Ny Safidinao

Puerto Rico Secretary of State David Bernier resigned Sunday, in a step that would allow him to run for governor. Bernier’s resignation comes after speculation in the legislature that Gov. Alejandro García Padilla would choose not run for reelection and would have Bernier run for the Popular Democratic Party nomination in his place. In recent months García Padilla has been saying he would run for reelection. In the press release on the resignation, however, the governor said: “One would hope that [Bernier’s] deliberative process convinces him to make himself available to the commonwealth in the electoral arena. He has proven management experience and the temperament, character, capacity, and inclination to work hard that is necessary and that are generally not found among political candidates. David is one of those few who have the capacity to unite the commonwealth.” García Padilla started his four-year term as governor in January 2013. The members of Puerto Rico’s House of Represe...

Amid all the mudslinging and maneuvering, the hype and the histrionics, it’s easy to forget what a presidential campaign is really about: the issues. Yahoo Politics is here to help. From now until Election Day, we’ll be keeping track of where every candidate stands on the topics that matter most. Amid all the mudslinging and maneuvering, the hype and the histrionics, it’s easy to forget what a presidential campaign is really about: the issues. Yahoo Politics is here to help. From now until Election Day, we’ll be keeping track of where every candidate stands on the topics that matter most.   Whenever one of the 2016 White House hopefuls releases a new plan, we’ll summarize it for you. Whenever one of them changes his or her position, we’ll explain how. And we’ll keep adding new policy roundups along the way.  Democratic Debate Schedule October 13, 2015 (CNN) November 14, 2015 (CBS) December 19, 2015 (ABC) January 17, 2016 (NBC) February or March, 2016 (Univision) Febru...

The 2016 presidential campaign is in full swing as candidates from both national parties are crisscrossing the nation in search of money and votes. In recent years, the United States Territory of Puerto Rico has become one of the more attractive landing spots for those seeking to live at Pennsylvania 1600. Ever since the 2008 primary between President Barack Obama and former First Lady Hillary Clinton, our Island have been routinely visited by most of the top tiered presidential candidates in search of money and more money. Votes? Maybe, if the primary is heated, such as was the case in 2008 when Clinton needed a win in Puerto Rico to make it competitive. But that was the exception, not the rule. They all come, but they come mainly for the money. Being a non-incorporated territory, the Island does not have the right to send senators and representatives to Congress. It also means that we don’t have a vote in the presidential race either. There’s a paradox here. A circle of self-depe...

The Puerto Rican Senate recently approved a bill declaring Spanish as the first official language of the country, moving English to second place. The 1993 law proceeding this new regulation put both English and Spanish on equal footing making both compulsory in executive, legislative and judicial matters. “By establishing Spanish as the first official language, we will strengthen our cultural identity and validate the reality that more than 80% of Puerto Ricans do not understand nor speak English,” said Fas Alzamora in an explanatory statement on the bill. The bill was introduced in August 2014 by the ex-president of the ruling Popular Democratic Party (PDP), Antonio Fas Alzamora. It was rejected in June, but reconsidered in late-August with support from a majority of ruling party Senators. Eight senators from the ruling opposition party rejected the bill. “In the 21st century, government efforts should focus on ‘multiculturalism’, including the diversity of languages,” Senate presi...

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton reportedly brought in between $200,000 and $500,000 for her campaign in a Puerto Rico fundraiser Friday.   Clinton attended the 200-person event at the Condado Plaza Hilton in San Juan for approximately 90 minutes, according to CNN .   Attendees paid between $1,000 and $2,700 each for seats at Clinton’s fundraiser.   The 2016 Democratic front-runner’s brief stop on the island included a visit to a nearby hospital for a roundtable discussion on healthcare.   The former secretary of State also weighed in on Puerto Rico’s future political status within the United States during her stay.   “It is just hard to justify how you can be an American citizen in Puerto Rico and be treated so different in so many ways,” Clinton told listeners.   “This comes down to basic rights,” she added. “Puerto Ricans have the right to form a government of your choice that is representative at all levels of government, just as you...

Hillary Clinton campaigns in Puerto Rico

Rubio, Clinton campaign in Puerto Rico

“"Not a single Republican has stepped up in Washington to support the leaders in Puerto Rico. And they’re not offering any alternatives either. And that is unacceptable” NOTE: Puerto Rico’s Public Finance Corp failed to pay bondholders an additional $4m of interest due Sept. 1, the agency disclosed today Puerto Rico’s Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla in June said Puerto Rico and its agencies were unable to repay all of its $72b of debt on time and in full and said the commonwealth would seek to delay payments Congress needs to give authority to let “severely distressed” public corporations and municipalities restructure their debts, Hillary Clinton says at event in Puerto Rico Jennifer Epstein Clinton Calls on GOP To Let Puerto Rico Use Chap. 9 Bankruptcy

Puerto Rico's financial crisis loomed over dueling Friday campaign appearances by Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Marco Rubio, two presidential contenders with sharply different positions on a key issue for Puerto Rican voters whose influence is growing in U.S. politics. In a speech delivered entirely in Spanish, Rubio blamed Clinton supporters for the U.S. territory's economic problems as he railed against giving Puerto Rico bankruptcy protection to resolve a staggering $72 billion debt. "The people who are rallying behind her today are the people who put Puerto Rico in this fiscal mess to begin with," the young Florida senator told about 150 people crammed into an open-air restaurant in San Juan's gritty neighborhood of Santurce. Clinton, who won Puerto Rico's 2008 Democratic primary election, defended her support for giving Puerto Rico bankruptcy protection during a round-table discussion focused on the island's health-care problems. She...

Hillary Clinton goes to Puerto Rico on Friday to thank voters there for past support in the primaries, and offering her support for more lenient treatment of the island's mounting public debt. Hillary Clinton To Make A Thank You Trip To Puerto Rico

Marco Rubio opposes giving Puerto Rico the same type of bankruptcy protection available to U.S. towns and cities mired in fiscal crisis, the Florida senator will say Friday as he visits the American territory for the first time as a 2016 contender. In an op-ed to be published in both Spanish and English, Rubio blames the "liberal ideology" of Puerto Rico's politicians, creating a "toxic brew of economic stagnation, higher taxes and bloated government." "Allowing Puerto Rican municipalities to reorganize their debts under Chapter 9 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code would not solve Puerto Rico’s problems and should only be a measure of last resort considered if Puerto Rico takes significant steps to fix its budget and economic mess,” he writes. The op-ed was timed to coincide with Rubio’s first visit to the island as a presidential candidate. And his position sets him apart from other 2016 contenders, including Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton, who have supported Ch...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio is scheduled to visit the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico this week, his staff said Tuesday. Spokeswoman Olivia Perez-Cubas told The Associated Press that the Florida senator will meet with supporters on Friday in the capital of San Juan. Rubio's one-day visit will coincide with that of Democrat Hillary Clinton . He is scheduled to attend a fundraiser before the rally. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley visited Puerto Rico last month, becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate to make a campaign stop on the island this year. GOP presidential hopeful Jeb Bush arrived in late April for a fundraiser and a town hall meeting in which he endorsed the idea of statehood for the territory. Puerto Rico residents cannot vote in U.S. presidential elections but can participate in primaries. A growing number of Puerto Ricans have moved to the U.S. mainland as the island faces a 12 percent unemployment rat...

Ahead of Hillary Clinton’s first campaign stop in Puerto Rico on Friday afternoon, New York's first Hispanic City Council speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito, endorsed the Democratic front-runner in an op-ed in Puerto Rico’s largest newspaper. “For Puerto Ricans — both on the island and throughout the diaspora — this election [is] the most important in our lifetime,” Mark-Viverito writes in Nuevo Dia. “Hillary supports Puerto Rico’s push to be allowed to declare bankruptcy and be allowed to restructure its debt. Hillary has also highlighted the inequality Puerto Rico faces by its lack of federal funding under Medicare and Medicaid.” Mark-Viverito is considered a rising star in New York City politics and has begun to make a name for herself on the national stage speaking out on immigration. She remains a well-known figure in Puerto Rico and plans to campaign for Clinton and other Democrats in 2016 in Florida, which has a booming Puerto Rican population, a spokesman said. Mark-Viverito...

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) will hit the presidential campaign trail in Puerto Rico this Friday, the same day that Hillary Clinton heads to the island. Rubio’s campaign announced the trip on Tuesday, inviting journalists to a Friday afternoon rally at a restaurant near the island’s coast. Clinton’s team confirmed that she’ll be campaigning in Puerto Rico on the same day but has not yet released an itinerary. The visits from the White House hopefuls come as the island faces a crisis over more than $70 billion in debt. The New York Times reported that Puerto Rican officials had to delay work on a financial plan thanks to recent storms, and that the new deadline to complete a plan is Sept. 8. While American cities are allowed to declare bankruptcy, U.S. states and territories cannot. Clinton in July called on Congress to let Puerto Rico have access to bankruptcy laws and to help it restructure its debts. Rubio hasn’t publicly articulated his stance on the debt crisis, with aides tell...

Donald Trump told a large, enthusiastic Keokuk, Iowa audience that he's going to purchase the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in order to resolve its debt crisis and rename it Puerto Trump. Trump later heatedly denied to reporters that buying Puerto Rico was a way to repair bridges with Latino voters offended by his comments about Mexican immigrants. "I love Puerto Rico," Trump told 4,000 flag-waving supporters in the early primary state of Iowa. "I go there every winter, to visit my hubcabs. "Seriously, they got the rug pulled out from under them when the idiots in Washington changed the rules of the game about how they can borrow money. "I don't need to wait until I'm elected President to fix this. I'm just buying the whole damn island right now." Reaction to Trump's plan, the details of which his advisors hurriedly released after the surprise announcement, has been mixed. "Jobs and money," Alejandro Garcia Padilla, Gove...

The first Federal Election Commission filing deadline for most of the presidential candidates is Wednesday, but some organizations have released their totals early. Below, the announced money raised by the campaigns, “super PACs” and nonprofits supporting each candidate. Money Raised So Far Millions raised by Campaign Campaign Super PAC Other Jeb Bush Bush r epublican $11.4 in 16 days $103.0 n/a Hillary Rodham Clinton Clinton d emocrat $45.0 in 79 days $15.6 – Ted Cruz Cruz r epublican $14.5 in 100 days $38.0 – Marco Rubio Rubio r epublican $12.0 in 79 days ...

Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign has, thus far, been rather light on concrete policy proposals. The first exception to that rule, somewhat surprisingly, turns out to relate to the obscure issues of Puerto Rico's treatment in federal bankruptcy code and health-care reimbursement formulas. These are not top priority issues for most voters, but they are urgent for Puerto Ricans. Clinton's plan arrives as Puerto Rico's governor has said that the island cannot pay all its debts and is trapped in a "death spiral" of recession and debt. This situation hasn't yet secured as much attention as the debt crisis in Greece, but it involves the lives of millions of US citizens, and if Congress doesn't act to do something the resulting fight is going to play out in American federal courts. Clinton offers two big ideas for how Congress could act to help rescue Puerto Rico's economy, plus a hint of larger political change in the future. Hillary Clinto...

THE BIG IDEA: — Puerto Rico’s debt crisis may soon blow up into a significant 2016 issue.  The island is poised to default on its crushing $72 billion debt. Its government wants to file for Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy, following the path of cities like Detroit, but as a U.S. commonwealth it is barred from doing so. The island’s leaders are launching a campaign to get the law changed, using a mix of public pressure on 2016 candidates and a bipartisan lobbying blitz in D.C. But they face opposition from Wall Street, the Koch brothers’ political network and movement conservatives who think it smacks of a bailout. Puertorriqueños recognize their increasing political clout, particularly in Florida, and they promise to put it to use. In an interview on Telemundo yesterday, Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro García Padilla. want the support of Puerto Ricans must help Puerto Rico now, not later,” he said. “Puerto Ricans decide the elections in Florida. That’s very important. By deciding the...

With Puerto Rico in a sustained economic decline and its government in arrears on debt, the exodus of its residents to the mainland is having a powerful benefit for the Democrats.  Alan Yuhas of the U.K. Guardian writes: Facing a crisis of monumental proportions at home, tens of thousands of people are fleeing a Caribbean island in search of a better life in the United States…. Unable to pay its $73bn debt, Puerto Rico has begun rationing water , closing schools and watching its healthcare system collapse and 45% of its people living in poverty. Emigration to the mainland has accelerated in recent years, activists say, and data shows that from 2003 to 2013 there was a population swing of more than 1.5 million people. “This new wave of immigration can be compared with the immigration in the 1930s and 40s,” said Edgardo González, coordinator of the Defenders of Puerto Rico, an activist group. The Great Depression and second world war spurred the so-called “ Great Migration ”, w...

ebt-ridden Puerto Rico got a bit of good news on Tuesday when the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority and its nervous creditors reportedly moved towards a deal that would permit the utility to pay bondholders more than $400 million as a down payment on its debt. As The Wall Street Journal reported, analysts feared that a default by the utility would have foreshadowed defaults by other public institutions within the commonwealth, which is saddled with about $72 billion of outstanding debt. Related: Greece and Puerto Rico May Force 2016 Candidates to Talk About U.S. Debt      Unlike Detroit and scores of other municipalities and U.S. state-affiliated authorities in fiscal trouble, Puerto Rico can’t avail itself of federal bankruptcy protection to expedite a wholesale restructuring of its debt and simultaneously deal with creditors. Under Chapter 9 of the federal bankruptcy law, only a "municipality" may file for relief -- meaning a political subdivision or public...