Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren both returned donations to their 2020 presidential primary campaigns from employees at hedge funds profiting off of Puerto Rico’s debt, making the pair thus far the only two to do so among the crowded Democratic field.
Activists from a number of organizations sent an open letter to all Democrats in the 2020 primary asking them to return the donations on August 13, after a damning report from research organization Hedge Clippers exposed the way that hedge funds are making money off of the island territory’s misery.
According to Hedge Clippers, there’s a chance for change in Puerto Rico after a people-power-based movement turned former Governor Ricardo Rosello out of office in early August:
In order to effect that change, said Julio López Varona, the co-director of community dignity campaigns at the Center For Popular Democracy, the consequences for profiting from the debt must be clear.
“No presidential candidate can call themselves a friend of Puerto Ricans while taking money from hedge funds driving austerity on the island,” Varona told Common Dreams in a statement. “Puerto Ricans are not sitting with our arms crossed waiting for the vulture funds or presidential candidates for that matter to do the right thing.”
“We marched for days to oust a corrupt governor,” Varona added, “we will not stand idle for these abuses and will condemn anyone who builds their campaigns from them.”
The decisions of the Sanders and Warren campaigns to return donations sends a message, added Diáspora en Resistencia member Maria Torres.
“We want to thank Senators Elizabeth Warren and Senator Bernie Sanders for their leadership on correcting this wrong,” said Torres. “We hope other candidates follow their leadership and show they have the capacity to admit when a wrong is done and they are quick to correct it.”
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