Puerto Rican members of US Congress endorse Alliance candidates
By The Star Staff
Puerto Rican members of Congress Nydia Velázquez Serrano (D-N.Y.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) expressed their support for the exit of the Financial Oversight and Control Board and LUMA Energy from the island during a press conference in San Juan on Wednesday.
“Yes, we are supporting [their exit],” Velázquez Serrano said when asked by the press. “I think it is time for the board to pack its bags and leave.”
Ocasio-Cortez said the oversight board “is a tool that limits our sovereignty and resources on the island.”
“We must protect our vital resources and stop the structures that benefit corporations over the suffering of our people,” she said. “The board should not continue and we must remove them.”
Velázquez Serrano added that “We must be serious when we say that we are going to remove LUMA.”
“There must be a transition and a legal analysis to speak to the people with the truth about whether it is possible or not,” she said.
The congresswomen from New York endorsed the main candidates of the “Alianza de País” (Alliance) between the Citizen Victory Movement and the Puerto Rican Independence Party for the general elections on Nov. 5.
“Today, with my face to the sun, I give my endorsement to Juan Dalmau for governor, Ana Irma Rivera Lassén for resident commissioner and Manuel Natal for mayor of San Juan,” Velázquez Serrano said emphatically.
The press conference, initially scheduled for Tuesday, was postponed due to the health condition of Griselle Morales Rodríguez, Juan Dalmau’s wife, who remained hospitalized Wednesday after suffering an acute cerebral hemorrhage.
Later on Wednesday, Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón, the New Progressive Party candidate for governor, said in reaction to the statements made at the press conference that Velázquez “voted for” the oversight board.
“In other words, she was in favor of this PROMESA legislation that is the one that now imposes these requirements on us,” González Colón said in response to questions from journalist Luis Enrique Falú on “Día a Día” (Telemundo).
Regarding Velázquez’s statements supporting the departure of LUMA Energy, González Colón said “I find it very sad that she talks about that when she voted against the funds for Puerto Rico in the bipartisan bill that gave it Medicaid funds, infrastructure funds.”
“So it is very easy to politic when you have electricity in New York and Puerto Ricans do not have electricity here,” she said.
Regarding the endorsement by both congresswomen of the Alliance candidates, González Colón said: “It is natural, they are two independentistas endorsing independentistas.”
Insanity. Removing oversight so biased political entities can rule is right out of the socialist left playbook. The island needs help. It doesn't matter from where. Just be smart enough not to give away the farm when contracting for help.
I certainly agree with Congresswomen Nydia Velázquez Serrano (D-N.Y.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)'s position regarding the FOMB and Mr. Dalmau's candidacy for governor. Perhaps the Resident Commissioner feels they should have supported her but the fact that she represents more of the same for the country it's a difficult pill to swallow. At this historic moment in PR's history, there is no room for a foreign entity telling Puerto Ricans what they can and can't do in their own country; Ocasio-Cortez was quite eloquent when she said the FOMB “is a tool that limits our sovereignty and resources on the island.”
Regarding the NPP candidate to governor, her comments towards the Puerto Ricans congresswomen weren't only disrespectful but childish; if…