George F. Will painted a seriously distorted picture in his April 28 op-ed, “Contain Puerto Rico’s crisis.” Mistakes have been made in Puerto Rico over many years and under both parties. Mr. Will neglected to note, however, that, over 10 years beginning in 1996, Congress phased out a manufacturing tax incentive that had benefited Puerto Rico since the 1970s. That move resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and plunged the island into a recession from which it has yet to emerge. Mr. Will also neglected to note the many steps taken in recent years to reduce public employment rolls, reform pensions, cut spending and increase revenue. The island’s debt, unfortunately, is too large to service and maintain basic services.

Neither the governor nor Puerto Rico’s Senate president oppose a federal oversight board for the island. Eduardo Bhatia, the Senate president, said, “I don’t have a problem with a board that advises, that supervises, one with which we can have a discussion.” Gov. Alejandro García-Padilla said the legislation was “ a step in the right direction.”

Purchasers of Puerto Rican bonds should have known that Congress could extend restructuring authority to Puerto Rico. They purchased those bonds subject to that risk. Puerto Rico cannot emerge from the crisis without the temporary authority to restructure all of its debt; the consequences of cascading defaults will be far worse for all parties than the grant of this necessary authority now.

Juan E. Hernández, Washington

The writer is the Puerto Rican governor’s Washington representative and director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration.