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Drought, Dollars, and a Whole Lot of Gridlock · 787daily — Puerto Rico Every Morning

• 0:00
  Hey everybody, welcome to 787daily, our week in review.
• 0:04
  I'm Marisol.
• 0:04
  And I'm Diego, and Marisol, this was one of those weeks where every story kind of makes you go, huh, okay, we need to actually pay attention here.
• 0:14
  Right, let's start with the one that's going to make some people laugh and some people sigh at the same time.
• 0:21
  The legislature.
• 0:22
  Oh here we go.
• 0:23
  So out of 30 measures we've been tracking, 24 of them saw some kind of action this past week, September 18 through the 20-fourth.
• 0:31
  Okay, 24 out of 30 sounds busy.
• 0:34
  It sounds busy.
• 0:35
  But here's the punchline.
• 0:36
  Only one measure actually passed a chamber.
• 0:38
  And zero, zero were enacted.
• 0:40
  So there was a lot of motion, but not a lot of movement.
• 0:45
  Exactly.
• 0:45
  Committees, hearings, referrals, all that machinery grinding away.
• 0:48
  It's like watching someone rev the engine really loud in a car that's parked in neutral.
• 0:53
  That's a good way to put it.
• 0:55
  I mean, look, process is process, I get it.
• 0:58
  But when you're a resident watching this, you just want to know, did anything change for me this week?
• 1:05
  And the honest answer right now is not yet.
• 1:08
  Not yet is the phrase of the week for that one.
• 1:12
  Alright, let's shift, because this next one is not a laughing matter at all.
• 1:17
  No.
• 1:17
  Let's talk about the drought.
• 1:19
  This is serious.
• 1:20
  It really is.
• 1:21
  As of the map dated September 22, 53 of our 78 municipios are in at least moderate drought.
• 1:27
  53 out of 78.
• 1:28
  That is the majority of the island.
• 1:31
  The majority.
• 1:31
  And within that, 12 municipios are actually in extreme drought.
• 1:35
  Extreme, that's not a word they use lightly.
• 1:37
  No.
• 1:38
  And if you widen it out to include areas that are just abnormally dry or worse, that's 60 municipios total.
• 1:45
  60.
• 1:45
  So this isn't a pocket of the island having a rough patch, this is widespread.
• 1:50
  It's widespread, and it's the kind of thing that touches everything, water pressure, agriculture, everyday life for families.
• 1:56
  Yeah, and I think what strikes me is how fast something like this can creep up on you.
• 2:02
  You don't always notice drought the way you notice a storm.
• 2:06
  It's quieter.
• 2:07
  But the numbers this week made it impossible to ignore.
• 2:10
  Definitely something to keep watching.
• 2:12
  Alright, from water to health care.
• 2:14
  This one's big.
• 2:15
  I saw this.
• 2:16
  Resident Commissioner Hernández convened a congressional briefing on the Medicaid funding cliff.
• 2:20
  Right, and the core of it is this.
• 2:23
  The current Medicaid funding supports a significant part of Plan Vital.
• 2:26
  Which covers, what, roughly 1.2 million people here?
• 2:30
  Around 1.2 million people in Puerto Rico rely on that coverage.
• 2:34
  That's over a third of the island depending on this.
• 2:38
  It's a huge number of people, and a funding cliff means there's uncertainty about what happens when that current support runs out.
• 2:45
  This is exactly the kind of story where the word cliff isn't dramatic exaggeration, it's literally describing the shape of the problem.
• 2:53
  Right, you either get a bridge before you get to the edge, or you don't.
• 2:58
  And for a million plus people, that's not abstract, that's their doctor visits, their prescriptions, their kids' checkups.
• 3:04
  Exactly why a briefing like this matters, getting it in front of Congress directly.
• 3:09
  We'll be watching that one closely too.
• 3:11
  Okay, next up, something a lot of folks probably felt directly if they bank there.
• 3:16
  OCIF ordered the liquidation of Banex International Bank in Puerto Rico.
• 3:20
  Banex, okay.
• 3:21
  What happened?
• 3:21
  The order came down due to insolvency and financial deficiencies at the bank.
• 3:26
  So this isn't a merger, this isn't a sale, this is the regulator stepping in and saying, this institution can't continue as is.
• 3:34
  That's right, liquidation.
• 3:35
  That's a heavy word for anyone who had accounts or relationships with that bank.
• 3:39
  It is, and OCIF exists exactly for moments like this, to catch financial trouble in the system.
• 3:45
  Good that there's oversight catching it, but I imagine there's still a lot of anxiety for people connected to that bank this week.
• 3:53
  Absolutely, and it's a reminder that these regulatory bodies are working in the background all the time, even when we don't hear about them.
• 4:01
  Until suddenly we do.
• 4:03
  Until suddenly we do.
• 4:04
  Alright, last story, and this one deserves us slowing down a little.
• 4:08
  Yeah, go ahead.
• 4:09
  Over 70 legislators, from 13 different countries across the region, signed a statement this week condemning extrajudicial executions in the Caribbean.
• 4:16
  That's a significant show of unified voice, 70 legislators, 13 countries.
• 4:20
  It really is.
• 4:21
  It speaks to how seriously this issue is being taken at a regional level.
• 4:26
  When you get that many lawmakers from that many different countries agreeing to put their names on something together, it tells you this isn't a fringe concern.
• 4:35
  No, it's a shared statement about human rights and accountability across the region, and Puerto Rico's part of that conversation too.
• 4:42
  It's heavy, but it's important that it's being said out loud, together.
• 4:46
  Agreed.
• 4:47
  Okay, that is our week, from the legislature spinning its wheels, to the drought spreading across the island, to a Medicaid cliff affecting over a million people, a bank liquidation, and a regional stand against extrajudicial executions.
• 4:59
  A lot to sit with this week.
• 5:02
  There really is.
• 5:03
  For the full stories, all the details, head to 787daily.com.
• 5:08
  We'll see you next week.
• 5:09
  Take care, everybody.