Chair moves to Puerto Rico Zoom panel; Julio Lopez Varona testifies

Thank you all so much for coming.

And as I said to the other panel, please engage with the council.

We'd love to figure out ways to partner and be helpful.

So feel free to reach out to us.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay, we are going to go to, is this the last panel of Zoom?

Well, okay, yeah, so we're gonna go to the last panel on Zoom in Puerto Rico, and with that, we'll have Julio, Christian, and Hernales.

And Emma.

Emma.

Emma?

Emma.

Please pardon my very American accent.

Sorry.

I want to say it correctly.

Should I start?

All you.

Thank you.

Well, good morning, members of the New York City Council.

Good afternoon, I should say.

My name is Julio Lopez Barona.

I'm from Puerto Rico and have lived through the consequences of austerity measures imposed under the Fiscal Oversight and Management Board and the greed and exploitation of bullish reports.

Today I'm testifying on behalf of the Commission para Ciudadana para la Auditoría Integral del Crédito Público in support of Resolution

No.

28, calling on Congress to establish a date for ending the board, and Resolution No.

22, supporting New York's legislation to curb predatory debt practices.

We are a nonprofit citizen-led organization that conducts independent research on Puerto Rico's public debt and advocates for democratic, rights-based fiscal policy.

And we have been at the front lines with people like Christian and Christina and others finding the board for more than 10 years.

It's been 10 years after Promesa was created and the Oversight Board,

and Puerto Rico continues to face austerity measures while all elected officials retain extraordinary control over our budgets and our fiscal policy.

During this period, hundreds of public schools have closed, the University of Puerto Rico has faced these cuts, as we heard before, and the island electrical system has been privatized amid

resistance, service failures, and blackouts.

This is not a 10-year thing.

Last Thursday, 400,000 people were without power for about five hours.

So this is happening almost every day.

Meanwhile, hedge funds and other investors have published Puerto Rico's debt at steep discounts, cents on the dollar, have continued pursuing aggressive repayment through the courts.

PREPA, for example, bondholders still are seeking additional payments that could translate into higher electrical bills for people like me, for families, for my mom, and for everybody that lives here, with a power grid that continues to fail.

So the fact that we're paying more doesn't mean that we're getting better service.

Puerto Rico's experience is not unique.

In cases involving Puerto Rico, Argentina, and Greece, some creditors have relied on litigation to extend the capacity they have to litigate and to make more money.

This practice creates incentives that allow for these external players to come in to make more money and to further suffer in Puerto Rico.

And this is where New York comes to play.

Champerty and related practices can create the incentives that make it even worse for Puerto Rico.

And Resolution No.

27 can help address these practices by preventing some really basic financial practices from happening.

I want to just make sure that people understand the real human consequences.

Puerto Rico has lost 15% of its population over the last 10 years.

Puerto Rico's poverty is at 45% over the poverty line.

So we're talking about how people are living in Puerto Rico.

Many people are suffering.

And also it's important that you understand this is not only a Puerto Rico issue.

Puerto Rico has 700,000 people that call themselves Puerto Rican living in New York.

And those families are connected to what's happening in Puerto Rico.

Those are the people that are moving money to Puerto Rico.

And those are the people that got like gave homes to Puerto Ricans when Puerto Rico had Hurricane Maria.

But also you should remember that it's not only Puerto Ricans, it's the rest of the world living in Puerto Rico and in many cases migrating to New York because they cannot sustain

the impacts that these headphones have had on the island.

With all of that said, we urge the council to pass those resolutions.

Puerto Rico should be determined by democratic governance.

We might have a crappy governor, but we still want to make sure that we have a governor that we can hold accountable.

And financial practices should not allow investors to profit at the expense of community.

People should always come before profits.

Thank you for your consideration.