Puerto Rican youth currently faces a country in decay. As the government continues to take measures against public essentials, most notably for college students and cuts towards the University of Puerto Rico system, a new generation faces a challenging life in an unstable country.
For this reason, UPRM’s own Asociación de Estudiantes de Ciencias Políticas invited representative, Manuel Natal Albelo from the Popular Democratic Party, a politician that has gained popularity among millennials for his progressive perspectives and initiatives.
The conference was titled Economia y Politica en la Juventud Puertorriqueña (Economy and Politics in the Puerto Rican Youth), and presented by representative Natal, who talked about how old and current measures taken by the government have impacted Puerto Rico negatively. With this, he was looking to open the discussion on how the youth can insert themselves in the political process and bring about social change.
Professor Reinaldo Rosado introducing Rep. Natal.
Introduced by professor, Reinaldo Rosado, with whom Natal has worked with in the past, students were given a summary of the three crises that, according to Natal, affect Puerto Rico the most: the economic, the fiscal, and the political crisis.
On the economic and fiscal crises, Natal elaborated on facts of how the government’s bad managing of public money and the excessive use of bonds has driven Puerto Rico into an economic depression of which it can’t get out of. This is directly related to the political crisis, as corrupt public servants have been the causes for these problems.
Natal also discussed the media’s presence in the political process and how parties use them to influence public opinion. The political ties that the media has with politicians has obstructed politics. He calls this the “block of power,” composed of corporations and people in power that are interdependent of each other. Natal made notice of the GFR Group, owners of the El Nuevo Día and Primera Hora newspapers.
Natal commencing the conference.
Next followed a Q&A session where participants were able to ask Representative Natal any of their questions. Students questioned the politician on the role of unions in the political process, which Natal expressed his support for them and recognized them as a useful vehicle for citizens to participate in politics. A Political Sciences thesis student asked him about the reason behind voter absenteeism, which Natal responded by saying that he believes that it is due to two factors: the potential voter’s feelings of disinterest due to the colonial relation Puerto Rico has with the United States causing them to see the elections as invalid, and the phenomenon where potential voters don’t feel represented by the people in the ballots.
A student proceeded to ask him about cuts to the government, which the student believes is too big, to which Natal responded that he believes the problem isn’t the size of our government, rather the fact that it is opting for cutting support towards public essentials instead of its questionable contracts; adding the recent law proposal made by Senator Nelson Cruz, where he proposes to facilitate the process to obtain a firearm in Puerto Rico under the message that it would lower crime rates. Representative Natal responded that although the proposal has not reached the Chamber and he has not taken the time to read it in detail, he expressed that his personal belief tends to not seeing guns as the solution against crime.
Rep. Natal answering Political Sciences student Gabriel Delgado’s question.
With the conference, the politician urged the students to break the aforementioned “block of power” and advised them that, although adversities and public disbelief will most certainly follow, they should aspire for social change. Our contributions as citizens are valid and it is time to take the power out of the hands of people that fail to see beyond their own personal interests.