campus
The Caribbean is facing its second deadly hurricane in as many weeks. This isn’t just bad luck: the region’s extreme vulnerability to disaster also reflects entrenched social inequalities.
This 1899 drawing depicts Uncle Sam disciplining his newly acquired pupils/possessions, including Puerto Rico, following the Treaty of Paris.
Library of Congress
In Puerto Rico the Trump administration’s ‘energy dominance’ policy echoes colonial practices by fast-forwarding fossil fuel projects over community resistance.
Puerto Ricans are increasingly fed up with austerity.
AP Photo/Danica Coto
Over the years, Puerto Ricans have in fact been granted three different types of U.S. citizenship, but questions about their rights and equal treatment as citizens still remain.
A five-story coal ash pile next to the AES electric power plant in Guayama, Puerto Rico.
Hilda Llorens
Low-income residents in Puerto Rico are fighting disposal of toxic coal ash in their communities. They’re also campaigning to shift from coal energy – the source of the problem – to solar power.
A pickup truck from the Department of Health fumigates in San Juan, Jan. 27, 2016.
Alvin Baez/Reuters
Congress just passed a bailout for Puerto Rico – in the nick of time – yet it’s not enough to solve the island’s biggest challenge: returning to growth.
Puerto Ricans can’t vote in the general election, but the way they vote in the primary can predict how well a candidate will do with a key demographic.
Will Padilla’s pleas to Washington go unanswered?
Alvin Baez/Reuters
Pedro Caban, University at Albany, State University of New York
Puerto Rico’s economic woes have led some analysts to compare it to Greece. Paradoxically, Puerto Rico’s colonial status explains both its growth and the impending financial debacle.
Senior Research Fellow, Muslim Philanthropy Initiative at IUPUI and Journalist-fellow, Religion and Civic Culture Center, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences