On June 30, the US Congress passed the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), using the island’s inability to pay its fiscal debt as an excuse to seize control of its government’s finances. Among other reforms, PROMESA established a seven-person fiscal control board to oversee Puerto Rico’s government and ensure that the colony makes good on its $70 billion debt obligation.

The neoliberal consensus has blinded the island’s mainstream political parties to the reality of Puerto Rico’s changing condition in the wake of PROMESA. But the Left shouldn’t hesitate to call the unelected fiscal control board what it is — a junta, a new colonial institution established by the same imperial power that has maintained Puerto Rico’s colonial status since 1898.

The current conjuncture presents serious challenges for the Puerto Rican left, which now must grapple with some difficult questions. First, what are the full effects of PROMESA? Are we seeing a major transformation in the political status of Puerto Rico — amounting even to the dissolution of the Commonwealth?