Jorge Lopez Martinez testifies on Defiende a Cabo Rojo
Jorge Lopez Martinez, on behalf of the Defiende a Cabo Rojo Coalition, testifies in support of Resolutions 494 and 28. He describes Project Esencia as a neocolonial settlement that would steal water and destroy ecosystems.
Good afternoon.
My name is Jorge Lopez Martinez, and I'm here on behalf of the Defiende a Cabo Rojo Coalition, La Coalición Defiende a Cabo Rojo, to address the Council Committee in support of Resolution 494 and Resolution 28.
At Defiende a Cabo Rojo, a broad coalition of individuals and organizations based in southwestern Puerto Rico, with allies across the archipelago and the diaspora, like myself,
We have taken on the duty of defending and protecting our people, land, water, and heritage against the present pattern of dispossession and destruction disguised as investment and development and facilitated by a racist, neocolonial, pro-billionaire political economy.
The private city Essencia proposed for construction in Cabo Rojo further restricts the right to self-determination and territorial sovereignty that Puerto Rico lacks as a U.S.
Colony.
Greenwashed in its marketing, Essencia is a neocolonial settlement and enclave for billionaires promoted by foreign firms like the Rubin Brothers and local ones like Three Rules Capital with the complicity of the colonial government.
As other mega projects looming over us like Moncayo, The Cliff, Loiza Ocean, among others, Essencia would not benefit the Puerto Rican economy at all.
Yet the government has already given them over $500 million in tax exemptions and credits.
This same government is now advancing unconstitutional laws and amendments to favor oligarchs and technocrats, dismantling
environmental protections, and give projects like this free rhyme.
Sounds familiar?
All of this overlooked by an undemocratic, aimless, U.S.
Congress-imposed fiscal oversight board known as La Junta that over the past 10 years has spent over more than $2.2 billion from the already constrained government budget.
To our people,
Essencia would offer just a handful of jobs in service of the same ultra-rich, white class responsible for 50% of global carbon emissions.
Like other cases in Mexico, Hawaii, Jamaica, and the one halted by the Albanian people, Essencia recreates the extractivist plantation economy and enslavement of a not-so-distant past in the Caribbean.
Essencia would also steal millions of gallons of water on a daily basis in an area suffering from chronic shortages and characterized by its dry climate conditions,
destroy ecosystems like mangroves and coastal lagoons shielding us from the climate crisis in a zone of protected ecologically valuable soils and adjacent wildlife reserves,
fragment a coastal subtropical dry forest biodiversity hotspot and home to the endemic and endangered species, desecrate archaeological sites and monetize our indigenous heritage.
Privatize one of the few remaining pristine beaches left in Puerto Rico, tear apart the social fabric of the community characterized by working class.
Can you try to wrap it up in 30 seconds, please?
Yes, this is important.
Fishing.
LGBTQ plus and Afro-Puerto Rican traditions as well as by a local tourist economy.
Displace our population and replace it with elites who believe themselves to be owners and masters of everything and everyone.
Despite 534 years of colonization, Boricay has always been, is, and will be free in our consciousness and action.
We belong to our beloved islands and its proud heritage of struggle.
Puerto Ricans living here in New York like myself know what it's like to be displaced from our homeland.
We are determined to not allow it anymore.
Whatever it takes, Esencia will not be built.
Esencia no va.
We will not be erased.
This struggle is for our lives.
Y a la junta ni un vaso de agua.