Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Monday 3 april 2017

Puerto Rico seeks private investment to counteract austerity

DANICA COTO to $8 billion in private sec- “If those (recommenda-
Associated Press tor investment a year to tions) are ignored ... this
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico help pull the island out of entire experiment will be a
(AP) — Economists warned its crisis as it seeks to re- complete failure,” he said
this weekend that Puerto structure some $70 billion in of a rescue package ap-
Rico’s decade-long reces- public debt. proved by Congress last
sion will only deepen if it It won’t be an easy feat, year that included cre-
does not attract investors economist Jose Joaquin ation of the board.
and stimulate its economy Villamil said. “We’re not The eight-hour meeting Fri-
to offset an austere new starting from zero, we’re day was the first session the
fiscal plan for the U.S. ter- starting from below zero,” board has held in the capi-
ritory’s cash-strapped gov- he said. tal of San Juan.
ernment. Gov. Ricardo Rossello told It drew hundreds of stu-
The warning came during the board that he plans to dents out of tens of thou-
a meeting on Friday by expand the island’s manu- sands who went on strike
a federal control board facturing sector, which rep- last week to protest $450
that oversees the island’s resents nearly 50 percent million in proposed cuts at
public finances to explore The Puerto Rican flag flies in front of Puerto Rico’s Capitol as in of the GDP, and stimulate Puerto Rico’s largest public
ways to revive the econo- San Juan, Puerto Rico. Economists warned this weekend that its tourism sector, which university, prompting the
my after a nearly decade- Puerto Rico’s decade-long recession will only deepen if it does represents 7 percent. board to announce that
long recession. not attract investors and stimulate its economy He also said he expects to it would meet with student
The austerity measures im- (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo) privatize some of the 340 leaders. Dozens of police
posed on the island’s gov- Economists told the board multimillion-dollar de- services that the govern- officers were stationed out-
ernment “will not in them- that the austerity measures faults on public debt, but ment provides, and he side the meeting’s venue.
selves be enough to pull could shrink Puerto Rico’s warned that the benefits of urged the U.S. Congress Nearby, 45-year-old tele-
Puerto Rico out if its eco- economy 4 percent. planned infrastructure and to take action on recom- marketer Wendy Almonte
nomic crisis,” said board They said the island needs tax reforms will not be seen mendations presented by sold T-shirts out of her car
chairman Jose Carrion. to reduce its power bills for five to 10 years. a group that it created to that featured protest slo-
“Economic development and regain access to Economist Gustavo Velez help find ways to stimulate gans and a black Puerto
must be a priority.” the capital markets amid said Puerto Rico needs up the economy. Rico flag.
“I started doing this be-
Lawyers: Death of Haiti plaintiff in US suit ‘suspicious’ cause I don’t make
enough money,” she said,
adding that one of her
DAVID McFADDEN lapsed and later died while ena and his men killed the was filed last week. two sons requires expen-
Associated Press watching a soccer game brother of a man who ac- Thursday calls to his Massa- sive medical care that she
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) with at least 60 other peo- cused him of misconduct, chusetts home went unan- struggles to find amid an
— Lawyers in a U.S. lawsuit ple in Les Irois on the tip of attempted to kill Martyr swered. exodus of doctors to the
against the former mayor Haiti’s southern peninsula and another man during a Viliena told The Boston U.S. mainland because of
of a remote Haitian town a day after the U.S. lawsuit raid on a community radio Globe newspaper in re- the crisis.
called this weekend for a was filed against ex-Mayor station, and burned down cent days that he was in She said that while she
full investigation into the Jean Morose Viliena. 36 homes targeting mem- the process of finding legal fears the upcoming auster-
death of a plaintiff in the Les Irois is the isolated town bers of an opposing politi- representation and would ity measures, she doesn’t
case and sought govern- where Viliena is accused of cal faction. not discuss any allegations blame the board.
ment protection for his rela- leading an armed group Martyr lost one of his legs against him until he had a “We got ourselves into this
tives and the family of two in attacks on his critics and to amputation after the at- lawyer. mess,” she said. “The credi-
other complainants. political opponents while in tack. Phillips said that Martyr, tors aren’t guilty ... It’s those
Nicole Phillips, a human office from 2006 to 2010. Viliena is now a resident who had received death (expletives) in the govern-
rights attorney in Haiti, de- The Center for Justice & of Malden, Massachusetts, threats in the past, could ment who invested in so
scribed the sudden death Accountability, a San Fran- and lost a certificate as a have been the target of many things and made us
of 56-year-old Nissage Mar- cisco-based human rights school bus driver after the a poisoning or some other believe there was enough
tyr as suspicious. He col- group, alleges that Vili- federal lawsuit against him type of foul play. q money available.”q