Attempt to Sell Puerto Rico Is Offensive, Cuba Points Out

Cuba's Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodriguez Thursday said that President Donald Trump's attempt to "sell" Puerto Rico evidences his contempt for the Latin American nations.

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"Recently disclosed attempt to sell Puerto Rico is gross evidence of U.S. President despise for nations of the hemisphere and explains adherence to Monroe Doctrine, a colonial instrument with a well-known history of death and hardships," Rodriguez tweeted.

Recently, former Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke revealed that Trump proposed to get rid of Puerto Rico after the passage of Hurricane Maria in 2017, which caused some 3,000 deaths and losses of about US$43 billion.

“Can we sell the island?... or divest of that asset?,” the U.S. President said at a meeting in which "the idea of selling Puerto Rico was never seriously considered or discussed after Mr. Trump raised it," Duke told the New York Times.

"The eccentric US President wanted to buy Greenland from Denmark and humiliated Puerto Rico when he considered selling the Caribbean island. He thinks governing is a commercial transaction and everything is solved with tantrums, accusations, and verbal attacks."

These revelations occur when alleged U.S. aid to the Island has been questioned. While Trump claimed that his administration would have sent up to US$91 billion for Puerto Rico's recovery, investigative journalists revealed that the U.S. government has sent about US$11 billion so far. The remaining money would be delivered over the following decades.

Among the dozens of reactions to Trump's ideas, San Juan Mayor Carmen Cruz questioned the attitude adopted by Puerto Rico Governor Wanda Vazquez and the Island's representative before Congress Jennifer Gonzalez.

"Making them respect our people is not a matter of ideology. It is a matter of dignity!" Mayor Cruz said.