Crisis of Puerto Rico in 5 Graphs. On September 30 2016, a historical fact took place in Puerto Rico: For the first time since 1898 the authorities of the USA took under their control the finances and most of the agencies of the Government of Puerto Rico. It was the consequence of PROMESA (Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act), an Act of the Congress of the USA with an ironic name that dramatically changed the economic relation between Puerto Rico and the United States.

Actually, there is a Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico that consists of seven members appointed by the President of the United States and one ex officio member designated by the Governor of Puerto Rico. The Board was established with broad powers of financial and budgetary control of Puerto Rico. Those powers are incompatible with the standards of self-government of the United Nations and in fact are a mutation of the rules of the Constitution of Puerto Rico… without modifying a line of its text.

During the years of the crisis we can identify two aspects of its relationship with the United States: Puerto Rico is was excluded from bankrupcy (that was a good solution in other cases, such as Detroit) and when they decided to legislate, the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed that Puerto Rico can’t legislate to restructure its debts and struck it down. These are some consequences of being only a Free Associated State, or seen from the American side, an unincorporated territory under the control of the Authorities of the United States.

How can we summarize the crisis of Puerto Rico?