Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Puerto Rico Crippled Before Hurricane Hit
Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
12 Dec 2017
🖨️ Print Article

Harsh austerity measures imposed by a federal financial oversight board set Puerto Rico up for disaster, said Lara Merling, a researcher for the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research. A new study shows about 1,000 more deaths resulted from Hurricane Irma than were officially reported. “It’s not surprising that the Puerto Rican government had no ability to respond” to the storm, as a result of the spending cuts, said Merling.

Puerto Rico

Related Podcasts

BAR Radio Logo
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Radio March 6, 2026
06 March 2026
In this week’s segment, we discuss past and present U.S.
Puerto Rico independence movement
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution and Struggle for Independence in Puerto Rico
06 March 2026
Brianna Alvarado Ramos of Diaspora Pa’lante Collective discusses the challenges
BAR Radio Logo
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Radio September 19, 2025
20 September 2025
In this week’s segment, we discuss a new book that analyzes the latest iteration of fascism currently emerging in the United States.

More Stories


  • Robert Brooks memorial
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Robert Brooks, Rikers Island and the Fight Against New York Incarceration
    10 Jan 2025
    Darren Mack, co-founder and co-director of Freedom Agenda, talks to us about the killing of Robert Brooks, who died after being beaten by corrections officers in a New York state prison, and the need…
  • International Decade of People of African Descent
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Cuban Conference Against Racism and Racial Discrimination
    10 Jan 2025
    The National Program against racism and racial discrimination conference was held in Cuba as part of the UN declared International Decade of People of African Descent.
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Ghost of Jimmy Carter
    08 Jan 2025
    Hagiography is inevitable when presidents and other prominent people die. The unwillingness to ‘speak ill of the dead’ and the propaganda that would have us believe in American exceptionalism must be…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Unconscionable Costs, Ronald V. Dellums, 1983
    08 Jan 2025
    The late Ronald V. Dellums shows us how to fight against the Pentagon-inspired madness of military spending and nuclear proliferation.
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Remembering Jamaica in the East/West Crossfire
    08 Jan 2025
    Jamaicans still remember their visionary leaders, Norman and Michael Manley, and the bloody general election of 1980.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us