Puerto Rico to default on $422 million debt payment
Puerto Rico will default on $422 million in debt payments due Monday, Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla announced Sunday, adding the "decision not to pay has been a very difficult one, and one that frankly I would rather not take."
In a televised address, Garcia Padilla said Puerto Rico is "faced with the lack of liquidity to meet both the needs of our creditors and to provide services to our people. I had to choose. And I chose." Government officials spent the weekend attempting to negotiate with creditors, and some payments have been postponed for the time being. Another $700 million is due to creditors in early July.
Puerto Rico is home to 3.5 million people, and has an unemployment rate of 12.5 percent. White collar professionals and members of the middle class are moving away from the island, and with one doctor a day leaving, health care is in "crisis," Dr. Jaime Rivera, president of the Puerto Rico Hospital Association, told NBC News.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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