Moneda Moves (32): #RickyRenuncio, and now what? 🤔🇵🇷
Buenos días, mi gente. Moneda Moves is back from hiatus to get you through hump day with top Latinx and money headlines of the week! We break down the recent past and present for the island of Puerto Rico from a money perspective, what Puerto Ricans want to hear at the democratic debate this week y más.
Con poder✊🏽,
Lyanne
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Keep tabs/cuentas on what's happening at the intersection of Latinx and money.
Ricky Rosselló not only had a leaked messages issue, he had a money and corruption issue🇵🇷: There's been a lot of political developments coming out of Puerto Rico and if you've remotely kept up with the news, at the very least you know Puerto Rico's troubled governor Ricardo Rosselló will resign end of week, on Friday, August 2. The next person in line to get the job also doesn't want it. That's Justice Department Secretary Wanda Vázquez, and, by the way, Puerto Ricans are calling for her resignation as well. Many see her as an ally of Rosselló's. Latest reports say Rosselló will name Pedro Pierluisi as his successor. He is the commonwealth’s former representative in U.S. Congress and representing the federal oversight board in the island's bankruptcy process, per Fortune. But the decision is not final until it passes the House. That is yet to be determined.
While ChatGate, or the leaked Telegram messages between Rosselló and his inner circle displaying sexist, homophobic and violent language was the latest reason residents of the island were enraged, Puerto Ricans were at the tipping point far before then. Just earlier in July, the FBI arrested former cabinet officials for a corruption probe. The money handled in question? A whopping $15.5 million in post-hurricane contracts. Read a good breakdown of the economic situation on the island from Vox's Alexia Fernandez Campbell. And shameless plug for a colega's newsletter: If you want to be briefed on general news in Puerto Rico weekly, add Pa'lante to your weekly mix. It will be in your inbox every Monday.
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What Puerto Ricans want to hear at this week's #DemDebate: Presidential debates kicked off last night in Michigan and what they should be ready to address given current events is the crisis in Puerto Rico. As if political turmoil were not enough, the island has an enormous debt crisis on its hands, unemployment is at almost double the the national rate: 7.7 percent, and nearly half of its 3 million residents live in poverty. Years before this, Congress let tax incentives expire for US companies doing business there.
"On Tuesday and Wednesday, when presidential hopefuls meet on the debate stage in Michigan, they’ll have the opportunity to make up for one of their biggest mistakes during the first primary debate: ignoring Puerto Rico," writes Alexia Fernández Campbell for Vox (on that note, a big shout-out to Alexia on her PR coverage -- keep it coming🔥).
How anti-abortion laws and cuts to family clinics will disproportionately hurt people in marginalized communities: In June, The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decided that the administration can withhold federal funding from clinics and family planning organizations. This is not only restrictive to women's reproductive rights, but it will also particularly hit marginalized communities. Why? 4.5 million people today receive help and services in some way from the federal family planning grant program and at least one third of them identify as Latinx. Now, women, many who are low income are at risk of losing these federally-funded services. The complete report is written by Giselle Defares for BESE.
Put your money/monedita where your mouth is! Some money updates for thought.
Louis Vuitton gets called out...by the Mexican government for selling indigenous designs on $18,000 chairs🇲🇽: It's not the first time it's happened: A designer brand takes *heavy* inspiration from an indigenous design or pattern almost to a T and then sells it for thousands of dollars to a high end crowd. This time the government of Mexico called out Louis Vuitton for embroideries on a chair in a 2019 collection. On July 5, Cultural Minister Alejandra Fausto wrote that the artistic pattern belonged to the indigenous community of Tenango de Doria.
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Louis Vuitton wrote that it was working with Mexican artists on the designed chairs, but the item in question has since been removed. While there aren't set laws that prohibit luxury brands or any brand, for that matter, from essentially stealing designs, these cases serve as foreshadowing of what could be to come. There is a movement underway from organizations seeking to protect indigenous communities from cultural appropriation via more stringent intellectual property laws. Mexico is taking part in that movement (arriba, Mexico!), as Reuters recently reported that: “Mexico’s ruling leftist National Regeneration Movement has been planning legislation to protect indigenous communities from plagiarism and having their work used by others without receiving fair compensation.” The full story is by Pamela Avila in We Are Mitu.
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