49.3.1: Marisol LeBrón on Policing and Recovery in Puerto Rico

NACLA Radio

Helen speaks with NACLA Report contributor Marisol LeBrón, whose article for the latest issue of the Report traces the Puerto Rican state’s policing and surveillance programs from the 1950s to now. They discuss the internal complexities at play in Puerto Rican politics beyond the colonial dynamic between the U.S. government and Puerto Rico, and Marisol explains how policing tactics were used to undermine the Puerto Rican Nationalist party leading up to a crucial vote over ratifying Commonwealth status for the territory. Helen and Marisol also discuss how Puerto Rico fits into a larger institutional discourse about “best practices” for policing, surveillance, and responding to crises throughout Latin America and in the mainland U.S., where urban police forces have carried out similar tactics to those the FBI and the PRPD previously “tested” in Puerto Rico.

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