Disaster Capitalism Makes Landfall in Puerto Rico

In 2017, Hurricane Maria, one of the most powerful storms ever recorded, battered the island of Puerto Rico. In the aftermath, big banks, crypto bros and other ‘disaster capitalists’ swooped in to take advantage of the crisis. No one realized the full scope of death and destruction until a scrappy team of journalists started to investigate. They exposed a corrupt system that continues to threaten Puerto Rico’s power grid, its people and the environment.

Featured in this episode:

Carla Minet

Sources:

The investigative journalism of Carla Minet and her team at the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo

https://periodismoinvestigativo.com/ 

Naomi Klein’s book The Battle for Paradise: Puerto Rico Takes on the Disaster Capitalists 

and her Intercept article “There’s Nothing Natural About Puerto Rico’s Disaster”

https://theintercept.com/2018/09/21/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-disaster-capitalism/ 

Yalixa Rivera and Jonathan Levin’s Bloomberg article “Can Crypto, Cannabis, and Nicolas Cage Boost Puerto Rico’s Economy?”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-10/can-crypto-cannabis-and-nicolas-cage-boost-puerto-rico-s-economy 

David Yaffe-Bellany and Laura N. Pérez Sánchez’s New York Times article “The Unraveling of a Crypto Dream”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/13/technology/brock-pierce-crypto-puerto-rico.html 

Fernando Tormos-Aponte’s In These Times “How an Investigative Journalism Center Helped Oust Puerto Rican Gov. Rosselló”

https://inthesetimes.com/article/investigative-journalism-rossello-puerto-rico-protests

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