Puerto Rico is once again convulsed by scandal. The head of its economic development agency recently resigned after accusing the governor’s chief of staff of reversing penalties for alleged bid rigging on U.S. federal contracts and installing political loyalists. The governor’s in-laws saw a prior investigation into illegal construction and mangrove destruction in the protected area of La Parguera shelved after she took office.
After Hurricane Maria in 2017, billions in U.S. taxpayer money entered the same broken system. Federal Emergency Management Agency officials faced charges on a $1.8 billion power contract tainted by bribery. Outsourcing “reforms” enriched local businessmen who invested federal-sponsored funds, through pop-up companies, in Airbnb real estate and other endeavors. Nine years later, blackouts, water cuts, and ruined roads persist because a political class treats government as a family enterprise.
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Puerto Rico’s political dynasties have rotated through power since the 1950s with little to show for it. Poverty stands at 40.5%, triple the mainland rate, while labor participation lingers near 40%. Nearly half of all households draw welfare, and over 42% rely on nutrition assistance. Since 2008, almost 1 million people have fled to the mainland even as the archipelago’s economy struggles. Federal funds now make up about 46% of the territorial budget, yet state legislative advisers without college degrees routinely out-earn elected lawmakers, exposing a system of raw patronage.
Puerto Rico’s Republican Party operates as an elite social club that refuses to contest local elections while shielding business interests in national Republican circles. The GOP national committee’s silence on this abdication is secured by generous donations from the local billionaire Fonalledas family. With Republican support stuck at just 26%, as confirmed by the first presidential straw poll in which former Vice President Kamala Harris received 73%, an overwhelmingly left-wing local press, led by El Nuevo Dia’s pre-election editorial endorsing Harris and branding President Donald Trump as a “racist,” keeps the party irrelevant.
Puerto Rico’s chronic governance failures make a “Ricky Renuncia 2.0” increasingly likely. Should the current crisis deepen, the organized anti-American and pro-independence left is far better positioned than in 2019, when mass protests ousted former Gov. Ricardo Rossello after leaked chats laid bare systemic corruption, to seize control of the narrative and advance demands for separation from the United States.
Puerto Rico, a failing U.S. jurisdiction in the shadow of Venezuela, Cuba, and Chinese influence, threatens to export migration surges, narcotics flows, and radicalization. The Trump administration should deepen cooperation with the Dominican Republic, Latin America’s fastest-growing economy and a staunch pro-American partner on migration enforcement and counter-narcotics. Federal authorities must simultaneously audit 2017 Hurricane Maria-era funds and contracting, with no exemptions for political allies.
AMERICA ALREADY HAS A NARCO-STATE INSIDE ITS BORDERS — IT’S CALLED PUERTO RICO
Congress should authorize a binding, federally supervised referendum within 12 months, giving voters a clear choice between statehood and independence, along with a transition plan. Taxpayers have no obligation to subsidize perpetual elite failure or anti-American politics. While Democrats pursue statehood to gain Senate and House seats, Republicans must reject both the broken status quo and any rushed outcome that rewards dysfunction.
Trump must use his leverage immediately to stabilize Puerto Rico before Bad Bunny, who maliciously mocked our nation ahead of its 250th birthday at the Super Bowl, helps ignite “Ricky Renuncia 2.0” and hands the island to anti-American radicals seeking to turn it into a new Cuba.
Jose Lev Alvarez is an American Israeli scholar specializing in international security policy. A multilingual veteran of the Israeli special forces and the U.S. Army, he has three master’s degrees, a medical degree, and is completing a doctorate in intelligence and global security in the Washington area.
