USApr1

[Christopher Landau @DeputySecState]

The Ortega-Murillo dictatorship in Nicaragua is responsible for the death of Brooklyn Rivera, leader of the indigenous-aligned YATAMA political party. He died this weekend as the regime's prisoner after 3 years of inhumane treatment, unjust detention, and enforced disappearance. The US stands with those, like Brooklyn, committed to a free Nicaragua. RIP/QEPD Ta Upla Rivera. 🇺🇸🙏🇳🇮

[Rick Scott @SenRickScott]

When democrats go parading around Cuba, they support doing THIS to a HUMAN BEING.

This is not a picture from World War II, this is Alexander Diaz Rodriguez, a POLITICAL PRISONER in Cuba who was starved and tortured by the illegitimate regime.

[Rick Scott @SenRickScott]

The United States must immediately reimpose sanctions on Delcy Rodríguez.

VÍCTOR HUGO QUERO NAVAS was kidnapped, tortured, isolated, and killed by Maduro’s evil thugs.

For 16 months, his mother Carmen searched from prison to prison looking for answers while the regime hid the horrifying truth: Víctor Hugo had been murdered and buried 9 months ago by the same thugs who held him in custody.

The brutality of the Maduro dictatorship, now led by Delcy Rodríguez, knows NO limits.

Delcy Rodríguez owes immediate answers to the people of Venezuela and to the world.

And let me be clear: every political prisoner in Venezuela, including the disappeared, must be RELEASED NOW.

Every single person responsible for this crime against humanity will be held accountable.

[Bad Hombre @Badhombre]

AOC cost 25,000 people their jobs in Queens by opposing Amazon’s project.

Elizabeth Warren and Mayor Pete cost 17,000 people their jobs by opposing the JetBlue-Spirit merger.

Gavin Newsom cost 82,000 people their jobs by driving Tesla, SpaceX, Oracle, Chevron, Palantir, Charles Schwab, and HP out of California.

Joe Biden and Kamala cost 11,000 people their jobs by shutting down construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.

None of this was a mistake. It’s a policy choice by Democrats. Unemployed and displaced workers turn to and become dependent on government social programs. Without welfare recipients and illegal aliens, Democrats don’t have a base.

[Major League Soccer @MLS]

Ídolo 🎶 @MarcAnthony performs the first-ever national anthem at Nu Stadium!

[Carter Hughes @itscarterhughes]

🚨Bill Clinton: "Palestinians were offered a state on the entire West Bank & east Jerusalem as its capital. Israel accepted, but Palestinians refused. They did not care about a homeland for the Palestinians. All they wanted was to kill Israelis."

Follow me: @ItsCarterHughes

[Fox News @FoxNews]

BREAKING: White House considering temporary Jones Act waiver to keep shipments moving to U.S. ports, Leavitt tells Fox News

[Eugenio Matías Pérez @dreugeniomatias]

Puerto Rico deserves to be a state of the Union. Its people have earned it. It is time to end the limited and shameful territorial status and grant Puerto Ricans full and equal constitutional rights. A democracy is strongest when it lives up to its ideals—when every citizen is treated with dignity, equality, and given a voice in the nation they help build. Granting Puerto Rico full statehood would not only correct a historic injustice, but also reaffirm the moral promise that in America, liberty and representation belong to all. 🇺🇸

#StatehoodPR #PR51 #PuertoRico #NuestraCasusaEsPoderosa #DelegaciónExtendida

[Luis D Dávila Pernas @DavilaPernas]

Imagine if this happened in Florida.
Or Texas.
Or California.

You’d call it taxation without representation.

For Puerto Rico, it’s the status quo.

#PuertoRico #Statehood #TaxationWithoutRepresentation #Congress

[Cate Long @cate_long]

Just listened to the 50th public meeting of PR OBoard (plus ~30 minutes of a press conference). The OBoard is consumed w/ budgeting (likely because the executive director is a former budget director) & zero minutes discussing past due audited financials #muniland.

There are two elements to "fiscal responsibility" and "access to the credit markets" which are the goals Congress embedded in Promesa.

One element is having reasonably robust budgeting process & the other is building & maintaining an accounting system that allows govt parties, citizens and the credit markets to evaluate the health of an entity's finances via audited financials.

Why has the OBoard neglected to focus on accounting systems & audited financials for 9 years?

In my opinion it is because that allows to them misrepresent the condition of govt entities in the bankruptcies. Prepa bondholders administrative expense claim is exhibit one (the last Prepa audited financials are from fiscal year 2022 - it is now almost fiscal year 2027).

@luisjovalentin asked what the status of the Enterprise Resource Planning project is that the OBoard has said for years is fundamental to getting financial reporting up to date (images below left & center from the June 2025 Commonwealth fiscal plan).

The OBoard executive director had no knowledge of the progress of the implementation of the ERP system & deferred to the government who he said is solely responsible.

Recall that Congress required that the debtor had "adopted procedures necessary to deliver timely audited financial statements" before debt restructuring negotiations even began (48 USC 2146).

9 years into the bankruptcy and the OBoard wont even mention "audited financial statements" at a meeting about "fiscal responsibility".

The sooner these OBoard members are removed the better.

[Joel Salgado @JoelEnriqueS]

The Role of Puerto Rico in the American Revolution: A Forgotten Chapter of History

During and after the American Revolution of the Thirteen Colonies, between 1775 and 1797, Puerto Rico (PR) played a discreet but significant role in the conflict for the independence of the North American colonies from the British Empire.

In 1777, a curious incident took place off the coast of Mayagüez. Two ships of the Continental Navy, the Eudawook and the Henry, were being pursued by the British warship HMS Glasgow. As they approached the Puerto Rican coast, local militiamen noticed the situation and guided the vessels into the town’s bay. After docking, the crew disembarked, and several residents of Mayagüez boarded the ships, raising the Spanish flag to protect them under neutral jurisdiction. The commander of the Glasgow protested and demanded the return of the vessels, but the island’s governor, José Dufresne, firmly refused and ordered the British ship to leave the harbor. This bold act allowed the American ships to be supplied with weapons, food, and water. Shortly afterward, these resources would prove vital to the forces of George Washington.

In 1779, the governor of Louisiana, Bernardo de Gálvez, was appointed Field Marshal of the Spanish colonial army in North America. Under his command, an army composed of Puerto Ricans and other Spanish American soldiers launched a strategic offensive against the British, capturing the cities of Baton Rouge, St. Louis, Mobile, and finally Pensacola, the capital of the British colony of West Florida. In this last battle, Puerto Rican troops under Brigadier General Ramón De Castro played a crucial role in defeating a British force of 2,500 soldiers. Throughout the campaign, Gálvez and his army collaborated with the North American rebels, sending weapons, gunpowder, textiles, and medicine from Cuba to the Mississippi River.

De Castro, who served as Gálvez’s personal Aide-de-Camp in the Mobile and Pensacola campaigns, was appointed governor of PR in 1795. Shortly thereafter, he would face one of the greatest military threats the island had ever experienced from the British Army.

Governor De Castro spent two years strengthening PR’s defenses in preparation for the imminent British attack. By 1797, San Juan possessed one of the most formidable fortifications in the Caribbean: El Morro and Castillo San Cristóbal. Great Britain planned to secure a powerful port in Puerto Rico, ideal for disrupting Spanish trade, launching attacks toward Cuba, Mexico, or South America, and reinforcing control over nearby islands such as Trinidad and Jamaica. By early 1797, the British had already captured Trinidad (from Spain) and Saint Lucia (from France). General Sir Abercromby, following these victories, was sent to take PR as part of this continuing offensive.

On April 17, 1797, Gen. Abercromby launched a large-scale invasion of PR, leading 13,000 men and a fleet of between 60 and 64 vessels. The landing took place in San Juan, near the area of Miramar. General De Castro responded swiftly: he mobilized 4,000 Puerto Rican soldiers, 200 Spanish garrison troops, 2,000 armed farmers, 300 French privateers, and even prisoners released on parole. The defense included more than 376 cannons, 35 mortars, four howitzers, and three swivel guns.

The British underestimated the local resistance. They believed many Puerto Rican creoles were dissatisfied with Spain and would surrender easily. Instead, they encountered a fierce and organized defense under the command of Gen. De Castro. Thanks to the bravery of the defenders and their effective organization, the British offensive failed.

On May 1, 1797, the British invaders withdrew from San Juan, leaving behind weapons, ammunition, and equipment. In honor of this victory, the statue of Juan Ponce de León, erected in 1882 in Old San Juan at Plaza San José on Calle San Sebastián, was forged from the melted metal of the captured British cannons.

Open Thread 🧵

[Cate Long @cate_long]

It's almost 10 years since Congress enacted legislation to impose an oversight board on Puerto Rico to get the island righted fiscally & regain access to credit markets. The PR govt remains years away from achieving Promesa's goals #muniland.

Instead of helping the island govt achieve fiscal responsibility the tenure of the OBoard has been marked by a repeated effort to hide & obfuscate financial data in the various bankruptcy cases.

For example in the Commonwealth case the OBoard used three year old financials from FY2017 to represent supposed lack of debt capacity in FY2021. The OBoard desperately fought discovery efforts by Ambac until they finally cut a deal with them before they were forced to divulge financial data via litigation.

As I noted in my American Bankruptcy Institute piece below Promesa is unique in bankruptcy jurisprudence in that it gives the OBoard subpoena power to force disclosure. Notably the OBoard has never used this authority to create transparency in the government's finances.

I have no doubt that Puerto Rico will go down in bankruptcy history as having the most falsified financial data in American history.

[Ruben Gallego @RubenGallego]

Before Alex Pretti and Renee Good, federal agents killed Ruben Ray Martinez. They covered it up.

He was a 23 year old Texan and American citizen. How many more people have been killed by the government that we don’t know about? We need a full investigation now.

[Luiyo🇺🇸🇵🇷 @luismedina_431]

You’re still a commie and you don’t represent puerto ricans.

[LongTime🤓FirstTime👨‍💻 @LongTimeHistory]

UPDATE—Father protests after ICE raid elementary bus stop.

"I've never protested before in my entire life," he says emotional.

"But then I watched 4th and 5th grade kids run away from their own government."

"I never want to see a child run away from our own government again."

[ℭ𝔥𝔯𝔦𝔰𝔱𝔦𝔞𝔫𝕏 @ChristianX369]

@FoxNews Puerto Rico requires photo ID to vote on Election Day, and now we’re leading the nation in protecting our children. The states should take note.

[Rep. Jamie Raskin @RepRaskin]

I just exercised my right as a Member of Congress to conduct an unannounced oversight visit of the ICE field facility in Baltimore. The staff I met with respected my right to visit, but what I saw was disgraceful. Kristi Noem has a budget of $75 billion she could use to ensure humane conditions, but we saw 60 men packed into a room shoulder-to-shoulder, 24-hours-a-day, with a single toilet in the room and no shower facilities. They sleep like sardines with aluminum foil blankets. Whether it’s for three days or seven days, nobody would want a member of their family warehoused there. The room set aside for dangerous criminals and violent offenders was empty. We’re demanding immediate answers and action.

[Gunther Eagleman™ @GuntherEagleman]

🚨 BREAKING: Puerto Rico Gov. Jenniffer González just SIGNED a major pro-life law recognizing unborn babies as human beings from the moment of conception!

PRO LIFE IS WINNING!

[Fox News @FoxNews]

Puerto Rico governor signs law recognizing unborn babies as human beings https://t.co/t3yv0PeGe1

[Reverend Jordan Wells @WellsJorda89710]

Puerto Rico just made history: Governor Jenniffer González signed a law recognizing unborn babies as **human beings** from conception!

Time for all the critics and mainland elites who called Puerto Ricans "progressive" or "liberal" to issue a big apology. This proves the heart of Puerto Rican culture is deeply **conservative**, rooted in faith, family, and respect for life.

Bad Bunny might be loud and extremely liberal, but he doesn't speak for the island. The people — and now the law — do.

¡Viva Puerto Rico pro-vida! 🙏 #ProLife #PuertoRico #UnbornLivesMatter

(Who else owes PR an apology? Drop it below 👇)