You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Puerto Rico: FEMA Chief Dismisses San Juan Mayor’s Criticism as “Political Noise”

HeadlineOct 10, 2017

In Puerto Rico, the Trump administration has allowed a 10-day waiver of the Jones Act to lapse, restricting shipments of food, fuel and medicine from foreign-flagged ships as nearly half of the island still lacks clean water and nearly 90 percent lacks electricity more than two weeks after Hurricane Maria struck. The expiration of the Jones Act waiver came over the fierce opposition of San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, who on Sunday blasted the Trump administration’s slow response to the hurricane, tweeting, “Power collapses in San Juan hospital with 4 patients now being transferred out. Have requested support from FEMA. NOTHING.” Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Brock Long on Monday dismissed Mayor Cruz’s comments, telling reporters, “We don’t have time for the political noise.”

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top