Struggles for environmental justice have become a fundamental part of Puerto Rican sociopolitical and anticolonial mobilizations since the mid-twentieth century. In this context, and paying particular attention to the criminalization processes used by the United States in the post 9/11 era, the article develops three lines of analysis: 1) a reflection on environmental colonialism in the context of Puerto Rico; 2) an analysis of the mechanisms of criminalization and repression developed by the governments of the US and Puerto Rico; 3) a review of the Puerto Rican socio-environmental conflicts between 1999 and 2012. The discussion of these points shows the close connection between Puerto Rican environmental and anti-colonial movements, as well as the mechanisms of repression and criminalization deployed against them.
The COVID-19 global pandemic brings about a new episode in the multi-layered political, economic and humanitarian crisis affecting Puerto Rico since 2006. The 14-years-long crisis has been marked by the U.S. and P.R. governments' imposition of a permanent state of exception to deal with an economic crisis, bankruptcy, hurricanes, swarms of earthquakes and a pandemic. This paper argues that uses of the state of exception and executive orders created a regime of permission for corruption, state-corporate crimes and human rights violations, while exacerbating the impact of the pandemic, and manufacturing the conditions for further disasters. The paper engages in a sociolegal analysis of the cases of corruption and state-corporate crimes in the procurement of COVID-19 test-kits and medical equipment, and the role of the pharmaceutical corporations in undermining PR's capacity to react to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A sociolegal analysis of the sources of Puerto Rico’s fiscal and economic crisis points to the use of the colonial state of exception as an economic development policy facilitating the creation of a tax-haven-like economy and normalizing a series of a colonial-state–corporate crimes. The Puerto Rican people need to hold those who generated the crisis accountable both politically and legally. They must continue mobilizing and promoting the repoliticization of recovery efforts by not paying the public debt, taking legal action against financial predators and corrupt politicians, clawing back fees and refusing to pay any additional fees, giving more importance to the human rights of Puerto Ricans than to the rights of bondholders and vulture funds, and initiating a process of decolonization that will allow them to make decisions about their future. Un análisis sociolegal de los orígenes de la crisis fiscal y económica de Puerto Rico apunta al uso del estado de excepción colonial como una política de desarrollo económico que facilita la creación de una economía parecida a un paraíso fiscal y normaliza una serie de crímenes estado-coloniales y corporativos. El pueblo puertorriqueño debe responsabilizar a quienes generaron la crisis, tanto política como legalmente. Deben continuar movilizando y promoviendo la repolitización de los esfuerzos de reactivación al no pagar la deuda pública, emprender acciones legales contra depredadores financieros y políticos corruptos, recuperar tarifas y negarse a pagar tarifas adicionales, dando más importancia a los derechos humanos de los puertorriqueños que a los derechos de los portadores de bonos y fondos buitres, e iniciar un proceso de descolonización que les permita tomar decisiones sobre su futuro.
Colonial rule in the Caribbean was based on the normalization, legalization and naturalization of violence, genocide, slavery, torture, dispossession and plunder, to the point that the victims of these colonial state crimes and their descendants continue to suffer the consequences. This article has a twofold aim: firstly, it discusses the Caribbean experiences with colonial state crimes and secondly, it analyses the Caribbean Community and Common Market's (CARICOM's) mobilization for reparations for the harm caused by the violence of colonialism and slavery as an example of decolonial justice. To accomplish this, a threefold analysis is conducted: (1) an exposition of the concept of colonial state crimes from a Caribbean perspective, (2) a brief depiction of the colonization and enslavement processes in the Caribbean and (3) a discussion of the CARICOM mobilization for reparations and justice. Thus, this article aims to initiate a debate on the importance of revisiting state crimes in colonial contexts and their continuity in the present.
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