Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico’s governor announced Monday that all public school teachers will receive a temporary $1,000 monthly salary increase starting in July as he promised to make it permanent.

On Friday, classrooms across Puerto Rico continued to sit empty as thousands of public school teachers protested at the foot of the Capitolio, home to Puerto Rico’s legislature, and then walked to the governor’s official residence, La Fortaleza, to demand fair pay and pensions.

Natalie Jaresko announced Thursday that she is stepping down after five years as executive director of a federal control board that oversees Puerto Rico’s finances amid a historic debt restructuring.

On Wednesday, the Harvard Kennedy School announced that its webinar on Puerto Rico’s economic outlook was rescheduled for Thursday, February 17, and added another panelist to the list of speakers, which initially featured only two presenters, both non-Puerto Ricans in favor of austerity.

On Monday, nonprofit public-interest environmental group Earthjustice released a statement condemning energy company AES-Puerto Rico for seeking to transfer ownership of its notorious coal plant in Guayama to the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA).

After a video of a couple berating beachgoers in Ocean Park while they set up a tennis court went viral on social media last week, Puerto Ricans rallied to host a “beach Olympics” to show that “the beaches belong to the people.”

Honduras’ first woman president, Xiomara Castro, was sworn in on Thursday at the national soccer stadium in Tegucigalpa. During her inaugural address, Castro expressed disdain for the outgoing administration’s “economic catastrophe.”

Migrants from the Dominican Republic and Haiti have increasingly tried to cross the treacherous 92 miles of water known as the Mona Passage that separates the island of Hispaniola that both countries share from Puerto Rico. Some 449 Haitians and more than 200 Dominicans have been detained since October 1.

Far from slowing the pace of construction on Puerto Rico’s coasts to address climate change, as experts have requested, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi’s administration hit the accelerator to approve construction permits along the coasts.

Following years of disrepair and unreliable service, Puerto Rico’s Public-Private Partnerships Authority chose U.S.-based company HMS Ferries to assume control of the local maritime transportation company. Residents are now demanding the cancelation of the 23-year contract, citing numerous issues.

“Ahead of the supposed visit of the King of Spain, Felipe VI to Puerto Rico and the escalation of gringo invaders siezing our lands, we want to send a clear message: Niether Kings Nor Gringo Invaders; Borikén is ours,” the group said in a statement.

“A Puerto Rico without Puerto Ricans” has become almost cliche in talks concerning the current wave of gentrification washing over the islands. It’s a phrase so bold-faced about ridding the island of its native inhabitants that one is tempted to view it as satire, if the message behind it hadn’t become all too real for the people of Puerto Rico over the past decade.

The Puerto Rico Department of Education’s (DE) “vision of the future” proposes the closing of another 83 schools by 2026, affecting 18,644 students, according to a new infrastructure master plan reviewed by the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo.

The triumph of Gabriel Boric over the extreme right in Chile sent out “a generational howl” that is reverberating throughout the region and is echoed in Puerto Rico by young Boricuas who want to change the political and social architecture of their homeland.

The debate over the gentrification led by an influx of wealthy Americans turns on complicated and contested issues, including housing, taxes, and economic development. But it also begs a much deeper question: whether Puerto Ricans are a nation, or merely the current tenants of a particularly attractive piece of real estate in America’s empire.

Most Latinos say the United States is generally better than their Latin American homelands, according to the results of a survey published by Pew Research Center on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Power 4 Puerto Rico, a group comprised of diaspora leaders and allies advocating for Puerto Ricans on the island and abroad, released a statement condemning U.S. Judge Laura Taylor-Swain’s approval of a plan to cut Puerto Rico’s public debt by 80 percent and commence debt service payments through 2034

Puerto Rico’s nearly five-year bankruptcy battle was resolved Tuesday after a federal judge signed a plan that slashes the U.S. territory’s public debt load as part of a restructuring and allows the government to start repaying creditors. The plan marks the largest municipal debt restructuring in U.S. history

La agencia pretende eliminar 83 escuelas de cara al 2026, sin que las comunidades escolares hayan participado del proceso.

Puerto Rico’s governor announced Thursday that he will require public school students age 12 and older and all people in the tourism and entertainment sectors to get booster shots as the U.S. territory fights a surge in COVID-19 cases.

A couple accused of refusing to fill out the required COVID-19 entry form at Puerto Rico’s airport and providing proof of a negative test for the coronavirus were detained after they locked themselves in their minivan for several hours, prompting police to send a negotiator, officials said Wednesday.