Evil Empire 69minimum wage—U.S. capital left the archipelago in search of cheaper
labor, better corporate incentives, and less regulation.
In a bid for renewed relevance to the metropole, during the 1990s
Puerto Rican elites attempted to reposition Puerto Rico as a model in
the arenas of law enforcement and public housing policy, taking it upon
themselves to develop new policies and practices regarding security,
policing, and public housing policy. For Puerto Rico’s governing elite,
it was often more important to be seen as “innovative” in the eyes of
U.S. technocrats than to implement policies that actually worked. As
in the case of Mano Dura, this was often accomplished on the backs of
some of Puerto Rico’s most vulnerable populations.
under mano dur a, approximately eighty-two joint police and military
raids—and subsequent occupations—would be carried out in public
housing between June 1993 and March 1999. During these raids, police
would conduct searches, confiscate contraband, and interrogate residents
while the National Guard provided logistical and tactical support in the
form of soldiers, helicopters, military vehicles, technology, and weapons.
The National Guard was also responsible for setting up surveillance,
establishing checkpoints, constructing a perimeter fence around the
community, controlling crowds, and detaining suspects that would be
taken into police custody. The police and National Guard would then
occupy the raided complexes for weeks until a security force of part-time
police and private security guards could establish a permanent policing
and surveillance presence. This securitization would then provide a
stable environment for the management of the complex to be handled
by whichever private company had won the bid during a brief process
in 1992 that was roundly critiqued at the time for its cronyism and lack