Me Cago En LUMA: Failing Puerto Rico 

Another blackout. Another ruined freezer. Another bill that seems impossible to pay. In homes across Puerto Rico, families mutter the same complaints as they are forced to navigate days without electricity. Candles replace lightbulbs, fans fall silent and groceries spoil in the heat. For most, paying for power no longer guarantees receiving it. This endless cycle is no longer an inconvenience, but rather, a betrayal. Puerto Rico’s power crisis is not the result of hurricanes or aging infrastructure. It is the product of years of corruption, neglect and political failure – a failure shared by both Puerto Rican leaders and the U.S. institutions that control the island’s future.  

To understand why Puerto Rico’s lights keep going out, it’s necessary to trace the failures that led up to this point. In 2017, The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, once a publicly owned utility, collapsed under more than $9 billion in debt, becoming the largest public utility bankruptcy in U.S. history. For decades, PREPA was plagued with both local and U.S. corruption. Executives and politicians turned the agency into a cash machine for private contracts and political favors, spending billions on fraudulent fuel deals while the grid decayed.  

But even if local leaders bear the blame for mismanagement, Washington is still far from innocent. Under federal court supervision since its collapse, PREPA’s bankruptcy was meant to restructure the debt and stabilize the grid. Instead, it’s turned the bankruptcy process into a billion-dollar industry for bondholders. Consultants, financial advisors and legal firms – mostly based on the mainland – have earned over $2 billion in fees collected from PREPA. Regardless of this corrupt profit, the grid remained fragile and outdated, still reliant on oil and coal. The people are paying the bills, and those unaffected reap the benefits. 

At the same time, U.S. Congress passed PROMESA – a law that created the Financial Oversight and Management Board, known locally as “La Junta.” This unelected board, appointed by the U.S. president, was given sweeping authority over Puerto Rico’s finances, including public utilities like PREPA. From the start, La Junta prioritized debt repayment and austerity over the well-being of the island’s people. When PREPA collapsed, it was this federally imposed body – not Puerto Rican voters – that ultimately oversaw and approved the deal to privatize the grid. In doing so, Washington effectively placed the island’s most vital infrastructure into private, foreign hands. 
 
In 2021, following the lapse of PREPA, Puerto Rico’s power grid was transferred to LUMA Energy, a private U.S.-based company, who promised to modernize and establish a functioning power system for the island. Within its first months, LUMA only deepened the electrical crisis. The company faced criticism for longer service restoration times, voltage fluctuations and poor customer service. The numbers tell a clear story — since the takeover, power cuts have increased by an average of 30-35% per household, with the typical family enduring roughly nineteen outages in 2024.  

On April 16, 2025 – during Holy Week, a highly significant religious and cultural event on the island – over 1.4 million people, or 100% of LUMA’s clients, were plunged into darkness. Despite repeated failures, LUMA has continued to request higher rates, with a proposed $19.16 monthly increase for residential consumers later this year. The company claims this will fund grid improvements, but for Puerto Ricans already paying 90.5% more for electricity than the U.S. average, this promise is met with heavy skepticism.  

For most people living on the island, the consequences of this broken grid go far beyond inconvenience. Power outages dictate when families can cook, work or even sleep – and every blackout brings financial losses. Families describe throwing away hundreds of dollars worth of food after multiday outages, with nearly 60% of residents saying they’ve changed their grocery habits to avoid buying perishables that might spoil during a blackout. According to recent studies, widespread power disruptions could cost Puerto Rican consumers $1 billion for a single day without electricity, and up to $29 billion if an outage were to last a month. With a population that is oftentimes living paycheck to paycheck, this is not just an energy crisis; it’s an economic one.  
 
Puerto Rico’s power crisis is not a natural disaster. It is the predictable outcome of decades of corruption and the exploitation of public need for private profit. Both the Puerto Rican government and the U.S. have failed the island’s people; one through greed and mismanagement, and the other through a colonial economic system that ensures dependence. PREPA’s collapse and the privatization that followed are symptoms of the system where decisions about Puerto Rico’s future are made elsewhere, or with ulterior motives. So long as Puerto Rico’s electrical grid lies in the hands of offshore power, the nation will continue to suffer under the thumb of neocolonialism.