On Sieges, Solidarity, and Solar

Report from Mutual Aid Disaster Relief about ongoing mutual aid efforts to build autonomous infrastructure in Puerto Rico.

Borikén (Puerto Rico) is no stranger to sieges. La Junta de Control, PROMESA, the Jones Act, and other colonial policies have made imports to the island more difficult and costly, driving up prices, holding up aid, acting as an economic stranglehold, and forcing many people to go into exile looking for better economic opportunities.

Tropical Storm Ernesto left areas of Borikén flooded from heavy rains and swelling rivers. There would have been three more centros de apoyo mutuo y refugio with complete off grid solar systems for this most recent storm to hit Borikén which caused an outage plunging 650,000 people into darkness, but the solar equipment Mutual Aid Disaster Relief purchased and had delivered to the island had been stuck at the port there because of US colonial policies of extortion.

Thankfully, we were eventually able to get the solar equipment out of port and complete these three solar system installations in San Sebastián, Vieques, and Lares, to add to the resilient solar infrastructure already installed and operating in Humacao, Caguas, Las Carolinas, and Las Marias.

These refuges of solidarity amid the storms offer a place to connect, charge essential devices, keep medicine refrigerated, communicate with loved ones, wash and dry clothes, cook food, receive trauma-informed care, and act as hubs for communal disaster response efforts, restoring hope and teaching civic responsibility—all powered by the sun.

Throughout the island in response to the government not fulfilling its responsibilities, la gente have rescued formerly government buildings abandoned for years (and sometimes decades) and reclaimed these spaces for community-based projects for solidaridad, sobrevivência, y autogestión. Aquí, no comemos austeridad.

Here, we know only the people save the people. So no matter what climate disasters or policy disasters arrive on our shorelines, the capitalists might have the money and the governments might have the monopoly on violence, but we got the power.