NPR reseña a Puerto Rico y su economía poco productiva
Por: NotiCel
Publicado: 10/02/2013 10:30 pm
El famoso medio de comunicación independiente, National Public Radio (NPR), exploró parte de la situación social de Puerto Rico y publicó la semana pasada una serie de artículos en los cuales citaba a boricuas de la Isla y de la diáspora, en un intento por tratar los problemas económicos y de seguridad del país, como asuntos relevantes a la política pública nacional de los Estados Unidos.
Con una economía altamente dependiente y que produce muy poco, Puerto Rico sufre de manera más dramática los ciclos de recesión económica que se suscitan en los Estados Unidos y a nivel global.
De acuerdo al reportaje titulado “Puerto Rico’s Battered Economy: The Greece of the Caribbean?”, NPR pone en perspectiva el hecho de que la poca producción y falta de industrias locales hacen aún más difícil la creación de empleos y evitan que la Isla crezca económicamente, aún cuando las estadísticas demuestren que la economía estadounidense abandonó o está en vías de salir del estado de recesión.
“Hay un problema profundo dentro de la estructura económica, y no puedes crear empleos”, dijo a NPR la economista, Rosario Rivera.
“No puedes crear actividad productiva, de manera que tienes que depender en la actividad económica de afuera”, agregó.
Esa incapacidad de generar empleos, sumada a la dependencia de la Isla en la economía estadounidense, y la gran cantidad de jóvenes con grados académicos que no encuentran empleo en Puerto Rico, son identificadas en la serie de reportajes como algunas de las principales razones detrás de la creciente ola de migración de la Isla a los Estados Unidos, en especial el estado de Florida.
“Hoy día, Florida reemplaza a Nueva York como el destino principal de puertorriqueños que vienen a los Estados Unidos. En el Condado de Osceola, Florida, la población se ha triplicado en las pasadas dos décadas mayormente por la migración. Es una de las áreas de mayor crecimiento, y alrededor de la mitad de población es Hispana, mayormente puertorriqueños”, lee otro de los artículos de NPR, titulado “One-Way Tickets to Florida: Puerto Ricans Escape Island Woes”.
La serie de NPR explora igualmente la preocupación ciudadana por la rampante ola criminal que azota al país, y cómo este problema seguridad continúa incidiendo en la decisión de tantos boricuas que abandonan su Isla y parten hacia el Norte.
Una de las personas citadas por NPR fue Miguel Fontanez, quien se mudó con su familia al Centro de Florida en 1996, luego de que su hermano, un oficial de la policía, fuera asesinado en la Isla.
“Fue muy malo, fue fuerte”, dijo el hijo de Fontanez, quien tiene el mismo nombre que su padre.
“Así que (mi padre) se quería mover a un lugar fresco y empezar algo diferente. Mi abuela ya vivía aquí, así que el primer lugar que se nos vino a la mente fue Florida”, añadió Fontanez, hijo, al mencionar las razones que llevaron a su padre a mudarse y fundar el negocio de comida Pioco’s Chicken.
El problema del crimen es mencionado, además, en el artículo titulado “Don’t Give Up On Us: Puerto Ricans Wrestle With High Crime”.
En ese texto, NPR cita al superintendente de la Policía, Héctor Pesquera, quien se queja de la falta de atención del gobierno de los Estados Unidos hacia el problema de criminalidad en Puerto Rico.
Según el titular de la Policía, el problema de criminalidad y trasiego de droga en Puerto Rico tiene un impacto directo sobre los Estados Unidos.
“En muchas maneras, Puerto Rico es la tercera frontera de los Estados Unidos, dice Pesquera. Las drogas que entran de América Latina pueden ir directamente a los Estados Unidos sin tener que pasar por aduana. De acuerdo a Pesquera, 80% de las drogas que vienen a través de la Isla, termina en ciudades y comunidades la Costa Este (de los Estados Unidos)”, explica el artículo al hacer referencia a los argumentos de Pesquera.
El Superintendente, además, explica que la Isla supuestamente se ha convertido en un centro de operación para los carteles de droga con sede en México.
“Ayúdenos. Porque si nos ayudan, vamos a ayudar a los Estados Unidos”, expresó Pesquera a NPR. “¿Realmente es tan difícil”?
Puedes entrar y leer los reportajes, al acceder los siguientes enlaces:
Daysi Pena has sold cosmetics and accessories in San Juan, Puerto Rico, for 12 years. She is now thinking of moving to New York to escape the escalating violence on the island. There was a shooting one block from her stall a day before this photo was taken.
Coburn Dukehart/NPR
Puerto Rico‘s population is declining. Faced with a deteriorating economy, increased poverty and a swelling crime rate, many Puerto Ricans are fleeing the island for the U.S. mainland. In a four-part series,Morning Editionexplores this phenomenon, and how Puerto Rico’s troubles are affecting its people and other Americans in unexpected ways.
Daysi Pena was selling cosmetics and accessories at the Rio Piedras market in San Juan, Puerto Rico, when she spotted two men getting out of a car. They ran into the jewelry store across from her stall, ran out again and began firing guns.
The incident was the last straw for Pena, who had worked at the market for 12 years.
«I’m moving to the United States with my daughter,» she said, referring to the mainland.
Puerto Rico’s per capita murder rate is six times that of the U.S. as a whole. And with violence escalating, many residents are considering joining the thousands of others who have already fled the island for brighter and safer opportunities.
Hector Pesquera, the police superintendent for the island, says tackling crime has been challenging.
Coburn Dukehart/NPR
The island’s police superintendent, Hector Pesquera, says tackling the crime problem has been a challenge. Before he ran the police force, which is responsible for the entire island of more than 3.5 million people, Pesquera spent years leading the FBI bureau in Miami.
The picture wasn’t pretty when he returned to Puerto Rico. He came home to a fleet of police cars in despair, aging equipment and officers arrested for corruption. Drug cartels, he says, were also moving their businesses to the island from Mexico.
«Plus, unfortunately, we broke the all-time record for murders [in 2011],» he says. «We had 1,136, I believe.»
It’s a record that Pesquera and his team are trying to combat.
«We had 186, 187 less murders, so we’re slowly making a dent,» he says.
America‘s Role
Pesquera says political muscle is needed to make the case to Washington, D.C., that solving the drug and crime problems here will help people on the mainland.
In many ways, Puerto Rico is America’s third border, Pesquera says. Drugs that enter from Latin America can head right to the mainland without going through customs. According to Pesquera, 80 percent of the drugs that come through the island end up in cities and communities on the East Coast.
«Help us. Because if you help us, we’re going to help the United States,» he says. «Is it that hard?»
Puerto Rico’s resident commissioner, or nonvoting member of Congress, Pedro Pierluisi, says the Department of Homeland Security will soon begin an intensive effort to curb drug violence. DHS would only confirm that it has expanded anti-drug operations in Puerto Rico and continues to deploy personnel there.
But police superintendent Pesquera says he’s still not convinced that people on the mainland are paying enough attention to how dire the circumstances are in Puerto Rico.
«Out of sight, out of mind,» he says. «I was watching the national news and they were highlighting Oakland [Calif.] and the major crime wave there — 114 murders. We blow that in a month here. You see any uproar? Nothing.»
Luis Romero looks out over the ocean to a view that includes the Coast Guard station where his son, Julian, was in the auxiliary. Romero started the anti-violence organization Basta Ya after Julian was murdered.
Coburn Dukehart/NPR
Pesquera says he knows the island will get the help it needs at some point. «It’s just when,» he says. «When’s the breaking point?»
Beating The Culture Of Crime
In an area called Old San Juan — a touristy spot in the capital — cobblestone streets and trendy cafes paint a paradise that’s described in all the tour books. But Luis Romero says there’s more to the scene than visitors may notice.
Julian Romero (center) is seen with his parents, Marie Rodriquez and Luis Romero, on his 20th birthday, April 18, 2011. He was stabbed to death later that night while celebrating with his girlfriend in the Condado neighborhood of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Courtesy of Luis Romero
«Below the obvious, incredible beauty lies a very sad situation of high crime,» says Romero, who was born in the neighborhood.
Romero was pulled into the war on crime when his son was killed almost two years ago on his son’s birthday. After a night of celebration, his son was on a walk with his girlfriend in a well-lit area when a 14-year-old stole his cellphone.
«He gives the iPhone, gives the money, but the guy decides to attack his girlfriend and stabs her twice. My son jumps in to defend her, and he died a hero. He got knifed three times. The kid is serving now 30 years in jail,» Romero says. «My son is dead.»
Romero started an anti-crime organization called Basta Ya («that’s enough» in Spanish). He says his son, who was a criminal justice student, advocated for unity and an end to the culture of crime.
Violent crime and drugs have long been issues on the island, but many Puerto Ricans say they used to feel safe as long as they weren’t involved in the drug war. Now, crime feels more widespread, Romero says, affecting the poor and rich alike.
«This is no way to live, that you have to be looking to the right and looking to the left to make sure that nothing is going to happen to you,» he says. «You are sitting at home and you hear the ‘ratt-tatt-tatt-tatt-tatt’ of the machine guns going on. Why do we have to live through that?»
Romero, who has family who have already left, says he used to have conversations with his son about whether they too should leave.
«Sometimes, as a father, I feel torn,» he says. «If I had moved, he wouldn’t have been killed. Maybe or maybe not.»
When asked what he wants people on the U.S. mainland to know about Puerto Rico, Romero says, «Well, the people of Puerto Rico are very warm, very welcoming. You can enjoy Puerto Rico, the natural beauty, the opportunities.
«But as fellow American citizens,» he says, «don’t give up on us. We may need some help now, but don’t give up on us.»
Puerto Rico’s Battered Economy: The Greece Of The Caribbean?
Puerto Rico‘s population is declining. Faced with a deteriorating economy, increased poverty and a swelling crime rate, many citizens are fleeing the island for the U.S. mainland. In a four-part series,Morning Editionexplores this phenomenon, and how Puerto Rico’s troubles are affecting its people and other Americans in unexpected ways.
Edward Bonet’s mom no longer tries to convince him to join her in Florida. Unlike his family, the 23-year-old from Puerto Rico refuses to leave the island and its shattered economy.
Genoveva «Veva» Camacho raised her family in Puerto Rico, and still lives in the town of Cabo Rojo with her grandson, Edward. Her daughters and granddaughter moved to Florida in search of a better life.
Coburn Dukehart/NPR
With Puerto Rico’s unemployment rate at 14 percent, many former residents like Edward’s mom, Arlene Bonet, have left the island’s economic and social troubles for better opportunities on the U.S. mainland.
«What kind of life can I give my grandchildren in the future if Puerto Rico, instead of going up, is going down?» says Arlene, who left after her real estate business died.
On the island, Edward works as a scuba instructor, trying to make a living for himself. Like many other young Puerto Ricans, he started college but couldn’t afford to finish.
And though he briefly lived in Florida as a kid with his mom, Edward says he doesn’t want to go back because it seems foreign. Puerto Rico may be a U.S. territory, but the move would feel like going to a new country as an immigrant, he says.
«In the U.S., at school we had to sing the national ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ every morning,» he recalls. «And here, most schools don’t do that at all.»
A Love For The Island
One member of his ever-shrinking family still on the island is his grandmother, Genoveva Camacho, 74. He lives with her near the city of Cabo Rojo.
«My grandma, oh, she’s great,» Edward says when describing her. «She parties more than I do.»
On a warm, breezy night, he sits with her on their patio listening to the chirps ofcoquis, or small frogs — a symbol of Puerto Rico.
Camacho is full of pride. She says she loves her island and used to go dancing with friends about every night. But today, she worries about escalating crime and paying her bills.
Her daughter, Arlene, urges Camacho to join her in Florida, but she insists she won’t leave until she gets older. Then «save a room for me,» Camacho tells her daughter when they speak on the phone.
As she talks about her daughter, Camacho chokes up until Edward dances with her under the porch light.
Puerto Rico‘s ‘Informal Economy’
The failing economy may not be enough to keep Edward and his grandmother off the island, but it’s a predicament that economists mull over time and again.
Rosario Rivera, an economics professor at the University of Puerto Rico, uses the phrase «informal economy» to diagnose some of the challenges facing the island.
At the Rio Piedras market in San Juan, Rivera picks up a juicy, sweet fruit for 25 cents, from a man with a shopping cart.
«That orange … goes to the informal economy,» Rivera explains.
Because those tax-free purchases are repeated so often, Rivera says the government is missing the chance to tax billions of dollars of income each year. Like many Caribbean islands, Puerto Rico has little industry of its own — and when times are bad, they struggle even more than other places to create jobs.
«There is a problem deep inside the economic structure, that you cannot create jobs,» Rivera explains. «You cannot create productive activity, so you just have to rely on economic activity from abroad.»
Around the market, men and women sell ice cream, discounted jewelry, perfumes and purses — yet most of the goods are imported and not made by anyone on the island. After a six-year recession, Puerto Rico is buried in debt.
Fiscally Similar To Greece
«They have compared us to Greece a lot of times,» Rivera says. «Especially since Greece had a lot of debt, and they had to take these austerity measures. Even if we are part of the United States, we have a lot of problems that resemble those countries that we look at with such disdain.»
Puerto Rico has been through austerity and made tough decisions: It’s cut government jobs, privatized a couple of highways, and is in the process of privatizing the international airport.
But unlike the case of Greece, the economic mess is on America’s hands.
For U.S. citizens on the mainland who have a 401(k) account or pension for retirement, it’s possible that they have money invested in Puerto Rican bonds, which are now no longer worth much. So citizens in the states could feel the pain if Puerto Rico’s economy collapses.
At the moment, though, Puerto Ricans left on the island are bearing the brunt of the economy, where fewer services and resources are available to people than before. With many educated people leaving the island, Rivera admits she’s thought of moving to the mainland — but she won’t do it.
«If you had asked me a few years ago, I would say no with capital letters — I won’t leave the island. I’m here for the long haul,» Rivera says. «And I am here for the long haul. But it gets tiresome.»
One-Way Tickets To Florida: Puerto Ricans Escape Island Woes
Arlene Bonet settled in Orlando, Fla., after her Puerto Rico real estate business crashed. She’s now working for a Puerto Rican cultural organization in Orlando, while her son and mother still live in her hometown, Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico.
John W. Poole/NPR
Puerto Rico’s population is dropping. Faced with a deteriorating economy, increased poverty and a swelling crime rate, many citizens are fleeing the island for the U.S. mainland. In a four-part series, Morning Edition explores this phenomenon, and how Puerto Rico’s troubles are affecting its people and other Americans in unexpected ways.
According to the most recent census, the 4.6 million Puerto Ricans living on the U.S. mainland now surpass those on the island of Puerto Rico. For years, they’ve been migrating out of the U.S. Caribbean territory — many to escape the escalating crime rate and economic crisis.
Today, Florida replaces New York as the primary destination for Puerto Ricans coming to the U.S. In Osceola County, Fla., the population has tripled over the past two decades largely because of the migration. It’s one of the nation’s fastest growing areas, and about half of the population is Hispanic — most of them Puerto Rican.
Bringing Puerto Rico To Florida
In Kissimmee, south of Orlando, many of the signs are in Spanish, and some businesses resemble what you might find in a city like San Juan.
One of those businesses is Miguel Fontanez’s restaurant, Pioco’s Chicken. It’s a spot that was started by his father, also named Miguel.
The elder Fontanez owned a chain of successful restaurants in Puerto Rico. But in 1996, he brought his family to Central Florida after his brother, a police officer, was killed.
«It was very bad; it was very tough,» Fontanez says. «So [my father] just wanted to move somewhere fresh and start something different. And my grandmother at that time was living already here. So the first place that came to mind was Florida.»
Many of his customers, he says, are still newcomers from the island.
«Just last week, I had a big group, a family that just moved from Puerto Rico here because of the economy, because it’s very bad,» Fontanez says. «They’re more in the truck business, and over here it’s expanding more than over there.»
Other businesses — larger endeavors — are also migrating from the island.
A number of Puerto Rican colleges and universities have opened campuses in Central Florida, offering bilingual education to the area’s fast-growing Hispanic population.
Mech Tech Institute, for example, is a technical school that launched its first U.S. campus last year in Orlando at a defunct Saturn dealership. The institute offers training in everything from heating and air-conditioning repair to diesel machines.
A Long History With Florida
The connection between Florida and Puerto Rico stretches back decades. But many say the Big Bang — the event that created the huge wave of Puerto Rican migration — came on a specific date: Oct. 1, 1971, the day Walt Disney World opened its doors.
Disney World, and the theme parks that came after it, created thousands of jobs in an area that had been largely rural. Opportunities were especially ripe for bilingual speakers like John Quinones, a Puerto Rican who’s now a commissioner in Osceola County.
«I used Spanish a lot,» Quinones says. «A lot of the [people from] Latin American countries that would come to visit the parks — that would certainly cater to them.»
Quinones was 14 when his family moved to the area from Puerto Rico. He worked at Disney World’s Frontierland, at the Pecos Bill cafe, to support himself while in college.
The opening of Disney World came at a critical time for Puerto Rico, as the 1970s saw the beginning of an economic slowdown on the island that continues to this day.
But Jorge Duany, a professor of anthropology at Miami’s Florida International University, says the financial troubles arrived after decades of prosperity on the island — an era that greatly expanded the middle class.
«And there was substantial economic growth,» Duany says. «The educational system expanded. So there was actually a large group of people who were then capable of investing, migrating or at least buying land in Florida so they or their kids could use it later on.»
A New Home
Some of the Puerto Ricans in Osceola County say they came to be with family, some to get away from rising crime. But many, like Arlene Bonet, moved to find work. Bonet came from what she describes as a beautiful area on Puerto Rico’s southwest coast — a town called Cabo Rojo.
«I used to live right on the corner by the beach. I used to go every day to the beach to see the sunsets,» she recalls.
She says she misses those sunsets and the mountains nearby, where she would meditate and practice yoga every Sunday. Her town is a vacation area, and for many years, she made a good living selling real estate.
«But then the economy and the bubble exploded all around the world, and real estate went down, mortgages went down, and business went down too,» she says.
Arlene Bonet (right), shown with her daughter, Didra, and her sister Genoveva (left), lives in Orlando, Fla. Bonet’s daughter, who works part time and attends college part time, lives with her.
In this family photo, Arlene Bonet and her younger sister Genoveva are seen with their mother, also named Genoveva, in Puerto Rico.
Courtesy of Arlene Bonet
Bonet says she did what she could to keep going. She laid off her four employees and went back to school to get her MBA. But then Puerto Rico went into what she calls a second, politically driven downturn.
To combat a massive budget deficit, Puerto Rico’s government laid off thousands of public employees. Bonet’s business was dead, and she saw no signs of when it might come back.
After moving to Central Florida with her daughter, Bonet says finding a job wasn’t easy. But now that she has one, she’s grown to love the area and has no plans to return.
«It’s pretty much like a Caribbean island because it’s sunny, it’s fresh, it’s beautiful,» she explains. «So we feel like it’s home.»
While the move was hard on her daughter, Bonet says it was crucial — both for her future and her eventual grandchildren.
«That’s one of the reasons also I moved,» Bonet says. «It’s not just thinking about me. What kind of life can I give my grandchildren in the future if Puerto Rico, instead of going up, is going down?»
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