Organizations fighting against displacement in Puerto Rico launched, this Friday, the education and mobilization campaign called Not Your Tax Haven , in front of the offices of the Tourism Company located in Old San Juan. The initiative, led by a coalition of over a dozen organizations, aims to repeal Law 22 of 2012 (now Law 60 of 2019) and show evidence of the Puerto Rican government’s non-compliance with the enforcement of the law.
The initiative was designed to document “the unreasonable granting of generous tax exemptions” to foreign investors and businessmen, as well as the lack of government transparency, and to denounce the “economic, environmental and housing” impact of the decree, according to a press release issued by the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), one of the organizations that is part of the Puerto Rico Not for Sale Coalition. The initiative also includes efforts directed at the legislative bodies, said CPD campaigns director Julio López Varona.
In 2012, Luis Fortuño’s administration established a public policy to encourage foreign investors to relocate to Puerto Rico. As part of his 2016 election campaign, Alejandro GarcÃa Padilla promised to repeal it, but —upon taking office— indicated that he had changed his mind under the influence of his Secretary of Economic Development and Commerce, Alberto Bacó Bagué. In 2019, Ricardo Rosselló repealed the statute, but only to consolidate all tax exemptions in an Incentives Code —now known as Law No. 60 of 2019. Although the law has been amended to call for investment and job creation “requirements,” organizations have denounced that the government does not properly enforce them.