I haven’t written a daily post for The Latino Newsletter since July 6, when we announced our summer hours and a call for Deputy Editors. I wasn’t planning to write this evening, but when word spread about what Breitbart originally reported on Monday —that President Trump had fired the five members of the seven-member Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico— was confirmed, you can imagine how many texts I got.

I have asked our San Juan correspondent and award-winning journalist Carlos Berríos Polanco to file a piece later this week for The Latino Newsletter about what this all means and what might happen next (and yes, there is a Laura Loomer angle that I will let Carlos report on), but for now I did want to take a moment and list a couple of thoughts about these developments.

These are the facts, as per the AP: “A White House official told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the board ‘has been run inefficiently and ineffectively by its governing members for far too long and it’s time to restore common sense leadership.’”

“Those fired are board chairman Arthur Gonzalez, along with Cameron McKenzie, Betty Rosa, Juan Sabater, and Luis Ubiñas. The board’s two remaining members —Andrew G. Biggs and John E. Nixon— are Republicans.”

The Board’s statement is here, and it really doesn’t add much. The same can be said about what Puerto Rico governor Jenniffer González, a Republican Trump supporter, said in her initial statement:

If you want to start from the very beginning, go back to 2016 when President Obama announced the creation of La Junta after a bipartisan PROMESA bill was passed that summer.

Before that happened, Puerto Rico had an “unpayable” debt, which —as I argued back in 2015 for The Guardian— was a product of the island’s elite political class. That headline was pretty clear: “Politicians think Puerto Ricans are dumb. But we know the debt crisis is their doing.”

Nobody can question that Puerto Rico’s political class completely failed in governing the island for decades. There are even receipts from 2015 to prove that.

“But having borrowed too much for decades,” I wrote back then, “having spent just as much, having American companies leave after tax incentives expired in 2006, getting hit by the Great Recession and still borrowing more money from Wall Street, no one should be surprised that Puerto Rico is teetering on the brink of financial ruin and draconian austerity measures.”

Over the last nine years, to say that La Junta is unpopular in Puerto Rico is quite the understatement. The board has imposed those sweeping austerity measures, cut pensions, closed schools, and clashed repeatedly with members of the very same political class who caused the problem in the first place. Protesters have taken to the streets regularly, denouncing La Junta as an unelected body with colonial power over the island’s finances.

Additionally, La Junta Executive Director Robert Mujica earns $625,000 a year. Yes, $625,000 a year.

This past July, the House Committee on Natural Resources held a hearing on PROMESA, the debt, and La Junta. There were some testy moments.

Many have been calling for the abolishment of La Junta.

Just today, here’s what advocacy group Power 4 Puerto Rico said on X after the firings were confirmed: “Now more than ever, the Junta ruling over Puerto Rico should be abolished. The electric utility should be placed in Chapter 9 bankruptcy. The time for full decolonization in a working partnership between the two countries needs to be put front and center.”

One member of Congress, Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), who was born in Puerto Rico and had initially supported PROMESA back in 2016 (we talked about that vote when I was hosting Latino Rebels Radio back in 2021), is now one of La Junta’s fiercest critics. Right after news of the firing was confirmed, she issued a statement that pulled no punches:

Velázquez Statement on Firing of Puerto Rico Fiscal Board Members

WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY) issued the following statement in response to President Trump’s removal of five members of Puerto Rico’s Fiscal Oversight and Management Board:
 
“There are serious and longstanding concerns with the Fiscal Board, its expansive interpretation of PROMESA, and the austerity it has imposed, which has devastated Puerto Rican communities. Unfortunately, when Puerto Rico declared its bankruptcy, there was no legal path to orderly restructure its debt. Congress sought to fill that gap in 2016, but the process has been far from perfect. Since then, I’ve fought for years to rein in the Board’s power and hold it accountable to the people it was never elected to represent.
 
“But this sudden purge by Donald Trump is not about justice or reform. It doesn’t dismantle the Board or change PROMESA. It simply creates an opening to stack the Board with even more extreme, pro-bondholder appointees who will continue to put the needs of hedge funds over the Puerto Rican people. If Trump appoints creditor lobbyists to the Board, as he did in his first term, Puerto Ricans will end up paying higher energy bills for decades and facing deeper service cuts, all to boost profits on Wall Street.
 
“It’s also concerning that an unfortunate exchange during a recent Natural Resources Committee hearing ended up in the hands of bad actors, which may have helped set this chain of events in motion.
 
“At the very least, the people of Puerto Rico deserve a Board that works for them, not one that is handpicked to serve vulture funds. I will keep fighting for a just and sustainable recovery, and for the day Puerto Ricans can finally govern without the shadow of unelected, unaccountable control.”

We here at The Latino Newsletter are aware of all the possible story angles here, and I look forward to reading Carlos’ work later this week about it and also his future reporting for our San Juan bureau.

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Julio Ricardo Varela is the founder of The Latino Newsletter. He is also its current part-time publisher and executive director. Email him here.

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