For many Puerto Ricans, including myself, the images of the wildfires that tore through Maui hit hard.
The devastation dredged up painful memories of Hurricane Maria, which ravaged Puerto Rico in 2017, resulting in the death of thousands of people. Despite the grief and pain, it didn’t take long, similar to what we see in Lahaina, for tax evaders and rapacious speculators to descend on this Caribbean archipelago.
Listening to indigenous Hawaiians beg real estate predators to stop cold-calling Maui residents who lost ancestral lands and loved ones was gut-wrenching and echoed Puerto Ricans’ daily struggle against the disaster capitalism perpetrated by outsiders on the Island.
The scenes also raised a central issue for Puerto Ricans fighting the onslaught of gentrifiers, who now have more authority to influence decisions about Puerto Rico.
The apocalyptic images of Lahaina, the original capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom, drove home an ugly fact to Puerto Ricans: statehood didn’t bring native Hawaiians — the Kānaka Maoli — equality. It marginalized them in their own land.
Yet, it’s also a tale of two island archipelagos, each with similarities and differences in its relationship with the U.S. — one a state, the other its colony — both permanently scarred by an identical colonial branding iron.
Hawaii and Puerto Rico were taken by force in the 1890s to establish U.S. dominance in the Caribbean and Pacific. Both carry the legacy of sugar barons, the illegal possession of lands, and the empty promise of democracy and economic prosperity.
And both continue to suffer the effects of colonialism and one of its core functions — massive displacement.
After Maria, the reactionary pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP) opened up an Island on its knees to real estate predators and the ultra-rich by supercharging a tax incentive law, Act 60 (former Act 22). As a result, Puerto Rican communities are being subjected to break-neck gentrification.
The act was the brainchild of PNP ex-Gov. Luis Fortuño and the current non-voting representative of Puerto Rico in Congress, Jenniffer González as then-speaker, both rabid Republicans and vocal Donald Trump supporters. Instead of an economic growth model for the people, they set up juicy tax loopholes in 2012.
What this attracted were bad actors like wealth manager Kira Golden, who crowed that Hurricane María was “amazing” for business, cryptobro Brock Pierce, who donated to Trump’s reelection campaign and an anti-choice PAC, Kenneth Chesebro, a primary co-conspirator in Trump’s Georgia indictments.
Act 22 individuals are exempt from almost all local taxation on Puerto Rico-sourced income and, due to the Island’s territorial status, also exempt from U.S. federal taxes. They only have to live 183 days on the Island, donate $10,000 to a Puerto Rican charity, and prove residency via voter registration in local elections or other means.
The IRS and U.S. prosecutors announced that at least 100 wealthy individuals illegally took advantage of Act 22 tax breaks by violating residency or other requirements.
But for the thousands who have yet to be caught, a voter card could entitle them to participate in a referendum on Puerto Rico’s status. Let that sink in.
Last year, the House passed the Puerto Rico Status Act. The bill seeks to resolve Puerto Rico’s colonial relationship with the United States through a federally binding referendum. Puerto Ricans would choose one of three non-territorial status options: statehood, independence, or a free association with the United States.
The bill leaves out critical information, such as whether Puerto Rico would be relieved of economically burdensome maritime restrictions under statehood — Hawaii was not — or get to keep running government operations, courts, and schools in Spanish. It also fails to lay out who is eligible to vote in the referendum.
This begs the question: Will Act 22 outsiders have more rights to decide Puerto Rico’s political status and an open door to influence the social and economic fabric of the archipelago than Puerto Ricans displaced from the Island?
It would be signing the death warrant of Puerto Rican nation’s existence as a people if individuals like Golden, Pierce and Chesebro had a louder say in Puerto Rico’s future over Puerto Ricans forced to leave an Island carved up by these land-grabbing modern colonizers and their enablers. The false narrative that denouncing this colonial oppression is somehow “xenophobia” is the height of chutzpah.
It must be Puerto Ricans who decide how and in what direction to decolonize Puerto Rico; not its oppressors. Allowing mega-rich outsiders and tax evaders to participate in the Island’s future would be the colonizer’s ultimate insult and transform Puerto Rico into a “Hawaii 2.0,” where the natives are forced to the margins. We cannot allow that to happen.
Mark-Viverito, a former speaker of the New York City Council, chairs the board of El Otro Puerto Rico, a social investment and anti-displacement initiative on the Island.