Evil Empire 73extremely low compared to market rents or typical mortgage payments,
so homeownership offered no clear benefits for many. Further, given the
criminalization and discrimination that public housing communities
often encountered from their fellow Puerto Ricans, those who could
afford to start paying rent or making mortgage payments would prefer
to do so elsewhere. Undeterred by a seeming lack of resident buy-in,
the Rosselló administration used the militarized conditions enforced
by Mano Dura to begin privatizing public housing and pushing home-
ownership schemes, even if residents had better ideas for how to make
their communities safer and foster pride.
Rather than relieving anxiety and fear, military-style occupation
coupled with privatization exacerbated dangerous conditions and left
residents bereft of input into the governance of their communities. While
Rosselló’s administration officially celebrated a decrease in the number
of robberies and carjackings, Puerto Rico experienced an increase in
the murder rate as Mano Dura intensified battles between rival gangs
over turf. Images of young men lifeless under white sheets haunted the
nightly news and provided stark reminders of the intense vulnerability and
proximity to violence that many racially and economically marginalized
Puerto Ricans continued to experience. Meanwhile growing arrest and
incarceration rates fractured families and communities. The number of
arrests under Rosselló increased by approximately one-third over that of
his predecessor. There were 16,000 arrests recorded in 1992, in contrast
to roughly 21,000 arrests in both 1993 and 1994. Under Clinton’s federal
“one strike and you’re out” policy starting in 1996, Puerto Ricans living in
public housing faced the additional threat of eviction if they or a family
member living with them was convicted of a drug crime. While it seems
that the policy was implemented somewhat unevenly in Puerto Rico, doz-
ens of Puerto Ricans and their families were evicted. The constant raids
in public housing as a result of Mano Dura carried not only the threat of