Madagascar Development

QUEBRADILLAS, P.R. — Far from the bustle of the capital, San Juan, in places where time walks slowly, jobs are scarce and colonial history dates to the era of pirates, some of Puerto Rico’s most powerful figures — municipal mayors — spend their days obliging, cajoling and demanding. Townspeople line up at their doors to plead for help: Abuela died, and no one can pay her funeral expenses. Can you help? Yes. The wood in my house is rotting. Can you help? Yes. The town needs another baseball field. Can you help? Yes. My cousin needs a job — can you hire her? Let me see what I can do. It is a ritual as familiar to the 78 mayors who oversee Puerto Rico’s 78 large and small  municipios , or municipalities — a few no bigger than several square miles — as the nighttime trill of the coquí frogs and the relief of summer downpours. But with Puerto Rico carrying $72 billion in debt after decades of borrowing and overspending , and an independent, federally appointed  control boa...

A group of Senate liberals is pushing the White House and congressional leadership to appoint Puerto Rican representatives to an oversight board charged with handling the island’s $72 billion debt crisis.  Sens.  Bernie Sanders  (I-Vt),  Bob Menendez  (D-N.J.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and  Jeff Merkley  (D-Ore.) said the seven-person oversight board established by a bill passed last week should only include people with primary residences in Puerto Rico. “The board will hold unprecedented power over the fiscal management and general governance of the island,” wrote the senators in two letters sent Thursday: one to President Obama and another to Speaker  Paul Ryan  (R-Wis.), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader  Mitch McConnell  (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader  Harry Reid  (D-Nev.). “The Puerto Rican people deserve this most basic respect,” the senators wrote. The oversight board has ...

Puerto Rico Government Development Bank President Melba Acosta will leave the bank at the end of July as President Barack Obama forms a control board to oversee the island’s finances. The Government Development Bank has been running out of cash and defaulted in May on $370 million due to bondholders. It has been operating under an emergency period, which allows withdrawals only for public health and safety programs. The bank served for years as overseer of the island’s finances until Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla in April appointed Victor Suarez, Puerto Rico’s Secretary of State, to serve as the commonwealth’s fiscal agent. Acosta has served as the GDB’s president since October 2014. Garcia Padilla accepted Acosta’s resignation Thursday, the governor said in a statement. Her last day at the bank will be July 31. Obama has until Sept. 15 to create a seven-member control board that will monitor Puerto Rico’s budgets and oversee any restructuring to reduce the island’s $70 bi...

Three prominent New Yorkers are among those being considered for a spot on the federal Puerto Rico fiscal control board, the Daily News has learned. The U.S. Senate on Wednesday gave final congressional approval to legislation to create a board to help the financially beleaguered Puerto Rico restructure its $72 billion debt and move forward. Obama signed the legislation Thursday. He will pick the members, some of whom will come from lists provided by congressional leaders. Former Gov. George Pataki, ex-Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch, and business turnaround expert and potential 2018 gubernatorial candidate Harry Wilson are among the names under consideration for the seven-member board, sources say. Pataki owns property in Puerto Rico while Ravitch is crediting with helping with the New York City financial bailout in the 1970s. Wilson, who like Pataki is a Republican, in 2009 helped with the restructuring of General Motors as part of a federal automotive task force created by Presi...

Porfirio Guerrero has grown increasingly frustrated as a decade-long recession has sapped business from his tailor shop in the Puerto Rican capital. He now feels the only way for the island to recover is to become a full-fledged part of the United States, a sentiment that is gaining force in the territory. Puerto Ricans have been divided for decades on whether to remain a semi-autonomous commonwealth, push for statehood or break away entirely from the United States. The island's economic crisis — including a $70 billion debt and looming default — have pushed many like Guerrero toward statehood. "Can't you see the devastation around here?" he says, gesturing at struggling and shuttered shops that make up the once thriving business district of Rio Piedras. "It would depress anyone. We need statehood." That feeling has been reinforced by Congress' approval on Wednesday of a measure meant to help the island out of its deep economic malaise. The bill, ...

Three major bond insurers are bracing for the possibility of a historic payout if Puerto Rico defaults on debt due Friday. Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla Thursday reiterated statements that the commonwealth cannot afford to make the payment and cited an April law that allows Puerto Rico to temporarily stop paying bond debt. Mr. Garcia Padilla has long said that the island would not be able cover the July 1 payment of nearly $2 billion. That could trigger as much as hundreds of millions in payments from insurers  Ambac Financial Group ,   National Public Finance Guarantee  Corp.  and  Assured Guaranty  Ltd.  to cover principal and interest, in what would be the biggest insurer payout to date in Puerto Rico. It isn’t yet known how likely this worst-case scenario is since it is unclear just how much the insurers will have to pay. In some cases, the reserve funds set aside by Puerto Rico could cover paym...

Puerto Rico to register largest default to  date 7 Hours Ago|00:43 Puerto Rico  is set to register its largest default to date on Friday as $2 billion in debt payments are due to the financially strapped island's creditors. The payments include more than $1 billion in general obligation bonds, the island's highest tiered credit that carries a constitutional lien on revenues. The largest default prior to this was on May 2 when the Government Development Bank, which formerly acted as the island's primary fiscal agent and lender of last resort, defaulted on $367 million due to its bondholders. Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla issued two executive orders Thursday suspending payments on the general obligation bonds and declaring a state of emergency at several of the island's agencies in order "to ensure the residents of Puerto Rico continue to receive essential services while the Commonwealth continues to face a delicate financial situation," a...