Rum Battle Pits Luis Gutierrez vs. Charles Rangel
The three stateside Puerto Rican House members have escalated the billion-dollars battle over rum rebates with a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., indicating that the recent deal to move the production of Captain Morgan rum from Puerto Rico to the U.S. Virgin Islands could set the stage for corporate ripoffs of taxpayers.
The deal could also damage Puerto Rico’s rum producing industry with unfair competition from the USVI, the lawmakers told the House leader.
The Captain Morgan deal could set the stage for “providing corporate largesse at the expense of the taxpayer,” wrote fellow Democratic Reps. Nydia Velázquez and José Serrano of New York and Luis Gutiérrez of Illinois.
The three lawmakers asked for a meeting with Pelosi to discuss the issue, which earlier had been in the hands of House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., who so far has not acceded to requests to have his committee hold a hearing on the matter.
Read more at the Puerto Rico Daily Sun
image Sir Henry “Captain” Morgan
Puerto Rico is mad because it cannot keep any companies. The Captain Morgan Brand was planning on going to South America. This would have caused a loss in American jobs. The United States Virgin Islands stepped in and dealt with the company in a professional legal matter. The question is why is Puerto Rico loosing so many companies?
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