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6/12/00 4:45 p.m.
Weird Week for Puerto Rico
Events this week could cost its pro-statehood New Progressive Party control of the island's government.

By Jim Boulet Jr., executive director of English First

unday's Puerto Rico Day Parade in New York City capped a remarkable week of events in Puerto Rico — events which could cost Puerto Rico's pro-statehood New Progressive Party control of the island's government for the first time in eight years and create a new set of troubles for Al Gore's presidential campaign.

The parade was a celebration of Puerto Rico's nationhood, dedicated to the memory of Pedro Albizu Campos, the leader of Puerto Rico's independence movement. Campos was convicted of inciting the attempted assassination of President Truman in 1950. For this reason, Statehood Party leaders boycotted the event.

The parade's theme did not, however, dissuade New York's major politicians. Nor did the fact that they marched with Lolita Lebron, who led the 1954 shooting attack on Congress. The Republican Senate candidate, Rick Lazio, marched in the parade alongside New York's Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Both were booed heartily.

Hillary Rodham Clinton also marched in the parade, alongside Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY). America's First Lady carried a Puerto Rican flag in her hand. Her handlers no doubt reminded her that the American flag was unwelcome. A group of Puerto Rican New York police officers had even sued to wear the flag of Puerto Rico on their uniforms "at cultural activities."

The effort to drive the Navy out of a training center in Vieques, Puerto Rico (land owned by the Navy since World War II) was a persistent parade theme. Chants of "Vieques, si, Navy, no," filled the air. A mock U.S. Navy vessel dragged an effigy of Uncle Sam.

Hillary may not have a problem with this "Yankee go home" rhetoric, but Al Gore and his pro-statehood allies in Puerto Rico just might. Hillary's husband made a deal with Puerto Rico's pro-statehood governor, Pedro Rossello, in January that would allow the Navy to remain in Vieques once the U.S. coughs up $390 million and Puerto Rico gives permission in a referendum. Even as he marched, Senator Schumer was fighting to preserve this bad bargain in the U.S. Senate despite heavy opposition.

Governor Rossello chairs Al Gore's presidential campaign in Puerto Rico. Both agree on the importance of government programs to relieve poverty. In fact, the Statehooders have long argued that only statehood would guarantee Puerto Rico's continued access to the U.S. Treasury. (One of their 1998 ads showed a river of dollar signs continuously flowing from Washington to San Juan.)

Unfortunately for both Gore and Rossello, Rossello's own pro-statehood New Progressive Party has been reeling lately from a series of scandals. It turns out many of those American dollars have ended up relieving poverty among Statehood Party politicians.

Last week, former Statehood Party Senator Freddy Valentin was indicted on 44 federal charges of fraud, extortion, and money laundering in connection with a Puerto Rico Housing Department project. Valentin turned out to be on the payroll of both Puerto Rico's House Speaker, Edison Misla Aldarondo, and its Senate President, Charlie Rodriguez, earning more than $10,000 a month. (Misla Aldarondo defended the contracts, noting that Valentin was able to bring both Newt Gingrich and Dennis Hastert to Puerto Rico.)

Valentin joined Statehood senator Anibal Perez (who resigned in April over charges of accepting gifts for political favors), Statehood fundraiser Luis Dubon Otero (convicted earlier this year of helping embezzle $2.2 million in federal funds intended for AIDS victims), Statehood mayor Angel Rodriguez (convicted in federal court of bribery and conspiracy for demanding a $2.5 million kickback on a $17.5 million hurricane-relief contract), and former Statehood senator Nicolas Nogueras (tried on charges that he and his wife, a former IRS official, evaded $2.2 million in Social Security payments from two hotels Nogueras owned ). Rossello's political heir, gubernatorial candidate Carlos Pesquera, was questioned by FBI agents regarding the Valentin investigation.

The U.S. Attorney's Office is also investigating the Municipal Revenues Collection Center, which collects taxes for the island's 78 municipalities, over irregularities in a multimillion-dollar computer contract. The investigation reportedly centers on several Statehood party mayors and other officials.

The Statehood Party's first attempt at damage control has been to create its own version of "don't ask, don't tell." According to an April report by the Inter-American Press Association, Puerto Rico's legislature is considering laws that would bar access to information about government contracts as well as to Puerto Rico's Bureau of Special Investigation. At the end of last year, Governor Rossello even signed a law allowing those convicted of "criminal libel" to be imprisoned. There are also reports of physical attacks against journalists.

Since the press has not taken this heavy-handed hint, the Statehooders have been forced to call on their many friends in high places in Washington, D.C. They do not lack for friends. Impoverished Puerto Rico is, strangely enough, a fertile source of campaign funds for both Republicans and Democrats — but especially Democrats. In 1998, the Boston Globe reported that "Puerto Ricans contributed nearly as much soft money in 1995 and 1996 as residents of New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont combined." The island generated "a remarkable $2.75 million in contributions for federal campaigns beyond the island, including more than $1 million for President Clinton's reelection effort and nearly $280,000 for the three Kennedys in Congress.

Thus, the same day as the Valentin indictment, the Office of the U.S. Attorney in Puerto Rico announced that it "will evaluate pending corruption charges against Puerto Rico officials to see whether they could affect the upcoming general elections."

Also, perhaps coincidentally, a mere four days after Valentin's indictment for abuse of HUD funds, HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo joined Governor Rossello for a signing ceremony on the grounds of the governor's mansion in San Juan. Puerto Rico's Housing Authority will receive $130 million more over the next four years to make up for a claimed "shortchanging" of the island since 1974.

In a classic example of locking the barn door on a now-empty stable, Cuomo's agreement includes technical assistance "to ensure that the funds are spent effectively and appropriately."

This is but the latest example of the curious relationship between HUD officials and Puerto Rico. In 1995, Lebron Velez, who owns one of Puerto Rico's largest building companies, was videotaped as he attempted to give a handful of checks to Donald Fowler, then-chairman of the Democratic National Committee, while both men were on White House grounds. (The gift was legal. The location was not.) Two months after that fateful meeting, HUD agreed to special treatment for a land deal in San Juan which benefited Velez's company. The approval was revoked by in 1997 by the then-new HUD secretary, Andrew Cuomo.

Puerto Rico's Statehood party currently trails in the Governor's race, 32%-38%, in large part due to the remarkable record of corruption on the part of all too many of its elected officials. The anti-American, anti-Navy feelings of many residents of Puerto Rico aren't helpful to the Party's electoral future either. Thus Sunday's Puerto Rico Day parade might well be described as the opening ceremony for a race featuring federal prosecutors, Puerto Rico's pro-statehood politicians, and Puerto Rico's nationalists. The race promises to be a close one indeed.

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