LeBrónroot there and led to crime and decaying conditions. Naturally, these
privatization efforts also held out the promise of lucrative management
contracts for well-connected elites. The privatization process was funda-
mentally undemocratic, and many low-income and black Puerto Ricans
rightly felt that Mano Dura’s aim of increased safety was simply a front
for their dispossession. Further, it soon became abundantly clear that
Mano Dura was not a panacea for the very serious problems facing public
housing residents since, in many cases, it actually worsened the violence
and discrimination they faced. Undeterred by resistance from those whom
Mano Dura was said to help most, the Rosselló administration meanwhile
began marketing the campaign as a success in the War on Drugs to be
emulated in the United States.
Puerto Rico has had a long history as a laboratory for U.S. domestic
and foreign policy. Indeed, the foundation of the contemporary Puerto
Rican state—the commonwealth agreement between Puerto Rico and
the United States—was conceptualized, in part, as a vehicle to showcase
U.S. development strategies to the Third World during the Cold War.
Throughout the mid-twentieth century, Puerto Rico was mobilized as
an example of the progress that could be achieved through economic
and political alignment with the United States.
However, the signing of the North American Free Trade Agree-
ment (NAFTA) in 1992 sounded a death knell for Puerto Rico’s special
relationship with the United States and threw into question its preferred
status as a commonwealth territory. In many ways, this was a tale of a
death foretold. As the United States promoted Puerto Rico’s development
model globally, especially throughout Latin America and Asia, its gradual
widespread implementation meant the emergence of new markets and labor
pools for U.S. capital beyond the archipelago. As Puerto Rico’s economy
became more integrated into the U.S. economy—eventually resulting in
the extension of federal legal standards and practices, including the federal