Partisan feud
The challenge would be big enough if it stopped there, but Utuado has another problem holding things back – a long-smoldering skirmish between Puerto Rico’s two main political parties that has burst into flame in the wake of the storms.
In what might look to outsiders like a mini version of the well-publicized spat between President Trump and San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz over the quantity and effectiveness of federal aid to Puerto Rico, the mayor of Utuado and the National Guard here are hardly speaking.
Why? It appears to boil down to politics, and who will be able to claim credit for delivering aid when next year’s elections roll around.
Officials and some residents alike attribute at least some of Utuado’s slow delivery of aid to political conflict: Puerto Rico’s National Guard takes its marching orders from the island’s governor, Ricardo Rosselló, who hails from the conservative New Progressive Party, while Utuado’s mayor is from the left-leaning Popular Democratic Party – the same party as San Juan’s mayor.
“I really think the attitude should be that during these times we don’t have political parties, we have Puerto Rico our home, and we are Puerto Ricans,” says Quiñones, who is from the governor’s party. “But I have to admit that the political situation is having a negative impact,” he adds, “it’s affecting people because it’s slowing things down.”
Military officials here express growing exasperation over the impact they say politics is having on their mission. The way the Puerto Rico relief effort is organized, with the military acting in support of the civilian Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA – works well when the local civilian authorities are on board, they say.
Where it doesn’t seem to work seamlessly is in cases like Utuado.
Noting that he holds an all-hands-on-deck meeting every 48 hours to assess progress and shortfalls and to plan the next two days’ aid deliveries and recovery projects, Staff Sergeant Echevarría says, “We have a standing invitation out to the mayor, we need him and his assets there, but he’s only come once. We all need to put the people first,” he adds, “there will be plenty of time for politics later.”
In Puerto Rico mountains, more than muddy roads delay relief efforts
Politics over helping their own.
Yo Roberto, we are dying over here. Gas up the truck & go find us some supplies before we croak!
