The speaker of the majority in the House of Representatives and the representative for Carolina, Ángel Matos García, denounced this morning before the United States Department of State and the Federal Department of the Treasury the celebrated attempt of the government of Puerto Rico to privatize the Juan docks. Cruise ship in a Public-Private Alliance model, which for 5 years Pedro Pierluisi and his lobbyists have worked together with the Director of Ports, Joel Pizá and the head of the Office of Public-Private Alliances, Fermín Fontanés.
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“In recent weeks, we have sought an audience with the Treasury Department, which is headed by Andrea Gacki, and the federal Department of State, which is headed by Antony Blinken, to bring our complaints and legislative inquiries to them. seen for the most fraudulent transaction. in history in the ports of Puerto Rico. The government insists on privatizing the tourist docks of San Juan to a privatizer who does not have the economic capacity, the necessary experience, and who has fraudulently arrived at the Ports Authority, due to money and political connections. Now they intend to take the docks of San Juan, endangering thousands of jobs in Puerto Rico, in addition to the stability of the country’s tourism industry,” said Matos García.
Representative Matos García has, over the years, denounced the Puerto Rican government’s attempt to privatize the San Juan docks in a Public-Private Alliance model that has not been transparent with the country. “At a time when cases of port corruption have shown that the Ports Authority is out of control, now unnamed lobbyists and in an unsolicited auction model attempt to privatize $5 billion. of San Juan’s critical port infrastructure, for only an initial $75 million and a chain of pledges that could bring the transaction to just $300 million.”
“I will ask Congressman Raul Grijalva as president of the Natural Resources Committee of the United States Congress to investigate the risk of this transaction. A famous public hearing on the privatization of San Juan will be held so that the people of Puerto Rico can see first hand how corruption and the desire for illegal enrichment are the goal of this administration. “It seems incredible that nothing has been learned from the privatization of LUMA and now the director of the port authority, Joel Pizá, is bringing the “LUMA of the seas” to the tourist docks of San Juan”, specified the Representative.
“During the last week of August or the first week of September, we will hold meetings in the federal capital to stop this corrupt transaction, in which I do not rule out that federal authorities such as the Federal Department of Justice will intervene in this transaction. This theft of the assets of the people of Puerto Rico must be stopped at all costs”, concluded Matos García.
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