Sanders blitzes Puerto Rico ahead of primary contest
PUERTO RICO -- "If elected president of the United States, you will have an ally in the Oval Office," Bernie Sanders promised Puerto Ricans as he campaigned in San Juan on Monday and Tuesday.
In search of every last delegate he can find, Sanders tied the country's debt to "Wall Street vulture funds" and forcefully declared that the US' "colonial-like" relationship with the territory must come to an end.
"It is time for the people of Puerto Rico to be allowed to take charge of their political future and for the United States of America to redefine its legal relationship with the people of this Island," Sanders said on Monday afternoon. "The people of Puerto Rico should not and cannot provide colonial like treatment of its citizens, the people of the United States cannot continue colonial-like relationship with the people of Puerto Rico."
Sanders said Puerto Ricans should vote and the result should be a "binding referendum." The ballot would hold three potential options: becoming a 51st state, becoming an independent nation or continuing to maintain a commonwealth relationship. He said that if he were president that vote would come in the first year of his presidency.
"No matter what that decision is, clearly I think there needs to be a new relationship between the federal government and the Puerto Rico with much more respect," Sanders said as he spoke to a Montessori school in Guaynabo.
The crowd, many of whom wore earphones affixed with a voice that was translating the Senators words, cheered.
The biggest outburst of support came when Sanders laid out the independence option. Sanders' audiences were filled proponents of complete independence yet, that is an option only embraced by a small minority of the population. In the 2012 nonbinding referendum 61 percent of Puerto Ricans chose statehood, 33 percent semi-autonomous "sovereign free association" and only 6 percent voted for outright independence.
Sanders didn't stop in promising a vote to determine the island's future. He also promised that he would free convicted FALN terrorist Oscar López River, oppose austerity measures being proposed for the island and take on the Wall Street greed that is ruining their economy.
"These people really have no shame," Sanders said of Wall Street's treatment of the island. He declared it "morally repugnant" that Wall Street is advocating for the commonwealth to do away with minimum wage and their actions are causing schools to close and pensions to be cut
"I think all of us understand, and your government understands, that Puerto Rico's $70 billion debt is unsustainable and it is unplayable, Sanders said.
Sanders called for the Federal Reserve to begin an independent audit of the payments.
After making all of these promises the campaign's investment in Puerto Rico, in both time and money, appears lackluster.
"We believe in the political revolution for Puerto Rico too but we have no resources," Gabriel Coss, 41-year-old activist, filmmaker and Sanders volunteer from San Juan, said to Sanders when he stopped by his campaigns field office. "We have been working very hard with nothing."
Sanders said he would get Coss the resources that are needed yet he made sure to point out that the race is tough because they are up against Hillary Clinton and "everyone knows the Clintons." As he said that his volunteers nodded their heads.
In 2008 Clinton beat then Senator Obama in the island's Democratic primary by more than 30 percent. Sanders may be hoping for a win, but made it clear that he is also bracing for reality.
"On June 5th there is going to be a very important primary here in Puerto Rico and I know I am running against somebody who is widely known around the island," Sanders said to a raucous crowd of over 1,600 at University of Puerto Rico in San Juan.