While Cuba–with its Cold War-relic history, emotional links and geopolitical notoriety–has long been the obsessive center of America’s regional attention and concern, another Caribbean island has been alarmingly devolving on our 21st century watch. Only this one is not a foreign country.
This one is Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory of 3.6 million residents. Its chief of state is Barack Obama.
Its debt is $73 billion and rising, along with anxiety levels, crime rates and departures for the U.S. mainland, especially Florida. It’s been in a recession for a decade, and things are getting even worse. The poverty rate is 41 percent–nearly twice that of Mississippi–and more than a third of the population is on food stamps.
Yes, Cuba is important, and the U.S. is finally positioning itself for the right side of history, but Puerto Rico is family, however exotic and extended.