Privatizing the Phones

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 led to heavy deregulation, offering competition with the Puerto Rico Telephone Company. Governor Pedro Rosello, who had been privatizing industries and farms since elected, once again proposed privatizing the PRTC, and a one day General Strike in 1997 temporarily halted the sale. The statehood parties suggested the PRTC was a heavy burden to the budget even though it brought in revenues, and the Puerto Rico Independence Party and trade unions contested these claims, as even conservative thinktanks considered it modern and it made a profit of $130 million in 1996. Police attacked the June strikes of PRTC workers and the violent clashes led to the involvement of fifty more unions. A general strike was called in July of 1998, with half a million workers participating. After forty-four days, the strike was called off when the government promised no reprisals, but the privatization and sale of the PRTC went ahead in 1999.