[cfif.org] By now, many Americans are familiar with the public debt fiasco that plagues Puerto Rico. The issue has steadily risen in prominence as the gravity of Puerto Rico’s debt load sets in on the American public. Certainly, the island’s economic mismanagement has taken center stage in Washington, as Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla has been called to testify numerous times before Congress.
What probably remains unfamiliar to many Americans, however, is the other specter that haunts Puerto Rico’s government: its seemingly unshakable culture of corruption.Though well-covered on the island, the Garcia Padilla administration’s questionable ties to political fundraiser Anaudi Hernandez hasn’t truly broken into the mainstream media landscape.
Hernandez, along with nine other Puerto Rican businessmen and officials, was arrested in December 2015 as part of an ongoing FBI corruption investigation into Padilla’s government. At the time of their arrests, FBI special agent for San Juan, Carlos Cases, issued a scathing indictment of Puerto Rico’s government and the role corruption played in driving it to the brink of default, stating, "Unfortunately, this is one more case of graft, greed, and corruption that over the last 20 years have contributed to the government of Puerto Rico's fragile economic condition and [placed it] on the brink of bankruptcy... Let there be no doubt this is only the beginning and the investigation will continue."