Puerto Rico Imposes Partial Government Shutdown Amid Financial Crisis

We turn to the latest news out of Puerto Rico where the government ran out of money on Monday and was forced to impose a partial public sector-shutdown - the first of its kind in the history of the US commonwealth.

Puerto Rico's 1,600 state schools have been shut, leaving half a million students and 40,000 teachers with no classes. Nearly 100,000 government workers have been temporarily left without jobs. The government is Puerto Rico's largest employer, with some 200,000 workers.

Puerto Rico has a $740 million budget shortfall because the Legislature and Governor Anibal Acevedo-Vila have been unable to agree on a spending plan since 2004. Differing sales tax proposals have been presented that would allow the government to secure a line of credit to pay salaries through June 30, the end of the fiscal year. The island currently has no sales tax.

Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in San Juan's financial district to protest the partial shutdown and the sales taxes proposed to close the budget gap. Protesters shattered the windows of two local banks and a shipping company's office and painted graffiti calling for a "revolution" against taxes.

* Luis Davila Colon, a leading political commentator and analyst in Puerto Rico. His radio show "En la Mirilla" (In the cross hairs) is the island's number 1 radio show. He has written more than a dozen books about the Puerto Rico's political status and he writes a weekly column in the island's second largest daily news paper "El Vocero."

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