Stop Santander from Sucking Puerto Rico Dry!
Puerto Rico’s debt crisis continues to devastate the people who live there. The island’s government, with the assistance of corporate investors, has looted public funds and gambled with Puerto Rico’s future by privatizing essential services. Now that Puerto Rico is broke thanks to their efforts, residents face massive, immediate school closings, a lack of clean drinking water, and the risk of a dangerous Zika epidemic this summer. Throughout this process, former Santander executive Carlos M. Garcia has played a key role, first as the head of Puerto Rico’s public bank, and now as a member of the federal control board. Garcia helped drown Puerto Rico in unpayable debt and liquidate a fund for water and sewer projects, while Puerto Rico’s infrastructure has crumbled. With Garcia’s help, Santander has made huge profits off the crisis and stands to make even more.
On Tuesday, May 16, just as the AFL-CIO released a new report on Santander and Garcia's participation in the crisis, we gathered with Allianza por Puerto Rico and the Boston Teachers Union in front of Santander's US headquarters in Boston to stand in solidarity with the people of Puerto Rico, who are fighting to get their island back from the banks that robbed them:
Join us in demanding that Garcia resign and Santander forgive the toxic debt it helped to create --