Detroit's history, after the state of Michigan imposed a financial oversight board in March of 2013 to deal with the city's $18-billion debt, seems to repeat itself with the proposals presented by Puerto Rico's Fiscal Control Board (FCB).

Deepak Lamba-Nieves, research director at the Center for a New Economy, saidthere are many similarities between the policies enforced in Detroit and the guidelines proposed by the FCB here in Puerto Rico.

Austerity measures that include pension cutbacks, reductions to the government's operational expenses, privatizing services that are currently provided by the government, and the sale of public assets are some of the elements both scenarios have in common.

'History is repeating itself in many ways. The stories are very similar,' Deepak Lamba said, adding that Puerto Rico shouldstareinto Detroit's mirror to be able to deal with these proposals.

According to Cecille Blondet, executive director of Espacios Abiertos, for the citizens to be empowered and able to take a joint stand against the austerity measures the FCB intends to enforce in Puerto Rico, it's essential to establish partnerships with the communities, the academia, and non-governmental organizations, so as to share data and conduct studies that will help support their claims and proposals.

'We cannotassumethat what happened in Detroit will work in Puerto Rico. We need to look at these cases and analyze them to see which lessons would be applicable,' said UPR professor Dr. María Enchautegui.

In Detroit's case, there were several groups with strategies to organize the community. For example, Detroit's African-American community was already joining forces to obtain social representation, since although they are a majority, they were not included in any of the political organizations and special or academic councils.

'Many groups were formed by topic, by specific needs aside from the race issue,' Lamba-Nieves explained.

Just as it is happening in Puerto Rico, 283 schools were closed in Detroit, with proposals to reorganize the system into private and charter schools. Those who had the authority to choose which schools should be closed were unelected officials, so the community joined forces to create counter-proposals.

'Schools were closing in areas where they were needed. There was no rationale. No one could tell the residents why the neighborhood school was closing down. Doesn't that sound familiar?' he pointed out.

Detroit's oversight board decided to privatize some of the services, such as garbage collection, public lighting, parks, the city's art collection, and the drinking water service. They were able to retain the artworks after coming to an agreement where US foundations contributed resources to partially address the pension issue.

The privatization of the Detroit Public Schools and the water crisis, which was worsened by the Flint tragedy, were the most compelling examples of damaging effects on the city.

Due to Detroit's serious financial distress, their oversight board decided to privatize the water service shutoff efforts, since there was a vast amount of customers in arrears. The city left 30,000 families, most of them indigent African-Americans, without the service, due to non-payment.

In the city of Flint, located 66 miles to the northwest of Detroit, the financial oversight board decided to save money by cancelling the contract with the agency providing water and sewage services. They began using water from the Flint River without the adequate treatment for human consumption.

'And we come back to austerity. To save some money, they disconnected the water system and connected to the Flint River, which was contaminated. They were using pipelines full of carcinogens. They disconnected to reduce expenses, which had the outrageous effect of poisoning entire generations that will now suffer the after-effects of ingesting carcinogens,' Lamba-Nieves remarked.

He suggested that there are areas that should not be privatized because they are public services, such as the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority electricity grid and the University of Puerto Rico system. According to Lamba, for Puerto Rico to have proper economic development, it needs a better university, not fewer campuses, as has been proposed by the government and the FCB.

'Is privatization an end in and of itself, or what are they seeking? Who benefits? Who loses? These are the empirical questions we need to ask,' Lamba added.

TheResearchDirectorsays the battles, the topics, and the effectiveness have been different. Even though there is awareness, Puerto Rico's case is tinged by a history of repression that could explain the absent or restrained response from a civil society against the measures implemented. Heexplained that this continueslooseningthe escape valve thatpushes people to buy a plane ticket and move to US cities where Puerto Rican communities are already well established, which makes integration easier.

Neither the law creating the Emergency Manager in Detroit nor PROMESA define the term 'essential services'. According to Espacios Abiertos, which visited Detroit last September, along with other organizations, to analyze the experiences lived in the bankrupt city, 'the definition of essential services responds to the particular interests of certain groups. In our case, the term's definition will reflect the interests and ideologies of the members of the FCB.'