Oscar L�pez Rivera: ‘We Must Have the Courage to Fight to Our Last Drop of Force’ – INTERNATIONALIST 360�

11.6.17

Oscar L�pez Rivera: ‘We Must Have the Courage to Fight to Our Last Drop of Force’ – INTERNATIONALIST 360�: OLR: I’m surprised, it may have been just two weeks but in that time I have had a lot of experiences that I did not anticipate; encounters with many people, seeing things that I have not seen for a long time both positive and negative experiences. I was really shocked for example about the gentrification, depopulation and displacement going on. The houses that are being built in Puerto Rico are obviously for rich people and not for the Puerto Rican workers. There is so much emphasis on foreign investment instead of incentives for workers.

They invest in cruise ships and fishermen have almost nothing, there is no incentive for the ports. The brain drain is another thing that I found going on in Puerto Rico. And Alaska and Hawaii came to mind; which became States but not to favor their indigenous people. In Alaska it happens on the reservations where we see the destruction of the culture, the loss of love and their reason for being, life there loses value, and that has happened and can happen in Puerto Rico; they are the result of such policies which are a strategy of dehumanization.