Caribbean Matters: Continued power outages in Puerto Rico spark more protests

Cries of “Fuera, LUMA” (Get out, LUMA) are once again being heard in Puerto Rico as the private power company continues to suffer failure after failure. 

It’s hard to believe that almost seven years have passed since Hurricane Maria devastated the U.S. colony of Puerto Rico in September 2017 and a majority of its residents went through the longest power blackout in U.S. history, with the last households reconnected to the grid almost a full year later.

Fast forward to 2021 when an explosion knocked out power to more than 2 million people in Puerto Rico and then to February, when we addressed the ongoing failure to provide aid post-Hurricane Fiona.

We’ve written about the massive failures of LUMA Energy, and now the company is in the news again. The island’s people have been faced with yet another series of blackouts in the midst of a dangerous heat wave. Mainland news outlets have covered the blackouts, but the U.S. Congress, the island’s inept and corrupt government, and LUMA Energy itself have yet to address the root causes of the power company’s foundering. 

We folks who live here stateside, including the nearly 6 million Puerto Ricans in the diaspora, have to raise our voices and fight harder to ensure that this untenable situation, which is causing deaths and major economic issues, is changed. 

Caribbean Matters is a weekly series from Daily Kos. If you are unfamiliar with the region, check out Caribbean Matters: Getting to know the countries of the Caribbean.