By Senior Chief Mass Communication Specialist John Osborne Navy amphibious assault ship operating out of Norfolk Gándara High School in 2004 and from the University of Maryland with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice in 2021 the skills and values needed to succeed in the Navy are similar to those surrounding him in Puerto Rico “I learned early on to keep an open mind and to be resilient and never give up,” said the Boricua native “This was really put to the test when I joined the Navy and had to put extra effort into learning the English language but I have succeeded.” Vázquez joined the Navy 19 years ago he serves as an aviation boatswain’s mate (handling) “I joined the Navy because I was seeking a challenge to better myself “My grandfather served in the Army during WWII and I used to love listening to his stories I found it all so interesting.” Amphibious assault ships project power and maintain presence by serving as the cornerstone of the Amphibious Readiness Group / Expeditionary Strike Group amphibious assault ships offer the Marine Corps with a means of ship-to-shore movement provide humanitarian assistance and support major combat operations More than 1,000 serve aboard USS Wasp with an additional 1,200 Marines capable of being embarked Navy is celebrating its 250th birthday this year “America is a maritime nation and for 250 years America’s ‘Warfighting Navy’ has sailed the globe in defense of freedom.” With 90% of global commerce traveling by sea and access to the Internet relying on the security of undersea fiber optic cables Navy officials continue to emphasize that the prosperity of the United States is directly linked to recruiting and retaining talented people from across the country Vazquez said he has had many opportunities during military service “My proudest accomplishments have been graduating from boot camp getting promoted to chief petty officer and earning my college degree,” Vázquez said “Every time a challenge has presented itself I’ve conquered it.” “Serving in the Navy means I am part of something bigger than myself and my actions and the actions of my team play a part in the mission of the United States projecting our power,” he added “It also means having a career and that I can provide for my family.” He is also grateful to those who have made a Navy career possible for always supporting me and being an amazing mom to our daughter for always believing in me.” There are still goals to accomplish I want to get my wife’s education paid for and I want to get at least one more promotion.” De Aibonito: un marinero en servicio Por Especialista Jefe Superior en Comunicación de Masas John Osborne Oficina de Enlace Comunitario de la Marina un buque de asalto anfibio de la Marina estadounidense que opera en Norfolk (Virginia) Gándara en 2004 y de la Universidad de Maryland con una licenciatura en justicia criminal en 2021 las habilidades y los valores necesarios para triunfar en la Marina son similares a los que le rodeaban en Puerto Rico “Aprendí temprano a mantener una mente abierta “Esto fue puesto realmente a prueba cuando me alisté en la Marina y tuve que hacer un esfuerzo adicional para aprender el idioma inglés “Me alisté en la Marina porque buscaba un reto para superarme “Mi abuelo sirvió en el ejército durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial proyectan poder y mantienen la presencia sirviendo como piedra angular del Grupo de Preparación Anfibia / Grupo de Ataque Expedicionario los buques de asalto anfibio ofrecen al Cuerpo de Marines un medio de desplazamiento buque-costa proporcionan ayuda humanitaria y apoyan operaciones de combate de gran envergadura Más de mil infantes de marina prestan servicio a bordo del USS Wasp y otros 1,200 pueden ser embarcados La Marina estadounidense celebra este año su 250 aniversario “Estados Unidos es una nación marítima y durante 250 años la ‘Marina de Guerra’ de Estados Unidos ha navegado por el mundo en defensa de la libertad” Dado que el 90% del comercio mundial se realiza por mar y que el acceso a Internet depende de la seguridad de los cables submarinos de fibra óptica los responsables de la Marina insisten en que la prosperidad del país está directamente relacionada con la contratación y retención de personas con talento de todo el país Vázquez dijo que ha tenido muchas oportunidades durante el servicio militar “Los logros de los que me siento más orgulloso han sido graduarme del campamento de entrenamiento ascender a contramaestre y obtener mi título universitario” “Cada vez que me he enfrentado a un reto “Servir en la Marina significa que formo parte de algo más grande que yo mismo y que mis acciones y las de mi equipo desempeñan un papel en la misión de los Estados Unidos de proyectar nuestro poder” “También significa tener una carrera y que puedo mantener a mi familia” está agradecido con todos quienes han hecho posible su carrera en la Marina “Me gustaría dar las gracias a mi mujer por apoyarme siempre y por ser una madre increíble para nuestra hija “También quiero agradecer a mi madre quiero tener pagada la educación de mi esposa y quiero conseguir al menos un ascenso más”     Cover Page Legal HistorySports SearchKiller of toddler in Aibonito sentenced to 50 years in prisonThe San Juan Daily StarAug 20 Jovanie Aponte Ríos was sentenced on Monday to 50 years in prison after pleading guilty to the murder and sexual assault of his one-year-old stepdaughter noting that Aponte Ríos will not qualify to be evaluated by the Parole Board which means that he will have to serve the entire sentence in prison who admitted to having caused multiple traumas to the minor was also found responsible for acts of sexual assault The toddler was transported to the Mennonite Hospital of Aibonito Nailymar Arroyo Colón and Ileana Santos Colom from the Specialized Unit for Domestic Violence presented compelling evidence that led Aponte Ríos to accept his guilt through a pre-agreed plea “The now convicted man will have to serve the full sentence in prison,” Justice Secretary Domingo Emanuelli Hernández said in a written statement “He will not be able to receive bonuses or be considered by the Parole Board he will pay for the death of a defenseless baby; a crime that caused dismay on the island.” District Attorney Ernesto Quesada Ojeda added: “Today we put an end to this repugnant and atrocious crime against a defenseless girl who was barely 13 months old.” “The Department of Justice will always defend with great fervor the rights well-being and life of all children in Puerto Rico,” he said The investigation was conducted by agents Gerardo Berríos and Glicelia Alicea of the Puerto Rico Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Corps © 2025 The San Juan Daily Star - Puerto Rico Riquelme commits to promoting medical tourism in AibonitoThe San Juan Daily StarSep 24 Keren Riquelme Cabrera on Monday made a commitment to Aibonito Mayor William “Willie” Alicea Pérez to promote medical tourism as a source of economic activity in the central mountain municipality “The municipality of Aibonito has much of the infrastructure it needs to attract medical tourism through Law 196 of 2010 (Puerto Rico Medical Tourism Law) which establishes a series of initiatives to promote Aibonito as a medical destination at the national and international level,” the New Progressive Party senator said “This is a project that the mayor has been promoting for some time and we will support it with measures dedicated to Aibonito.” Among the proposals are that the Puerto Rico Tourism Company design and implement a medical marketing campaign exclusively for Aibonito better known as the Tax Exemption Law for Hospitals in order to increase the amount of the exemption for towns in the central part of the island “Our goal is to cut through the bureaucracy that causes many hospitals to give up using the platform of Law 196-2010 so that facilities such as the Mennonite Hospital in Aibonito can benefit attracting people seeking elective surgeries The senator highlighted that Mennonite Hospital acquired the former Federico Degetau elementary school in Aibonito with the purpose of remodeling it and converting it into a state-of-the-art medical-hospital services facility Riquelme and Alicea made a series of visits to Aibonito on Sunday and discussed numerous projects that have a direct impact on the residents of this municipality According to data from the United States Census Bureau Aibonito has a population of 24,637 (circa 2020) Puerto Rico (Carlos Edill Berríos Polanco/Latino Rebels) Puerto Rico — Leila Mattia Gregory and Leo Laboy González dutifully tend to their small plot of land in the mountains Razor-thin margins and rising gas prices have made them want to maximize as much of their time as possible But there’s a bigger problem on the horizon: climate change “We’re always thinking five months into the future,” Mattia Gregory tells Latinos Rebels They’re hoping to expand their business so they can make their farm bigger and grow more food But it’s growing increasingly difficult to tell when the rainy season ends and the dry season starts Leo Laboy González tends to crops on Armonía en la Montaña (Carlos Edill Berríos Polanco/Latino Rebels) Leila and Leo started their farm, Armonia en la Montaña they have been plugging away at taking care of the land growing as big and healthy a crop as physically possible They run the farm alongside a third partner who has a personal farm he keeps near his house who works as an eco-friendly weed wacker for all the pasture she can eat they’ve built a small business that sells flower arrangements and provides food for more than 20 restaurants Puerto Rico is “already seeing the impact of global warming when it comes to rain seasons,” says David Sotomayor Ramírez a professor of agronomy and soil sciences at the University of Puerto Rico Carlos Edill Berríos Polanco/Latino Rebels Research has shown that the Caribbean is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change as the region sits smack dab in the middle of Hurricane Alley an area of warm water that stretches across the Atlantic Ocean from the coast of West Africa the area will likely be the location of ever worsening storms Puerto Rico is five times more likely to be struck by extreme rainfall today than it was decades ago. Given that the archipelago is uniquely susceptible to flooding and its location on the eastern edge of the Greater Antilles Puerto Rico is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to the effects of climate change which has made growing food difficult for farmers The hurricanes decimated Puerto Rico’s farms, destroying approximately 80 percent of crops on the archipelago While Armonía en la Montaña was established post-María it still dealt with the devastation caused by the hurricane as the farmers cleared the land to get ready to plant their crops Puerto Rico imports about 85 percent of its food it was hard for people to get to the imported food due to destroyed stores and closed roads debris made the roads practically impassable forcing many to live off canned goods or skip meals altogether “Because there is so much imported food we always think that we have food security,” Dr there’s been a growing movement for locally-sourced food and food autonomy throughout Puerto Rico Many fear that a future hurricane or another natural disaster could again cut the archipelago off from access to imported food “Puerto Rico is a pretty economically colonized country,” says Jose Pacheco Gale says an agroecological farmer and COO of Trito Agro-Industrial Services (TAIS) TAIS specializes in producing compost without synthetic agrochemicals and supplying it to local farmers it’s clear that we are vulnerable,” says Pacheco Leo Laboy González and their horse Pepa (Carlos Edill Berríos Polanco/Latino Rebels) While hurricanes are the most visible problems caused by climate change for Puerto Rico there are also problems that are less visible but more directly responsible for the inability to grow food—heat being one of the main culprits Climate change predictions for the Caribbean estimate longer dry periods with more intense storms in between This mixture spells a grim outlook for farmers in Puerto Rico The crops that used to grow in Puerto Rico will slowly yield less and less until many growers are forced to switch to something more resilient to the adverse climates “We’re going to have more hostile climates,” Laboy González says from the porch of the small house on the farm that they’ve transformed into equal parts rest area Recent assessments by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have shown that we have passed the tipping points and are rapidly hurtling towards even more environmental havoc Many of the effects of climate change have become irreversible and only by taking immediate action can we avoid further damage Leila Mattia Gregory (Carlos Edill Berríos Polanco/Latino Rebels) But Mattina Gregory and Laboy González remain hopeful with its mélange of greens dotted with reds they’re making the calculations in their heads for what will grow in the harsher climates to come They have a group of seeds currently gestating that they’ve tried to “baby” less in hopes of getting them more accustomed to new climates “We need to be resilient and grow plants that are more resilient,” Laboy González says Carlos Edill Berríos Polanco is a freelance journalist, mostly focused on civil unrest, extremism, and political corruption. Twitter: @Vaquero2XL Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. 2017Two of the Spanish-American War’s last battles were fought near Aibonito on land now owned by Ramón Rivera.Photograph by Christopher Gregory for The New YorkerSave this storySave this storySave this storySave this storyThe view southward from the Asomante hills outside the Puerto Rican town of Aibonito is spectacular reaching all the way to the Caribbean coast A pretty little town situated in the island’s southeastern Cayey mountain range Aibonito has the highest altitude in Puerto Rico—twenty-four hundred feet tin-roofed chicken breederies—polleros—were smashed to smithereens but there was still wreckage strewn around the blasted polleros The eye of the storm came right through these hills on September 20th and was especially fierce along the exposed ridgelines whipping in at a hundred and fifty-five miles an hour ripped apart wooden houses; they also turned most of the leaves on the trees in the surrounding forests from green to brown Along the road leading up to Aibonito from the capital city of San Juan there is—as everywhere else on the island—a dismal panorama of ruined houses and businesses I went to Aibonito in the company of a friend A talented journalist in her early thirties Ana Teresa comes from Aibonito; she had always spoken proudly to me of her home town (She is also a newlywed; her wedding took place in the brief lull between Hurricanes Irma and Maria.) Ana Teresa took me to meet her aunt and uncle who live in the same house where her grandmother We walked to Aibonito’s central plaza to admire its unique red and blue “mural de la bandera,” representing a detail of the Puerto Rican flag which Ana Teresa’s cousin Humberto had painted which had stood on a stanchion on the rooftop Humberto had painted the mural as a patriotic gesture it was a pro-independence flag—its blue was the distinctive baby-blue of the independistas whereas the Puerto Rican flags of those who are pro-statehood favor a darker hue flew to Boston and sought assistance from the Puerto Rican community there They had also met with mayors and businesspeople to solicit help for the island Ana Teresa told me that she was happy to have helped make “a small contribution” to a fund-raising campaign organized by several philanthropic organizations that had raised about a million dollars for N.G.O.s involved in relief efforts on the island Looking around at the beat-up places of her Aibonito childhood things would probably not improve in Puerto Rico but get worse She felt more deeply than ever that she and her fellow Puerto Ricans were second-class U.S one politician had come up to her and said in a whisper that was intended to be confiding as well as comforting we’re going to push for statehood for you.” the remark was a crushing reminder that most non-Puerto Rican U.S citizens are blissfully ignorant of the island’s cultural heritage and some of its people’s national aspirations “I know that it didn’t occur to the mayor that he was hurting my feelings nor did it occur to him that I might possibly aspire to anything higher than full U.S when Puerto Rico was made an unincorporated U.S but they do not have congressional voting rights A view from Ramón Rivera’s property in Aibonito The town is situated at an elevation of twenty-four hundred feet in the island’s southeastern Cayey mountain range.Photograph by Christopher Gregory for The New YorkerPuerto Rico’s neo-colonial status is shared with the U.S were the Spanish colonial possessions acquired by the United States after its military victory in the Spanish-American War Both Cuba and the Philippines eventually became independent two of the last battles of the Spanish-American War in Puerto Rico took place just outside Aibonito on the bluff overlooking the island a column of American troops probing into the central highlands met heavy resistance at Asomante from Spanish troops who were dug into the hilltop along a trench line a celebrated veteran of the American Civil War for having captured the defeated Confederate President Jefferson Davis.) Wilson’s troops retreated after coming under heavy fire; several American soldiers were wounded in the fracas his troops made another attempt to take the hilltop hostilities ceased when Spain agreed to surrender its forces and to relinquish Puerto Rico and its other colonial territories Spain formalized its defeat by a vote of 161 to 48 in the Spanish parliament While Spain entered the twentieth century as a defeated nation on the world stage the United States launched itself forth with swagger as a new and expansionist military player victory over Spain meant a new form of political vassalage Puerto Rico had also had a pro-independence movement and launched several short-lived revolts that had been quelled by the Spaniards from 1898 onward Puerto Rico became a virtual American colony which also appointed Puerto Rico’s governor Congress rejected a unanimous vote made by the rump Puerto Rican legislature in favor of Puerto Rico’s independence Puerto Rico was made an unincorporated U.S The place where the Asomante battles took place is known nowadays as Trinchera The bluff where the siege lines were laid is just a short walk downhill from the house of Ramón Rivera a heavy-equipment operator who works for the municipality of Aibonito lives alone above the bluff in a concrete bungalow He shrugged; the power would eventually come back He and Ana Teresa made their introductions and swapped family names; Rivera said he knew her uncle Rivera waved across the little road that led up to his house toward a small green valley; it was where he had grown up His father had owned much of the land there He was living on what was left of the family property and their big old house with a wraparound porch was gone The valley was dotted with homes and several large polleros the roof of one of them shattered by the hurricane which struck the island on September 20th as a Category 4 storm.Photograph by Christopher Gregory for The New YorkerRivera led us downhill behind his house to a flat area that ended where the hill fell away sharply the earth he’d removed had covered the old trench lines “In those days nobody thought about preserving anything,” he said It was inscribed with the following message in Spanish: “The Asomante Trenches: In this place the advance of the American troops was halted on the 12th of August 1898 when the last battle between American and Spanish troops in the Spanish-American War was waged.” (The plinth had been erected by Aibonito’s mayor on the centenary of the war had been an eyewitness to the Asomante battle I concluded that his father had been born in the eighteen-fifties “Did he ever talked to you about the battle?” I asked Rivera wistfully His father was already old by the time he’d come along and never talked about the past,” Rivera said Rivera said that he was just one of his father’s forty-eight children Rivera disclosed that he himself had fathered seventeen children—that he knew of—with thirteen different women He had gone to work on neighbors’ farms for his money planting coffee or sugarcane; he left for the U.S because it was so difficult to make ends meet at home The difference in pay was dramatic—his wages in Puerto Rico had been fifty cents a day and a glass of orange juice He named several addresses in the Bronx and in Brooklyn where he had worked in a plastics factory and on another in one that made mannequins He had also worked on a potato farm in New Jersey driving a truck and also operating the potato weigher He said that people around him had stopped what they were doing and cried when they heard the news when he had been hired by the Aibonito public-works department he had helped retrieve people from their flooded houses with a front loader following Hurricane Maria When I asked Rivera about Donald Trump’s recent critical remarks about Puerto Rico he said that he was not much interested in politics but assumed that Trump had been trying to “impose some respect.” Rivera ventured even if he did say it a little strongly.” He also said that he supported Puerto Rico’s status as an “estado libre asociado,” but believed that life would improve if the island’s governments were cleaned up He blamed the island’s economic problems on corrupt officials who had enriched themselves on public-works projects and compared them to Catholic priests who abused their parishioners Fourteen of his seventeen children had gone to the United States to live to earn better money than they could in Puerto Rico Rivera said that he was upset about those Puerto Ricans leaving the island in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria “I don’t think those are real Puerto Ricans,” he said we have to help ourselves and each other in order to help the country move forward Rivera waved at the land around his house and to the view that extended all the way to the distant sea This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Sgt. 1st Class Antonio Santini and Maria Rivera in Aibonito, Puerto Rico. Antonio Santini was willing to do anything — as long he got to Puerto Rico. He'd be a perfect asset for the U.S. Army's Hurricane Maria mission: He spoke Spanish and he knew the terrain. The sergeant first class had been all over the world with the military — Germany, Peru, Qatar, Afghanistan — but this mission, to an island devastated by a Category 4 hurricane with 155 mph winds, was "deeply personal." Fifteen hundred miles away, in the mountains of central Puerto Rico, Maria Rivera had survived the hurricane in her two-story house on the hill. Three generations of the family buckled down together as the whole house shook — the roof gave way, windows broke and water gushed in. Amid the storm's chaos, Rivera was calm. A deeply religious woman, she prayed for her family. For their house. For Puerto Rico. She and her husband stayed up through the night, bailing out water from the house. In the days that followed, while Santini was packing in North Carolina, making last-minute trips to the commissary on base at Fort Bragg, Rivera watched as their supplies dwindled and the water and power stayed off. Santini and his team brought Humvees to Puerto Rico — but they were difficult to navigate in the island's terrain. Instead, they prefer all-terrain vehicles or the Jeeps they rented in San Juan. Six days after the storm, Santini caught a Boeing C-17 with three dozen soldiers, headed for San Juan. When they arrived, they stayed on cots in the city's convention center — the staging place for most government entities like FEMA and the military. From there, Santini and his team loaded up their rented Jeep — the back filled with water, food and extra gas. With the stereo blasting heavy metal, they set off from San Juan for the mountains. Santini got behind the wheel because he "knows this island like the back of my hand." He and his crew traveled in a caravan with another Jeep carrying another Army team — a precaution Santini insisted on: "We're up in the mountains. If my vehicle falls off this cliff on this mountain, no one's ever gonna know where the heck we are," he explained, "two vehicles, so we can call in if something goes bad." A part of the U.S. Army Special Forces, their main mission in Puerto Rico was to bridge communication gaps in isolated areas — to figure out what information still needed to be communicated and to whom. They flew down with a machine that could make 70,000 handbills in 24 hours, and as they traveled through the central mountain region they took notes and pictures to inform what gets printed in those pamphlets. Part of Santini's job was visiting with local leaders, letting them know what other mayors and distribution centers are doing — and what's working. There are 78 municipalities in Puerto Rico, and some had managed to make food and water available and get crews out to clear roads and help rebuild roofs and houses. As he navigated the windy roads, driving fast enough to make his passengers grip the door frames, he pointed out the brown landscape of dead trees. "This used to be super green," he said, tapping his hand on the steering wheel in rhythm with the music. The radio was tuned to a local salsa station because Pandora had lost service once they left San Juan. "Maybe by the time we leave it will be emerald again." The mountains have the coolest temperatures on the island. Those first few days after the hurricane, Rivera was grateful for having survived. But with no power, she and her husband had no air conditioning, plus there was no water or ice. "We didn't have nothing," she said. Phone lines and cell service were out, so there was no way to call, text or email their son in the States. He must have read the news, she thought. But still, she wanted to reach him. Her husband, Tony, wasn't worried: "I know he'll come. I know he'll come," he would repeat, wandering the house. Rivera, a retired nurse, spent her days visiting bedridden neighbors who were unable to venture out to distribution centers. She and the other volunteers brought food and medical supplies like oxygen and insulin, if and when they were available. A few days after the storm she bought a deck of playing cards, and for days — that turned into weeks — she and her husband spent the evenings at the kitchen table by the door playing Roba Paquete. She guesses they played that game more than 100 times. They played and they waited. For food. For water. For communication with the outside world. In mountainous Aibonito, where the Riveras live, roads are winding and narrow. After Maria, many of those roads were impassable — flooded out, with downed debris and mudslides blocking the way. The problems in Aibonito were similar to those Santini and his team found two hours away in Utuado — washed-out roads, collapsed bridges, debris clogging small roads. "When those back roads got washed out, guess what?" he said. "Those communities got trapped." They planned to spend only a few days there but ended up staying for nearly a week. The main goal was information, but when the troops asked what people needed most, it was food and water. Santini says he didn't really believe the conditions before he saw it: "It was eye-opening. This is America. People shouldn't be freaking going hungry." Santini speaks with hurricane survivors at a collapsed bridge in Utuado. Residents put up a sign saying "Community of the Forgotten," but as troops and volunteers brought food and water to the community, Santini told them they were not forgotten. Up in the mountains, some projects were too big for Santini's small team to fix — but rather than just wait for a construction crew to rebuild a bridge, they fashioned a pulley system, with electrical tape fastened between two trees, several feet across the river. They slipped a plastic bucket on it, and voilà: a way to get food and water to the cut-off neighborhood. Doing this work gives Santini a great deal of pride. "I'm helping my people," he said, "the people of the mountains." Before the team finished in Utuado, Santini sat down with the local officials — including the mayor — to pass on the team's recommendations. The repairs were now in their hands. "You cross your fingers and hope that they follow through," he said, "because we have other communities that need help as well. Barranquitas, Aibonito ... there's a lot of work to be done." Nine days after the storm, exhausted from an afternoon of home visits, Rivera was doing what had become her evening ritual: playing cards. From her spot at the kitchen table, she had a perfect view of the driveway. She was about to win — when she heard a commotion outside. A revved engine. Then tire squeals. A fleet of Army vehicles rushed the house, almost crashing into her balcony. The first driver got out, leaving the car door swung open. Rivera threw her arms around him and started to cry. Santini surprised his family with a visit the evening after his troops completed a mission in his old neighborhood. He talks with his father, Tony Santini. "Mom, don't hug or kiss me too much, now's not the time," Rivera remembered her 38-year-old saying. "But that's something that we mothers can't help." Santini too held back his emotions — he hadn't heard any news from his family for nearly two weeks. "I was so relieved they were alive and OK," he said. "Seeing my parents so emotional, I just was so afraid I'd lose it in front of the guys." From the moment the storm hit the island, Santini had been waiting for this reunion. If the Army hadn't sent him here, he would have come himself, he says — along with his giant military-issued tough box filled with food, water, batteries, candles and tarps. But he was here on the job. He had work to do. *****"He brought us everything," Rivera told me a few days later, "but above all things, he brought his presence, and that calmed us a bit; knowing that we were reunited and that all was going to be all right." She pressed him for information — she knew so little about the rest of the island. He filled her in, sharing the stories from Utuado but leaving out some of the more devastating details. Rivera understood: "There are things he doesn't need to tell us; we can just look at him and know." Santini (right) and Sgt. Kenneth McAnally with troops and volunteers from the Crisis Relief Team repair Ruben Caraballos' leaking roof in Utuado. Antonio Santini never imagined he'd be back here, doing this. He was born and raised in Puerto Rico, the eldest of three. "When I was younger, I lived through two hurricanes, but nothing like this," he explained. He went to college on the island, but when it came time to look for a job, "there was nothing." His mother suggested the Army — even called a recruiter to come to the house. "When he graduated from his first year in the military we were so proud," Rivera said, "being able to see him be a part of the Army was immensely emotional." Santini's graduation portrait hangs behind her on the wall of their home, proof of a ceremony his parents missed because it was too expensive to travel at the time. Santini and his team continued their work in Aibonito, and other surrounding communities, feeling more confident about the recovery effort with each trip they took up into the mountains. "Puerto Ricans are good people. We're resilient and patient and we'll wait until they figure it out," he said. A few minutes later he adds, "We're doing good work. We're helping a lot of people." He's constantly switches between both "we's" — the Puerto Rican people and the military. It's a distinction his mother picks up on too: "When he's in uniform, he's another person," Rivera said, "but when he's home, he's a different Antonio." Dr. Cheryl Chang, a volunteer from New York who rode with soldiers, examines Victor Santiago Hernandez. He and his wife both have dementia. Seeing him in uniform, she said, is hard. "Me chocó un poquito," she said, roughly translating to "I was a little shocked." "It doesn't matter how many missions," she said, dabbing the side of her cheek as tears ran down. "These are things that one doesn't want to see with one's children." Over the next week, Santini and his team squeezed in several check-ins with his parents — usually while in transit to more isolated sites nearby. Santini arranged for a Friday night dinner at their house, and he invited the two teams of soldiers he was working with. He made one request: white rice with rabbit. His father is an expert at cooking rabbit fricassee. Knowing that her son is here on the island has been a comfort for Rivera, a marked change from her first days after the storm. But because communication is still down, she says his visits are bittersweet. Plans are hard to make — and even harder to change. "It's still not normal," Rivera said, "and we never know when will be next — or if this time is the last." Still, over the next few weeks they do see each other; sometimes planned, sometimes not. One night Santini and a bunch of soldiers stop for food at a restaurant in downtown Aibonito. As they're finishing their heaping plates of Mofongo, his mother and father walk in. There are more tears and hugging. Days later, Santini and his mother combine their separate missions, when he brings a doctor visiting from New York to Aibonito. They all spend the afternoon together, checking on the sick and the elderly. She was once a mirror image of her son, knocking on doors and bringing supplies. But on this day, they work in tandem. Santini stands at the mountaintop home of John and Margie Caraxini in Aibonito after delivering food and water. "It's paid off, knowing this place," Santini said reflecting on the past month on the island, "because we've been in the right place at the right time." As they worked their way through his old haunts, he frequently heard, "Oh, Antonio!" Exclamations from an old math teacher, a friend of his uncle, a woman who bought mangos from him when he was a kid. The ebb and flow — literally — of aid in Puerto Rico have, at times, baffled Santini. But this week, he sounds optimistic, ready to head back to Fort Bragg, feeling accomplished. "It's flowing," he said, "most people have food and water and the information gaps have been filled." People know what to do and where to go; in essence, his mission was accomplished. Except, Santini said, "there's a long, long road ahead." Stream PBS SoCal and your favorite PBS programs to your TV and devices wherever, whenever. Celebrate AAPI Month on PBS SoCal all May with exclusive programs. Find full episodes and educational games from Curious George, Wild Kratts and other PBS KIDS shows. Support PBS SoCal and watch full seasons of your favorite shows. A small, unexpected byproduct of a generationally devastating hurricane? A farm in the mountainous municipality of Aibonito has grown into a hub of local, sustainable food. On Sept. 20, 2017, a Category 4 hurricane made landfall in Puerto Rico and pulverized the archipelago before eventually heading eastward and wearing itself out over the Atlantic Ocean. Hurricane Maria killed nearly 3,000 people in Puerto Rico, destroyed an electrical grid already strained after the impact of Hurricane Irma weeks prior, and decimated 80% of the nation's crop value. The damage was comprehensive and sparked a humanitarian crisis from which the nation is still struggling to recover. Power and food supplies were all but wiped out on the island; with ports and supply chains strangled, the people of Puerto Rico frantically reached out for international aid while simultaneously focusing their energies inward to take care of families who lost their homes and livelihoods. "We were eating greens three weeks after the hurricane," Besosa says in a call from her home in Puerto Rico. "It was crazy." It was not Besosa's intention, before her mother became sick, to become a farmer. "Originally, I'd been on track to do other things. I was supposed to go to Australia to do my master's degree," she explains. "But after a year of working on the farm…" She pauses a moment, considering the story so far, then continues, "Well, you cannot unlearn the things you pick up in that time, and how important it is to do it right, so it became a passion." When Maria struck, Besosa and her colleagues were in the middle of the process of moving farms after eight years at the site her mother founded. The devastation wrought by the hurricane stifled everything — two of their 14 members lost their roofs, and a third had to move in with their parents to help them out, so it took many more months than initially planned to complete the move. When they were eventually able to channel the totality of their energies into the farm once more, they found that the soil was perfect; there was no erosion. Elsewhere on the island, by contrast, they saw entire coffee and plantain farms washed away due to improper farming practices paid for by Puerto Rico's Department of Agriculture. The so-called prime farmland, overrun with cash crops pumped full of pesticides and fertilizers, all but disappeared across the island. At elevation, where Armonía en la Montaña and other small-scale farmers work, the protection afforded by the mountains safeguarded the land from washing away in the deluge. Further, the soil was anchored — literally and figuratively — in agro-ecological practices that prize building soil resilience through biodiversity. "We were already following regenerative practices," Besosa says proudly. "And we value not having a large input from external bodies, like the government. As such, the bounce back of the farm after the hurricane, by comparison to the rest of the island, was relatively fast." Regenerative farming practices are by no means a new idea. Indigenous communities have existed according to the rhythms of the land for millennia, largely ignoring the relentless march of modernized techniques. In recent years, however, the true impact of industrialized farming has become as apparent in the earth's soils as a gigantic combine harvester — and about as easy to ignore. With the scaling of sustainable regenerative practices and the promotion of local food production — both of which are essential to boost Puerto Rico's agriculture — communities will be better equipped to deal with trade deficits in the wake of natural disasters. Changing the means of food production would increase the quality of produce in Puerto Rico and reverse a number of social, environmental and economic problems. "From an economic perspective," argues Besosa, "most organic farmers are simply surviving. For sure, our lifestyle is richer than most people's, but in terms of monetary gain, regenerative, small-scale farming is not a successful endeavor." When asked what would flip the switch on Puerto Rico's agricultural state of affairs, Besosa says, "Local government support is absolutely essential. Without that, we cannot incentivize buying local, organic produce across the island. If the focus was shifted from industrial agricultural methods, we would see a change in food sovereignty and health very quickly." "It's really difficult," says Besosa. "Farmers feel like they are on their own, and there is so much red tape and bureaucracy that it seems impossible to feel that the work we do can spread in the way it needs to." Moreover, the central government not only fails to support small-scale agro-ecologists, but actively facilitates industrial forms of agriculture that make it harder for regenerative farmers to establish themselves economically. This leaves advocacy to fall on the shoulders of nonprofit organizations like Armonía en la Montaña, an unfeasible situation given there is only so much they can do, argues Besosa. Indeed, there are a number of grassroots organizations already working across the island — including Acción Valerosa, Acción Social de Puerto Rico, Inc. (ASPRI) and Para la Naturaleza, to name but a few — who are already stretched beyond their capacity. "What is it that we are facing?" Besosa asks. "Are we looking at some magical change in mindset of the people in power? At placing our people in power? Or do we have to wait for disaster to strike in order to see a change in the local economy?" It is a pertinent set of questions, and one which regenerative farmers across Puerto Rico — and indeed across the world — must constantly dwell upon. Ultimately, though, Besosa is hopeful. She and her colleagues at Armonía en la Montaña know they are living proof that, even in the toughest of times, sustainable, community-oriented values in agriculture can be wielded as tools for resilience in the face of catastrophe. Puerto Rico will inevitably face more natural disasters over the coming decade, particularly in light of the rapidly accelerating freefall toward climate tipping points. The right attitude, however, and equipping farmers across Puerto Rico with agro-ecological tools could see mesclun greens on plates across the nation, no matter the circumstances. PBS SoCal is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.Tax ID: 95-2211661 José Ortiz has really and truly traveled the world over the course of his 24-year basketball career and was an integral part of Puerto Rico’s national team for 21 of them (1983-2004).\r\n \r\nThe native of Aibonito started out in the Puerto Rican domestic league with Atleticos de San German but before too long he decided to take on the challenge of playing in the American collegiate ranks. HomeNewsPuerto Rico - José ‘Piculín’ OrtizFIBA BasketballPuerto Rico - José ‘Piculín’ OrtizJosé Ortiz has really and truly traveled the world over the course of his 24-year basketball career and was an integral part of Puerto Rico’s national team for 21 of them (1983-2004) The native of Aibonito started out in the Puerto Rican domestic league with Atleticos de San German but before too long he decided to take on the challenge of playing in the American collegiate ranks This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Volatile Macro Fund Haidar Leads Peers With Double-Digit Gain Managers’ Bullish Outlooks Remain — But the Price of Gold Is Telling a Different Story Five Things to Watch in Energy Markets in 2025 Mega Hedge Fund Launches Are Rare — and Don’t Ensure Lasting Success Investors’ Concerns About Instability Rise Greenland Noise Could Spur Push for More Favorable Investing Policies There’s a Trump Bump for Short Sellers — At Least in One Sector Model Portfolios to Deliver Alternative Asset Exposure Open Architecture and Next-Gen Technology Help Support Model Delivery Maximizing Impact: The Role of TAMP Selection in Effective Investment Distribution What API and EIA Data Reveal About Crude Oil Markets Model Portfolios Simplify Wealth Managers’ Messaging with Clients Podcast: Exploring Options and Options-based Investing Strategies Methanol Gains Traction as an Alternative Energy Source Private Markets Investment Outlook Q2 2025: Opportunities Amid Uncertainty VC Is Down — But Private Placements for Post-IPO Companies Are Up Big Allocators Double Down on Private Credit Amid Market Volatility 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Investments The Trillion-Dollar Private Credit Market Faces Its First Big Test David Einhorn’s Early Bear Call Propels Greenlight to the Top Even the Savviest Investors Have a Stunning ‘Lack of Conviction’ SEC’s Hester Peirce on What to Expect From the Atkins Agenda What's Next for Global Monetary Policy Turbulent Markets Call for More than an Index Asset Managers (Not Surprisingly) Cheer Paul Atkins as ‘Enforcement-Lite’ SEC Pick Managed Futures Take Advantage of the Trump Trade Casdin Leads Life Sciences Funds in a Recovery Year Funding Continues to Slip Away From Start-Ups JPMorgan’s Paul Zummo: The Hedge Funds That Are Weathering Market Turmoil Performance of Small and Large Endowments Once Again Diverge Ackman’s Pershing Square Suffers from the ‘Passive’ Phenomenon Despite the Administration’s ‘Unconventional Approach,’ Dan Loeb Is Still Bullish for 2025 Great Results and an Uncertain Future for an Energy Hedge Fund Johns Hopkins Lands New CIO from Georgetown Greenlight Posted Its Weakest Results in the Past Four Years Allocators and Asset Managers Tell Us What Concerns Them Most the Lack of Transparency Is No Longer Okay CIOs Tell Us What Concerns Them Most in 2025 Bear Market Warning Signals Begin to Emerge and Winning Grant Funding: Tips for Nonprofits Global West Government Funds Roundtable 2025 2025 East Coast Family Office Wealth Conference Four Seasons Hotel and Residences Fort Lauderdale | Fort Lauderdale DACH Alternatives & Private Markets Symposium 2025 2025 Endowments & Foundations Roundtable East 2025 한국 글로벌 투자 포럼 2025 Korea Global Investment Forum 2025 MEII Abu Dhabi Institutional Investor Summit 2025 北京环球投资论坛 2025 Beijing Global Investment Forum a little over an hour’s drive from San Juan To get there you leave Puerto Rico’s sandy beaches behind and take a winding road that snakes through miles of rain forest before reaching the area’s semitropical ecosystem temperate climate is ideal for agriculture and for decades horticulture was Aibonito’s major industry In these hard times few people buy flowers dominated by the brilliant white Church San José of Aibonito a smattering of pensioners pass the time on benches while dogs roam freely tie and fedora stands on the corner holding a Bible preaching in Spanish and gesticulating wildly with his arms He seems like a character out of the pages of a Graham Greene novel As one of the 78 municipalities that make up the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Aibonito is part of the United States of America market is its greatest source of commercial opportunity but its lack of voting representation in Congress has left it with little influence over the tax breaks and military contracts that historically have played a big role in its economy subsidy-dependent territory that has an aging population with 42 percent of its residents receiving some form of welfare The realities are all too obvious to William Alicea Pérez The 43-year-old mayor of Aibonito tells Institutional Investor that his constituents need jobs and resources to care for the elderly Unemployment in Aibonito exceeds 15 percent and more than 14 percent of the municipality’s population of 25,900 is aged 65 or over Aibonito has transformed from having a 57.9 percent rural population to one that is 88 percent urban But jobs in the town — two of the three major employers are a Baxter International pharmaceuticals packaging plant and a Pilgrim’s Pride Corp chicken-­processing facility — are under threat because of the expiry of U.S increased automation and global competition are at the root of an economic and debt crisis that has the commonwealth perched on the edge of an abyss Since 2006 output has contracted by 10 percent and the economy has lost more than 250,000 jobs an astonishing number for an island of 3.5 million people beckons as a land of opportunity for many of Puerto Rico’s best and brightest who are leaving in increasing numbers to seek their fortunes in America In June, Governor Alejandro García Padilla shocked financial markets by announcing that Puerto Rico was in debt to the tune of $72 billion which the administration later raised to $73 billion The commonwealth would need relief from creditors to survive a Princeton University expert on sovereign debt restructuring and a former No 2 official at the International Monetary Fund founder and CEO of restructuring advisory firm Millstein & Co. and entered into debt restructuring talks with bondholders In September the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority reached an agreement with creditors to restructure $8.6 billion in bond debt of its major power utility The commonwealth and its investors remain far apart on other debts The Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico (GDB) faces a $267 million debt payment on December 1 and the commonwealth itself has $1.2 billion in payments coming due in January defaulted on a $1 billion bond issue by missing a $58 million interest payment The Obama administration is supporting Padilla’s bid for help urging Congress to allow the territory to file for bankruptcy protection as part of a comprehensive rescue package combining debt relief with fiscal and economic reforms and federal oversight of the island’s budget “Puerto Rico’s debt load is unsustainable,” Antonio Weiss Treasury Department adviser and former Lazard banker adding that debt service would soon eat up 35 percent of government revenue “Without action by Congress the commonwealth’s crisis will escalate and result in further economic contraction further outmigration and further suffering of the American citizens in Puerto Rico.” Critics of the Padilla administration insist the island can meet its obligations; they say its government just doesn’t want to bite the austerity bullet “Puerto Rico is not Greece,” says Charles Blitzer former assistant director of the IMF’s monetary and capital markets department “I’ve never seen a fiscal crisis that on paper looks easier to overcome with the least damage to everyone.” The island’s debt-to-GDP ratio is 65 percent level of 105 percent and much lower than Greece’s 177 percent or Japan’s 246 percent It doesn’t have its own currency or central bank which allow independent nations to sustain higher debt levels Investors regard Puerto Rico as they do U.S which also finance themselves in the municipal bond market has total state and local debt of 24.24 percent of output Even troubled Illinois has a ratio of just 18.61 percent Puerto Rico’s debt isn’t just large; it’s extraordinarily complex which complicates efforts to find a solution After rating agencies downgraded the commonwealth’s debt to junk levels in 2014 Puerto Rico borrowed $3.5 billion from hedge funds at a rate of 8.73 percent Altogether hedge funds hold an estimated 14 percent of Puerto Rico’s debt hedge funds own the island’s most senior debt GDB debt and bonds issued by the Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corp. Hedge funds have scooped up debt at steep discounts — the island’s GO bonds due in 2035 trade at about 76 cents on the dollar according to UBS — and they are insisting on payment in full A hard-line stance could keep Puerto Rico frozen out of the capital markets just like Argentina which has been unable to complete a debt restructuring because of holdouts led by New York hedge fund firm Elliott Capital Management thank you very much,” says one New York hedge fund manager who owns Puerto Rican bonds This manager believes the commonwealth could close much of its funding gap if it was more efficient in collecting taxes owed and cutting nonessential expenditures THE SHOWDOWN IS TAKING PLACE against the backdrop of the 2016 elections and on the island; this seems likely to complicate efforts to find a compromise who heads the Energy and Natural Resources Committee have indicated a willingness to help Puerto Rico but key Republican members of the House of Representatives have been more skeptical House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte and committee member Thomas Marino said that granting Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection “would not structural economic problems.” The Republicans generally have stressed the need for transparency and an understanding of how Puerto Rico got into its present condition Critics of the Padilla administration accuse the governor of exploiting the debt crisis to further his reelection ambitions and those of his left-leaning Popular Democratic Party Padilla long insisted that Puerto Rico would never default on its constitutionally protected debt banker and member of GOP-­affiliated opposition group the New Progressive Party who served as chief of staff to Padilla’s predecessor Luis Fortuño “within a span of two months and after hiring the same people who have been advising Argentina all of a sudden Puerto Rico does not have money to pay the bills,” he says the commonwealth will have to tighten its belt which will likely mean public sector job cuts and tax increases But a crisis of this magnitude is also an opportunity: It could force Puerto Rico to change its ways and fix its ailing economy A number of entrepreneurs are already hard at work hoping to benefit from the turnaround opportunity The most prominent investor is hedge fund manager John Paulson subprime mortgages before the 2008–’09 financial crisis Paulson has taken stakes in a number of hotels and resorts on the island and he already has more than $1 billion committed there “John realizes the huge potential in Puerto Rico right now,” says Fahad Ghaffar managing director who is leading the firm’s investments in Puerto Rico Ghaffar credits Padilla for actively encouraging tourism investment: “He is the first governor to take a good look at what works for Puerto Rico.” Other investors are seeking to take advantage of two pieces of legislation Puerto Rico adopted in 2012: Act 20 which provides tax incentives for exporters of services ranging from research and development to legal and accounting work to call centers which offers a full tax exemption on all passive income to investors who become local residents about 1,000 nonresident Puerto Ricans have relocated to the island under Act 22 founder and CEO of Consultiva Internacional an investment adviser to high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors based in the Puerto Rican city of Guaynabo says she is seeing a new wave of entrepreneurial activity on the island “That generation of Puerto Rican professionals are saying ‘My gig is not going to be working at Johnson & Johnson,’” she says referring to the pharmaceuticals manufacturer which is among the island’s largest employers Either I leave or I find a way to start my own business.’” SAN JUAN SITS ON THE ISLAND’S northeast coast The second-oldest European-­established capital city in the Americas after Santo Domingo in the neighboring Dominican Republic almost two decades after Columbus claimed Puerto Rico for the Spanish crown a fort built between 1533 and 1540 to defend the harbor from the British and Dutch serves as the governor’s residence and is one of only ten UNESCO cultural heritage sights in the U.S Puerto Rico was ruled as a virtual military outpost for half a century with a governor appointed by the White House After World War II the island officially became a commonwealth; residents elected the first popularly chosen governor Marín worked with Washington on Operation Bootstrap a program of tax and regulatory incentives that fostered the industrialization of what was then an agrarian society making tax exempt all income earned by U.S A 1993 study by the General Accounting Office found that Puerto Rico reaped 99 percent of the tax credits extended under that provision began phasing out 936 tax credits because of pressure from mainland interests combined with heightened competitive pressures as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement The fallout from the 2008–’09 financial crisis and the long period of high oil prices — Puerto Rico imports virtually all of its energy — added to the pressure the island’s economy has been shrinking for most of the past decade Manufacturing jobs have fallen by 53 percent since 1990 Only about 40 percent of the working-age population is employed or seeking work The economy also suffers from the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 which requires that all goods traveling between U.S ports by water be transported by American ships and handled by American crews For an island that depends on shipping to transport most goods “All islands remote from the centers of economic activity suffer from high transportation costs,” Prince­ton’s Krueger wrote in a June report on the island’s economic crisis “But Puerto Rico does so disproportionately with import costs at least twice as high as in neighboring islands on account of the Jones Act.” The result is a vicious circle: The loss of jobs has sparked a growing flight of younger people causing the population to shrink from more than 3.8 million in 2006 to 3.5 million today poorer and more dependent on government benefits The Puerto Rican government had more than a decade to prepare for the end of 936 tax credits The government did do something: It raised funds from the muni market Puerto Rico’s debt has nearly doubled since 2005 The government continued to spend freely during this time relying on borrowing and skipping pension contributions By 2013 the funding ratio of the Employees Retirement System of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico was a mere 3.1 percent “The financial advisers to the government of Puerto Rico were effectively the municipal desks of Wall Street,” says Liam Localio an associate and Latin American specialist at hedge fund firm Greylock Capital Management Puerto Rico still enjoyed a strong credit rating and a perfect payment record Investors liked the high yields the commonwealth offered and the fact that any state-specific muni bond mutual fund could invest in Puerto Rican paper “It was like the joker in a pack of cards,” says a municipal bond investor Wall Street banks were only too happy to underwrite the debt boom and reap the fees Those circumstances explain how a poor island (with a poverty rate exceeding 45 percent) that would rank 30th among U.S states by population was able by 2013 to become the third-largest issuer of municipal bonds in the U.S. facing a record budget deficit of $3.3 billion the governor-elect flew up to New York to meet with bondholders and the rating agencies “I told them in six months we’d do what had to be done” to straighten out the economy but the austerity measures contributed to his 2012 election defeat Governor Padilla barely had time to measure La Fortaleza for new curtains when Standard & Poor’s cut the credit rating on Puerto Rico’s general obligation bonds to BBB– saying it was worried that the island would not be able to close its $933 million budget gap that year S&P cut the commonwealth’s rating to junk It has made several subsequent downgrades — most recently in July a level signaling a likelihood of default within six months The biggest losers from a default wouldn’t be the hedge funds More than 20 percent of the commonwealth’s debt is held by local investors The island’s 116 credit unions collectively hold some $1 billion of Puerto Rican paper which could spread the impact of a default throughout the financial system More than 25 percent of the debt — roughly $20 billion — is held by U.S Mutual fund managers Oppenheimer­Funds and Franklin Advisors hold about $10.8 billion they acquired most of their bonds at about par so their losses in the event of a default could be severe Consultiva Internacional’s Rivera says she has taken on many clients who have lost money on the Puerto Rican muni bonds Investors have also taken big hits on local equities and real estate “That’s why we are in a state of stupor.” She is encouraging local investors to find other ways to back the economy Her firm is working with a New York partner to launch a small venture capital fund of funds “We can’t sit and waste another generation and pray that the U.S “The public sector has issues; the private sector has money PUERTO RICO COULD DO WORSE than attract investors like Paulson a luxury resort and planned community 20 miles east of San Juan sandy beachfront and sits on almost 500 acres of lush maritime forest The resort is the only certified-­gold Audubon Society sanctuary in the Caribbean operated by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and a golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones Prices for condominiums start at about $800,000; beachfront villas with uninterrupted views of surf and sand are listed at $10 million to $12 million Paulson himself is building a modern glass The hedge fund manager himself currently has no plans to relocate to the island to take advantage of Act 22 Vittorio Assaf has known Paulson for more than 30 years The restaurateur moved to New York from Italy in 1985 and opened his first restaurant Last year he and his family moved to Puerto Rico Assaf professes no worries about the island’s financial troubles “The uncertainty about the economy does not affect me as a restaurateur or a small entrepreneur,” he says “It is a question about a gigantic amount of debt.” a Scot who made money in London real estate in the 1980s and spent recent years in Uruguay moved to Puerto Rico this year to take advantage of the Act 22 tax incentives the largest produce distributor on the island a businessman and son of prominent Puerto Rican entrepreneur and philanthropist Jon Borschow A legacy of Puerto Rico’s recent industrialization is that it produces very little of its own fruits and vegetables — fully 85 percent of food consumed on the island is imported It takes at least 11 days to import a head of romaine lettuce from California and the Jones Act shipping restrictions add to the cost (Those costs look set to rise: In September one of the two ships that bring food to Puerto Rico sank in Hurricane Joaquin.) Yet the island has large swaths of agricultural land lying fallow Borschow and his partners have identified a farmer who can grow romaine for one-third less Investing in local produce may not only be a source of jobs and income it may reduce the island’s food bill and eventually generate export revenue president of family-owned Grupo Ferré Rangel also sees the private sector starting to step up In November 2014 her company teamed up with Akron Ohio–based telemarketing company InfoCision Management Corp to open a bilingual call center in Aguadilla “Because of this crisis we have needed to be more creative,” she says “I think the crisis is big enough that it is going to force change.” Such green shoots offer hope of a brighter future if Puerto Rico can resolve its debt problems and put its finances on a sustainable footing “The embryo of the new Puerto Rico is here,” says lawyer Mudd “But it has not broken through the shell of the old.” • Visit Imogen Rose-Smith’s blog and follow her on Twitter at @imogennyc Puerto Rico’s best flower-growers and landscape artists come together for the “Aibonito Flower Festival.” During the multi-day celebration attendees will be able to see and purchase a wide variety of plants— including fruit trees Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker NPR's Morning Edition takes listeners around the country and the world with two hours of multi-faceted stories and commentaries that inform Morning Edition is the most listened-to news radio program in the country Wouldn't it be swell if our "leaders" of all-Republican rule devoted some of their precious time to the humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico ramped up its response Monday to the humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico while the Trump administration sought to blunt criticism that its response to Hurricane Maria has fallen short of it efforts in Texas and Florida after the recent hurricanes there If the state of Iowa — which has fewer American citizens than Puerto Rico — had been hit by a storm that knocked out its entire power grid would the Republican Congress have spent a week saying and doing nothing WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today. Dick Polman’s column appears weekly on WHYY.org/News He also contributes to The Atlantic online and is a writer-in-residence at the University of Pennsylvania How are conservative voters gauging the first few months of President Donald Trump’s administration we discuss this with some conservative voices The Representative is sounding the alarm over a leaked chats involving senior Trump administration officials including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and VP J.D The Congressional budget resolution passed last week calls for $2 trillion in spending cuts Together we can reach 100% of WHYY’s fiscal year goal local news and information and world-class entertainment to everyone in our community WHYY offers a voice to those not heard, a platform to share everyone’s stories, a foundation to empower early and lifelong learners and a trusted space for unbiased news. Learn more about Social Responsibility at WHYY SearchGovernor calls start of school year a successThe San Juan Daily StarAug 20 with Education Secretary Yanira Raíces Vega to his right rings in the new school year in Aibonito on Monday morning.By The Star Staff Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia described the start of classes in Puerto Rico’s public schools as “successful” during a visit to Rabanal Elementary School in Aibonito on Monday where he was accompanied by Education Secretary Yanira Raíces Vega Although 18 schools were unable to operate due to a lack of water and others due to power problems the governor expressed satisfaction with the progress he observed “I believe once again that this is a successful restart of school,” Pierluisi said at a press conference “Now the important thing is that the semester continues without further pauses or distractions.” The governor emphasized that 99% of teachers have been recruited which he considered a significant achievement compared to previous years something that was not seen in the past,” he said Pierluisi added that the necessary materials for the students have been provided and that school directors already have debit cards to purchase whatever they need Regarding the physical state of the schools the governor noted that more than 90 percent are properly painted while acknowledging that the sealing of roofs is behind schedule Pierluisi said 18 schools were unable to open due to a lack of water service but he gave assurances that the problems would be resolved in the next few hours seven schools remain closed due to major reconstruction work 96% of the [school] population has their electricity and water service at this time,” the governor said adding that he hopes all schools will be operating before Wednesday Raíces Vega noted that “50 or so schools” [...] “already have a reduced schedule and we have an action plan that was discussed yesterday.” “I was in meetings with both regional directors and school directors where we put together an action plan so saying that those 50 or so schools are not in [session] is not correct,” she said those 50 or so already started to go down [in number] because they told me [that] the light came on [and] we already have water service established I am having conversations with both LUMA and PRASA [the island water authority] so [...] we hope that service can be fully restored this week The governor added that “[s]ome people will want to criticize because that has always been the fashion here “But the important thing is that we are doing the work and I congratulate the secretary of education all the staff of the Department of Education because they gave their all and the results have been seen,” Pierluisi said March 25, 2024 | | | | | | (ANS - Aibonito) - A few days after Hurricane Maria the news of the catastrophe this natural disaster has caused in Puerto Rico continues to travel around the globe The authorities have warned that it may take months to restore the entire power grid and yet more months to restore infrastructure At the launch of the Caritas Internationalis campaign - "Share the Journey" – whose purpose is to promote relations with refugees and migrants I ask you to remember a prayer for the victims and people who have suffered damage due to the hurricane that has hit the Caribbean these days but valuable information from the village of Aibonito where the Salesians have a home for spiritual retreats "The Salesians are in good health," they report fell and struck his head while inspecting the structure The house of Aibonito was surrounded by trees; now almost all have been uprooted The roof of a gazebo and a dining room window are beyond repair." In the Salesian house of San Juan's Cantera district the light poles and reflectors have fallen and the whole structure has suffered damage Some floods have been reported in the area near the Sanctuary of Mary Help of Christians said that the disaster was caused by two hurricanes: Irma and Maria and that the greatest damage had occurred in Puerto Rico "There is no type of telephone communication We have partial communication with three homes People are supplying themselves with necessary goods and buy and water and medications are beginning to be scarce." Fr Batista said he was not able to reach Puerto Rico since it was impossible at the present time "I cannot wait to be able to travel and be with my brothers I hope to bring four elderly Salesians to Santo Domingo with me." ANS - “Agenzia iNfo Salesiana” is a on-line almost daily publication the communication agency of the Salesian Congregation enrolled in the Press Register of the Tibunal of Rome as n 153/2007 This site also uses third-party cookies to improve user experience and for statistical purposes By scrolling through this page or by clicking on any of its elements