Petition to 2020 Democratic presidential candidates:
"Return donations from employees of hedge funds invested in Puerto Rico's debt and commit to ending the Financial Oversight and Management Board's control over the economic life of the island"
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The vulture funds that are terrorizing the people of Puerto Rico already donated more than $231,000 to 2020 Democratic candidates. Even though the damage the firms are inflicting on Puerto Rico is clear, only Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have returned the firms' donations.1What hedge funds are doing to Puerto Rico is despicable. The Wall Street hedge funds, known as vulture funds, that own Puerto Rico's debts are forcing the island to close schools and cut budgets to line their own pockets. Their main tool is an unelected Financial Oversight Management Board, known as the junta, that is imposing brutal austerity on the island to serve the interest of Wall Street over the Puerto Rican people.
Puerto Ricans fighting for their island's future are demanding an end to the junta and for 2020 Democrats to return vulture fund contributions.2 We need to stand in solidarity and echo their demands.
Four hundred public schools have been closed. Local government budgets were slashed by $150 million so far, and another $220 million in cuts are planned. The University of Puerto Rico's budget was cut in half. Those massive cuts are going to the vulture funds that buy up debt for pennies on the dollar and demand repayment in full. These Wall Street vulture funds are costing lives and creating suffering to line their own pockets.3
The heroes of the resistance in Puerto Rico are the people who are rising up against this despicable state of affairs, including by ousting corrupt Gov. Ricardo Rosselló.
Top recipients of vulture fund cash include Michael Bennet ($49,800), Beto O'Rourke ($28,750), John Delaney ($26,300), Joe Biden ($25,350) and Pete Buttigieg ($21,350). Sens. Kamala Harris ($15,500), who co-sponsored a Warren-Sanders bill to cancel Puerto Rico's debts, and Cory Booker ($23,300), who signed a letter demanding the end of the junta, have also not yet returned donations. Sanders and Warren joined other progressive champions in the House of Representatives and Senate in a letter demanding an end to the junta's control over Puerto Rico.4,5
Our friends at the Center for Popular Democracy, Make the Road Action, Vamos4PR Action, New York Communities for Change, Hedge Clippers, Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora and many more are demanding that 2020 Democrats return dirty money from Puerto Rico vulture funds. As their letter to the candidates puts it so clearly: “You can either stand with the people of Puerto Rico or with the hedge funds that have harmed Puerto Rico. You can’t do both.”6
Tell 2020 Democrats: Stand with Puerto Rico. Click below to sign the petition:
Heidi Hess, CREDO Action
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