The Ferre Family: Puerto Rican by Birth, Yanqui in Spirit
Bishop, Stu
"I cannot help what happened in 1898-- The Americans came and they are here." 1 -- Gov. Luis A. Ferre, Puerto Rico's leading statehood advocate "Either Yanquis or Puerto Ricans." -- Pedro Albizu...
...Since "Bootstrap's" initiation in 1947, over 2000 firms have established manufacturing plants in Puerto Rico, lured by 10to 17-year tax "holidays" (whose length depends upon the industrial zone in which they locate...
...colonial domination of the island: tourism, the corporations, the inequities of the draft system, the control of the land by the Pentagon, and the squalor of the slums...
...According to The Wall Street Journal (March 29, 1972), " Last summer...Governor Ferre tapped Mr...
...flag...
...Luis Ferre is no exception...
...of San Juan, one of the island's larger construction firms...
...But don't go away...
...By 1959, the family converted this minority to 89% ownership...
...Claridad reports that now the Ferre paper has more government agency ads than does El Imparcial, which has triple the circulation of El Nuevo Die...
...They are intensively organizing people in slums, factories and on campuses, despite the regime's repressive tactics Many of their members have been detained and have been the targets of attacks by para-military right wing groups similar to the "Death Squads" in Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, and Brazil...
...According to Hank Messick in The Syndicate Abroad, Orovitz used his plush Miami offices to "host" an April, 1963 meeting of organized crime's top brass, including Meyer Lansky...
...37-year old Maurice has been a Miami City Commissioner, Hubert Humphrey's southern Florida campaign manager in the 1968 elections, a candidate for the Mayor of Miami, and a member of the Florida House of Representatives since 1967...
...His election greatly polarized the political situation in Puerto Rico...
...Therefore, it is not surprising that the growth of Ferre's strength in the three elections since 1956 has paralleled the rate of industrialization...
...According to Claridad, Antonio Luis is probably the Puerto Rican that has invested the largest sum of money in the country in the last three years...
...Among Miami's 30,000 Puerto Ricans, none are more powerful or wealthy than the Ferres...
...Angel M. Rivera, president of this bank, is also a Puerto Rico Cement Corp...
...in 1964, 288,000...
...With the unemployment figure at a steady 30%, there is plenty of cheap labor...
...Rafael Pico, chairman of the Finance committee of the Banco Popular de Puerto Rico and President of the Government Development Bank...
...Where has the tremendous influx of U.S...
...Maule Industries: Pres...
...A recent series of articles in Claridad, the Puerto Rican independence paper, amply documents how the Ferre family has utilized their new found "in...
...Significantly, this action by the IRS represents the first challenge to section 933 of the IRS code which exempts Puerto Ricans from federal income taxes...
...The answer is obvious...
...He only includes those who are actively seeking obs...
...technicians and consultants...
...holding 20 percent of the stock...
...Puerto Rico Cement Co.: Pres...
...3 7 Even by government estimates, about 1/3 to 1/2 of the island's 600,000 families are living in poverty with incomes of less than $2,500 annually...
...About one fourth of the gross income of the major hotels is derived from casino operations - some hotels obtain over half their net income from casinos...
...Bank officers and directors, representing leading industrial and financial concerns, sit at the apex of the corporate world...
...Maurice is a newly elected director of Florida's largest bank -- the First National Bank of Miami, -- which is chaired by Maule director Harry Hood Bassett...
...Thomas C. Cochran, The Puerto Rican Businessman (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1959), p. 144...
...Luis was director before assuming the governorship...
...Congress, and ratification by three-fourths of the U.S...
...Bassett is also a member of the Council of the Americas and the International Executive Service Corps (IESC), both Rockefeller organizations designed to sere the interests of U.S...
...Evelyn is a good girl...
...He is also a director of Maule Industries...
...Ruth Gruber, "There are Independentistas in Puerto Rico, But -," The New York Times (Sunday Magazine section),'May 21, 1972...
...This development is inseparable from the island's economy...
...GREEDY JOE THE TAX DODGER In one of the biggest tax cases ever to go before the courts, the U.S...
...1 2 It was during these early years that the Ferres began to implement an important part of the family's industrial philosophy: combining business success with social progress...
...MAULE INDUSTRIES Maule Industries is the Ferres' principal holding in Florida...
...In 1956, Ferre's Statehood Republican Party received 174,000 votes...
...and Union Carbide, the island's largest investor...
...in the...
...58% owned)- supplies 90% of Puerto Rican cement...
...Born in 1909...
...174th largest U.S...
...Forbes, April 1, 1968...
...Come here, let me see...
...Good...
...At that time it was their biggest mainland cement customer...
...Fred Scribner, a Washington, D.C...
...Born in 1942...
...The struggle is being waged against many forms of U.S...
...Senator as part of his father's dream of statehood...
...Another reason for the rise in earnings of the Ferre cement company is that the government has increased its spending on the cement construction industry...
...The firm also operates a fleet of ready-mix concrete trucks and two quarries...
...Munoz remarked: "We think Ferrelgas better sense about industry than politics...
...Maule Industries: Dir...
...Since Puerto Rican law stipulates that government agency ads must be placed only in newspapers with national circulation, E1 Nuevo Dia did not partake of this lucrative source of revenue...
...Reparada Development Corp.: Ass't...
...He depicted himself not as a member of a family-6Luis Born in Cuba in 1877, he came to Puerto Rico in the 1890's and founded the first Empresas Ferre company- Puerto Rico Iron Works- in 1918...
...Essential to the workings of an industrial complex is easy access to at least one, and preferably two, banks...
...The Miami Herald, January 23, 1971...
...The El Condado strip of hotels and casinos in San Juan is a transplant of all the vulgarity and corruption that existed in pre-revolutionary Cuba...
...In addition to providing the public with a wealth of information about the financial operations of the Jose Ferre family, the court actions have also exposed their greedy personalities...
...Wage earners in Puerto Rico are paid only a third of what their counterparts receive on the mainland...
...and in Puerto Rico at Banco Popular Center, Hato Rey, San Juan...
...However, it is the deteriorating internal economic and social conditions, and not Fidel Castro, that are behind the independence upsurge...
...A "free state" where the citizens can be drafted into an army of a government that allows them no voice in their internal affairs...
...Ferre denies that the mainland recession is affecting Puerto Rico's economy...
...Senator Robert Taft Sr...
...First National Bank of Miami: Dir...
...Hilton is a bad man, Dirty Linen all the Statler people -- they're a bad bunch...
...administrative crispness...
...Inversiones Ferre: Pres...
...Pedro Albizu Campos, Puerto Rican nationalist PREFACE U.S...
...Puerto Rico Cement's needs are expected to grow at a 3 percent to 6 percent rate in the next several years, thus assuring, in the words of its 1971 annual report, "continued growth for the company...
...Are you wearing panties today...
...fits and cheap labor...
...A "free state" where all laws formulated in Washington automatically apply to Puerto Rico's people...
...Humphrey was probably referring to the massive development program known as "Operation Bootstrap" that was launched in Puerto Rico in the late 1940's under the Muiioz Marin regime...
...Antonio Luis Ferr6 Antonio Luis The son of the governor, Antonio Luis is being groomed to become Puerto Rico's first U.S...
...Maule currently employs about 1300 people along the eastern seaboard and has eight major subsidiaries: - Stresscon International - Stresscon Erectors - Builders Materials - Pennsuco Cement and Aggregates - Florida Concrete Pipe - Maule Overseas - Gold Coast Cement - Asphalt Materials & Paving...
...Regis produces extra-strength (multiwall) bags for coffee, rice, flour, sugar and cement...
...For more on the Council of the Americas and the International Executive Service Corps see The Rockefeller Empire (NACLA 1969) and Yanqui Dollar (NACLA 1972...
...Sources: Puerto Rico Cement Corp...
...The Puerto Rico Iron Works started out with $30,000 with Antonio as the minority shareholder and manager...
...social, political, and economic domination of Puerto Rico with the eventual goal of establishing a socialist republic...
...Today the earnings from the Ferres cement operations form the cornerstone of their business empire...
...domination and for independence.- 19 - REFERENCES 1. M.S...
...The Ferre's Puerto Rico Iron Works is the main supplier of structural steel for the controversial atomic energy plant which is being planned for Puerto Rico...
...Jose is also a director of one of Miami's more important banks, the Pan American Bank of Miami...
...Puerto Rico Glass Corp.: Co-Chmn...
...More than ever before, Albizu's famous phrase, "Either Yanquis or Puerto Ricans," is becoming a reality...
...One of the reasons for the phenomenal jump in earnings was the termination of a 23-year freeze on the price of retail cement granted by the Ferre administration in June, 1971...
...In addition, the opposition will make it their primary issue in the elections...
...During World War II, in 1941, the U.S...
...The securing of defense contracts by Ponce Cement was in large part due to another Republican from the mainland...
...Since 1967, U.S...
...The Washington Post, May 6, 1971...
...Ferre explained his position to Forbes magazine, a leading U.S...
...The bank also operates three mobile units in the outlying areas of Puerto Rico...
...The Miami Herald, February 5, 1970...
...3. The Washington Post, May 6, 1971...
...Jose The eldest of Don Antonio's sons, Jose was born in 1902...
...Ponce Hotel Corp.: Chmn...
...In April 1972, the oppositioncontrolled legislature decided to postpone for one year any action approving the establishment of the fund.* Clearly, one of the key issues in the upcoming campaign will be the economy...
...domination...
...2 0 In 1954, the Ferres purchased Maule for $4.5 million from the Florida Canada Corp...
...The management of the fund would be in the hands of Puerto Rican bankers and businessmen...
...6. Juan Angel Silen, We The Puerto Rican People (Monthly Review Press: ew York,1971), pp...
...Ibid...
...Dan Seymour, president of J. Walter Thompson advertising agency - the world's largest, which had Puerto Rico accounts of $2.8 million in 1968 (see NACLA Newsletter, "Advertising: Latin America," July-August, 1969...
...The previous owner of the hotel had been forced to sell because he could not compete against the hotels with casinos...
...2 8 Joe's comments after one of the court skirmishes was, "I'm glad this trial is over...
...From the time they started school on the mainland, the Ferre brothers commuted between the U.S...
...newspaper chains or by local capitalists closely linked to U.S...
...It is more than they story of a family's rise to power, because the Ferres symbolize the forces from which the Puerto Rican people are attempting to liberate themselves: the complete penetration of Puerto Rican values by the "American way of life" and of Puerto Rican society by U.S...
...a 0 z H0 I. , -_-4 v C 4 b4 Ft W - 0 I t I i i i' I-4U.S...
...The Wall Street Journal, July 14, 1971...
...troops in the war was a Puerto Rican...
...A voluminous (1,500 pages) and expensive ($200,000) Stanford Research Institute report on tourism in Puerto Rico, commissioned by the island's government, warned in 1969 that the growth of casino gambling has attracted underworld elements from the mainland and has created a demand for prostitutes who "entertain important gamblers with full knowledge of, and often under the direction of, a hotel manager, or other hotel employees...
...lawyer with the firm of Scribner, Hall & Casey...
...today known as the General Development Corp., GDC...
...PUERTO RICO: AMERICA'S CARIBBEAN COLONY In 1898 U.S...
...Maule's directors, besides the Ferres, include: - Harry Hood Bassett: one of Florida's most powerful corporate figures...
...50% owned)- Caribbean's largest drydock built for U.S...
...Nevertheless, the Ferres have already sold it 2,500 tons of structural steel...
...Maule produced 10% of the cement consumed in Florida in 1971, and sales reached a record of $38 million...
...The four main daily newspapers that Puerto Ricans read are all controlled by U.S...
...Second, they gained control of the levers of state power which allow them to shape decisions, plans, and regulations in their favor...
...Puerto Rico Iron Works: Co-Chmn...
...All indicators show that Ferre, like every previous administration tied to the colonial apparatus, has not dealt with the most basic of the Puerto Rican people's needs: decent housing, food, clothing, and steady jobs...
...Many of the armed actions have been carried out by the Commandos of Armed Liberation (CAL) which was organized in 1967 shortly after the U.S.-imposed plebiscite on the island's status...
...121st largest U.S...
...It includes the City National Bank of Miami and the City National Bank of Miami Beach...
...Then the nude women come out and amble among the tables where the wealthy executive clientele is eating, seductively displaying, among other things, what Governor Ferre has called "the most poetic part of the woman...
...Now comes the dirtiest part of the show...
...Luis and Jose were co-chairmen of the firm before Luis became governor...
...3 3 The plan, open to Puerto Ricans earning between $500 and $7,800 annually, would be allowed to obtain a limited amount of preferred stock in the fund, which would be financed by unsecured bank loans...
...Today Gov...
...In April 1970, Ferre and Nixon each appointed an equal number of members to a commission to tudy such a measure and its chances of success...
...and his brother, Jose, one of Florida's key corporate figures...
...and the Florida Sugar Refinery, Inc...
...2 3 When he assumed the governship, Luis appointed his son, Antonio Luis, the president of the island's Governor Advisory Commission which reviews all state development projects...
...He maintains that unemployment is at 11, even though one of Puerto Rico's leading economists, Hugh Barton says the figure is closer to 33% and the Puerto Rico Manufacturers Association puts the figure at 30%.35 Ferre often boasts about all the obs that have been created by the establishment of new plants in Puerto Rico, but never includes the number of Jobs lost by plants shut down in the same period...
...Beyond these statistics of economic domination, as Frantz Fanon has pointed out in his writings on colonialism,* the controls exerted upon a colony reach the very fibers of its cultural and political identity...
...Puerto Rico Drydock: Pres...
...Most accounts of the Ferre fortune begin with the family's acquisition of a government-owned package of companies in 1950, made possible with a loan from the Chase Manhattan Bank...
...5 - PUERTO RICO IRON WORKS: FORGING AHEAD How did a small machine shop foundry established in 1918 grow into a corporate empire that today is worth hundreds of millions of dollars...
...For more on the Proprietary Fund, see The Miami Herald, January 20, 1972, The Wall Street Journal, January 17 and March 29, 1972, and The New York Times, January 16, 1972...
...Bd., Dir...
...Besides bringing corruption, the tourist trade has also taken over the island's most beautiful beaches and given them to American-owned hotels catering to foreigners...
...Ferre has responded by increasing police and security expenditures from $63 million in 1968 to $138 million in 1971.38 He has flooded the El Condado section of San Juan with scores of regular and undercover policemen...
...1 0 During the "Bootstrap" period of industrialization, over a fourth of the island's population fled the socalled "economic boom" to seek jobs in the slums of New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey...
...The company is expected to expand, along with the booming Florida construction industry...
...Arnoni, "Puerto Rico: A Land Robbed of Itself" (Part 1), The Minority of One, September, 1966, p. 27...
...He is a director of Eastern Airlines (the principal air carrier between Puerto Rico and the mainland, Eastern recently sold some of its Dorado Beach Hotel resort interests to the Rockefellers' Rockresorts, Inc...
...Novak sent the idea up through the newly personalized channels...
...Maule Industries: Chmn...
...Navy during World War Two Puerto Rico Clay Products Corp.- producer of ceramics, bricks, quarry tile, and clay products Puerto Rico Iron Works- The Ferre's first company...
...Hubert Humphrey has called Puerto Rico "the miracle of the Caribbean...
...Cuba and Puerto Rico both rose up against their Spanish colonial masters in 1868 and both fell under U.S...
...Each worker investing in the fund would be guaranteed against a loss...
...and Wometco Enterprises, the firm of the wheeler-dealer Wolfson brothers of Miami...
...In 1965, for example, the U.S...
...La Sociedad de Cementos Antillanoa (14% owned)- located in Guadelupe Sint Maarten Cement, N.V...
...Current Biography, 1970, (Luis Ferre), p. 134...
...Current Biography, 1970 (Luis Ferre), p. 135...
...The Pentagon currently owns 13% of Puerto Rico's land, including some of the most arable tracts...
...Novak's partner to be his Treasury Secretary, and Mr...
...Interamerican Transport Co., Inc...
...two Mia orto...
...43,000 Puerto Ricans served in the Korean War...
...In 1968-69, 20% of the population had to receive emergency food...
...3 0 This attitude is in keeping with the Ferre's reputation as being progressive capitalists who see the coming explosion in Puerto Rico...
...A "free state" where decisions of the Puerto Rican Supreme Court can be overturned by federal courts in the U.S...
...Bootstrap" has left the island in the hands of foreigners, with the U.S...
...corporations seeking high proNACLA'S LATIN AMERICA & EMPIRE REPORT Vol...
...An engineer, Don Antonio received financing mainly from local sugar interests, which needed a repair shop for their equipment...
...Navy was utilizing Culebra as a target practice range until the people who lived there demanded the total withdrawal of the Navy from Culebra and the neighboring island of Vieques...
...They make the decisions upon which projects receive credit and orchestrate the development of a city, region, or country...
...The family of Jose Ferre has filed 26 countersuits in retaliation...
...Maule Industries: Dir...
...government has complete jurisdiction over immigration, citizenship, maritime laws, defense, radio and television, postal service, and foreign affairs...
...Governor's Planning Council: Member Maule Industries: Dir...
...The Banco de Ponce was founded in 1917...
...The island's leading advocate of statehood, he is a personal friend of President Nixon...
...His are the politics of assimilation, while a growing number of Puerto Ricans are forging the politics of the future through their demands for an end to U.S...
...Of course, Luis was an opponent of Munoz, and by 1950 was the Statehood Republican Party's chief candidate for elective offices...
...Needing a nearby supplier of cement, the U.S...
...In one violent confrontation in the spring of 1971 at the University of Puerto Rico, three persons were killed, including the chief of the university's riot squad...
...campaign manager: 1968 Young President's Organization: Member Univ...
...Miles gave him a safe conduct pass and thus began Americanizing Don Antonio a full two decades before the U.S...
...Evelyn is from Bayamon -- this is pure Puerto Rican meat...
...colonial rule...
...Like many senior members of a growing family dynasty, Ferre realized the value of an elite education for his sons...
...Even if most Puerto Ricans did want statehood, this would be a slow and tedious process...
...Sources The New York Times, April 1, 1969...
...Ferre Florida Corp., owned by the family of Jose Ferre, controls 83% of Maule's stock...
...capital controlled 77% of manufacturing assets and owned 70% of all factories...
...Annual Report, 1971...
...I-3o rC In .0 a, O h I W o W 10 a' C am sl i a 4)a LM L0 0 I - 0 U W I- I . I I Ca IL I I I I Z 0 0 z F 4...
...Luis Ferre of Puerto Rico, the island's staunchest backer of statehood, who is up for re-election this November...
...Ferre himself, has also been a catalyst of the independence upsurge...
...During the late twenties the Iron Works business suffered as a result of a hurricane that ruined the sugar industry, and by the financial repercussions of the stock market crash...
...Bank St...
...Ferre has said the incidents are the result of outside forces rather than internal conditions...
...Their common cause was recently dramatized when New York's Puerto Rico Day parade was disrupted as Governors Rockefeller and Ferre made their appearance on the reviewing stand...
...CopyrightQ1972 by the North American Congress on Latin America, Inc...
...A "free state" in which the U.S...
...His son, Herman Ferre, Jr., is also a director of this bank...
...He is a power in Florida political and corporate circles...
...The Ferre interests in Florida include control of one of the state's largest office buildings, the 100 Biscayne Building, Miami-Caribe Investments, and the Ferre Florida Corp., a holding company...
...The eldest son, Jose, who was to become the specialist in promotion and sales, was sent to Boston University to study business administration...
...In Puerto Rico the Ferre family is a leading example of this type of local elite...
...M.C.: Sandra...
...The tourist industry has brought prostitution, gambling, and a drug trade of $200 million a year.7 Foreign tourists spent $247 million in Puerto Rico last year, and the Ferre administration has promised to expand the tourist trade even further...
...Cisneros is president of Pepsi Cola Bottlers of Venezuela.- 12 - Puerto Rico Cement Puerto Rico Cement is the largest of the Empresas Ferre complex...
...The governor's response to the eruption of bombings that have shaken the island in the last five years is a good example...
...bank -- Banco de Ponce: $426 million deposits...
...Ferre Florida Corp.: Pres...
...Therefore, Ferre has abandoned advocating outright statehood, and has adapted the strategy of forcing the United States to grant Puerto Ricans the right to vote in presidential elections--a stepping stone on the road to statehood...
...1 Ferre explained his long-term vision recently to the Los Angeles Times: Even if we vote for statehood by a 60% margin, which I consider the least for ultimate success, it would take at least ten years to get it ratified by Congress...
...bank (out of 14,000 based on 1972 figures) -- Banco Credito y Ahorro Ponceno: $585 million deposits...
...Claridad, June 2, 1972, p. 6. j- 18 - the island's youth to fight in wars when they are not even allowed representation in formulating the laws of the nation...
...Born in 1935...
...domination thirty years later...
...includes foundry, machine and structural steel shops, plus repair facilities for the sugar industry Reparada Development Corp.- real estate developers for housing projects Durotex Corp.- asbestos and cement products Hotel Borinquen (formerly Darlington Hotel)- Ferre-owned hotel and casino in San Juan...
...This project, which will be the hemisphere's largest thermonuclear site, has been temporarily shelved as a result of heavy opposition from environmentalists and of massive mismanagement and corruption in the planning process...
...of Puerto Rico...
...6 / July-August 1972 (formerly NACLA NEWSLETTER) Published monthly, except May-June and July August, when it is published bi-monthly at 160 Claremont Ave., New York, N.Y...
...As the Puerto Rico Iron Works prospered in the early twenties, Don Antonio sent his four sons off to school in the United States -- an important step in their Americanization...
...The island's history has close bonds to other nations which became American colonies by the same sequence of historical events...
...With the rapid rate of industrialization, Ferre and Garcia Mendez of the Statehood Republican Party realized that a rallying call was needed to represent the technocrats and professionals--numbering nearly 300,000 today--who were benefitting from "Bootstrap...
...Juan Angel Silen, op...
...Upon the completion of the purchase, Gov...
...Hank Messick, The Syndicate Abroad (MacMillan: Toronto, Canada, 1969...
...He joined (and became vice-president of) the Statehood Republican Party -- a spinoff of the island's oldest party, the Union Party -- in 1940...
...Sabotage is only one of the levels on which Puerto Ricans are fighting to regain what is rightfully theirs...
...Squatters have seized land and erected shantytowns in their fight for better housing...
...Puerto Rico Glass Corp.- glass bottles and containers Puerto Rico Drydock Corp...
...50% owned)- operates cement plant, quarry, and sand dredging operation Desarrolos Multiples Insulares, Inc...
...Shortly after Luis took office, however, the resourceful Ferres moved the newspaper to San Juan and began an intensive "free" distribution campaign throughout the island...
...hmule conte takes ip...
...HAVING A GOVERNOR IN THE FAMILY HELPS BUSINESS When Luis Ferre took office as Governor of Puerto Rico in January, 1969, the Ferre family gained at least two new advantages in their pursuit of power and money...
...capital and ideas left the Puerto Rican people...
...Salley is also the president of the Glades County Sugar Growers' Cooperative...
...And numerous U.S...
...underscores the island's strategic importance as a staging area for imperial control of the Caribbean...
...It forces companies to think of profits rather than integration into the community...
...corporations and hotels in Puerto Rico have lost over $25-million in sabotage damage...
...Ferre rules over an lialnd that is called a "Free Associated State...
...Maule was founded in 1917, and has since grown into one of the south's largest producers of cement products and has been the chief supplier of cement for Miami's hotel construction boom...
...Fortune magazine described the relationship as follows: When Miles hit the beach near Ponce, Don Antonio Ferre was there to greet him...
...Following is a summary of the Ferre's ties to Puerto Rico's three largest banks...
...Regis Paper & Bag Corp...
...Deceased...
...Council...
...invaded the Dominican Republic from military staging areas in Puerto Rico...
...As one visitor recently commented, " You can't go five miles without running into a military base, nuclear site, or tracking station...
...51% owned) Caribbean Cement Carriers Corp...
...cultural , economic, and political penetration of Third World societies requires cooperation from local elites...
...Puerto Rico: Showcase of Oppression, (Book 2), Latin American Publications Service, Box 12056, Mid City Station, Washington, D.C., 20005, p. 4. 11...
...His staunch support of statehood and his conservative backing by the island's wealthy has begun the elimination of the '"middle" of Puerto Rican politics--continued commonwealth status...
...As early as 1929, the Ferres initiated a program of medical care and other fringe benefits for their workers...
...He is also a director of Ryder Systems, Inc., the south's largest transportation firm...
...Fanon's works include The Wretched of the Earth, A Dying Colonialism, and Black Skin, White Masks...
...It exercises a virtual monopoly over the island's cement industry, supplying more than 90 percent of all cement consumed in Puerto Rico...
...One government attorney summarizing his opinion of Jose commented, "I think Jose Ferre would sell a drowning man an anchor...
...The Ferres broke a ten-year gambling casino permit freeze long enough to secure one for their recently-acquired Hotel Borinquen, then they reimposed the freeze...
...bank BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO Founded in 1893, this bank has fifty two branches in Puerto Rico and four in New York City...
...4. "El Partido Socialista Va: A New Stage in the Puerto Rican Struggle," NACLA's Latin America and Empire Report, December, 1971...
...Master of Ceremonies (in English: Let's see Evelyn, let's see...
...L L- 13 - - Max Orovitz: a director and treasurer of Maule between 1956 and 1968, Orovitz is one of Miami's key corporate figures...
...He is a member of the same Trigo family that owns Caribbean Atlantic Airlines...
...Today Maule operates 25 plants along the eastern seaboard which produce and sell readymix concrete, asphalt, rock and sand, pipe, and prestressed and precast materials for building...
...Again without panties...
...117-118...
...61 Broadway, New York City)- purchasing agent Florida Lime Corp...
...Antonio Luis is the president of the Ferrecontrolled newspaper, El Nuevo Dia, the manager of his father's re-election campaign and is also the president of the Ferre-controlled Puerto Rico Cement Corp...
...military...
...These were people who had much- 15 - higher incomes than the average Puerto Rican, and their ballots for Ferre represented their belief in stability, but not necessarily in statehood...
...The governor never includes the thousands of Puerto Ricans who are not looking for obs because they know the chances of finding one are slim...
...It is close to Venezuelan oil and fish and to the big U.S...
...He is also director of the Puerto Rico Government Development Bank...
...9. For more on U.S...
...College of Education: Adv...
...director...
...The Miami Herald, March 28, 1971...
...Puerto Rico Iron Works: Vice-Chmn...
...He likes to say that Puerto Rico's growth is as high as Israel's and * The fund is an attempt to put into practice on a grand scale the economic theories of Louis Kelso, a wealthy San Francisco lawyer...
...Business should look at what is basically sound in Puerto Rico...
...Banco Credito y Ahorro Ponceno: Vice-Chmn...
...After nearly an hour of watching the women, sometimes with panties and without bras, other times with bras but without panties, and other times without panties or bras, the master of ceremonies announces that the first part of the show is over...
...Boy Scouts of America: Member Regional Comm...
...Eduardo Fossas: Fossas, a director since 1969, is the president of Metropolitan Builders, Inc...
...Herbert Solow, The Forceful Ferre Family," Fortune Magazine, October, 1959...
...When Luis took office, government investment in cement construction stood at $84.5 million...
...These are the accomplishments of "Bootstrap...
...2 7 What better symbol of the problems of national identity could have been found than one of the Ferres...
...The Ferre administration broke a ten year gambling casino permit freeze long enough to secure one for their recently acquired Hotel Borinquen, then they reimposed the freeze...
...These and many more examples of self-aggrandizement through politics have been the main reason that the Ferre family fortune has skyrocketed in the last four years...
...The heavy military utilization of Puerto Rico by the U.S...
...7. The growing seriousness of Puerto Rico's drug situation was recently underscored in the San Francisco Chronicle, August 18, 1972: "Captain Felipe Cortes, head of Puerto Rico's drug and narcotics division, estimates the value of the island's drug traffic at rghly $200 million a year...
...In addition, Puerto Rico Cement Company's monopoly share of the island's cement market grew from 86% in 1969 to 93% in 1971...
...Miami City Commissioner: 1968-70 Florida House of Reps.: Member, '67Candidate for Mayor of Dade County: 1970 Hubert Humphrey's Southern Fla...
...Banco Credito y Ahorro Ponceno: Dir...
...Today it operates 21 branches in Puerto Rico and seven in New York City, including the Bronx and Brooklyn...
...Besides the domestic demand, the Puerto Rico Cement Company is also benefitting from an increased demand from other areas of the Caribbean...
...Bd., Pres., '59Central Igualdad, Inc.: Treas., 1950Banco de Ponce: Dir...
...4 0 These are the words of a man who long ago lost his national identity...
...This anti-ROTC activity is a part of the campaign to combat the inequities of the draft system in Puerto Rico, a system that conscripts- 17 - The Ferre's When organized crime was forced to flee Cuba in 1959, it turned primarily to the Bahamas and Puerto Rico for new bases of operation...
...The Ferres have interests in two of the island's 15 casinos (all of which are located in major hotels...
...4 V) -4 Co r -4 W-4 E: a, a. - co 0 0 Z 0 E. , . C4 , I . a C., a :z W Ai i 4. 0 o ocD 0 78 -4 4. H ': z 0 z U.' 0 o 0 o O 4 0o...
...interests: El Mundo was acquired by the Knight chain, the San Juan Star by Cowles Communications, E1 Imparcial was taken over by Miguel Angel Garcia Mendez (a leader of the pro-statehood movement with Ferre and a millionaire through his sugar interests and law practice), nd E1 Nuevo Dia is owned by the Ferre family...
...Many believe the statehood line is just a vote-getting strategy on the part of the island's new commercial elites, such as the Ferres, to give them more power in ruling the island...
...The Ferre family participates in this tourist invasion through its holdings in the Hotel Borinquen and the Ponce International Hotel...
...Banco Popular de Puerto Rico: $794 million deposits...
...To avoid bankruptcy the Ferres bought out one of their two chief competitors, the Portilla Foundry...
...George Salley: Maule's longtime lawyer and director...
...Good...
...1 5 Jose was the chief negotiator with the Munoz regime -possibly a result of Jose's previously-established links with the Popular Democratic Party...
...8. Michael Myerson, "Puerto Rico: Our Backyard Colony," Ramparts, June, 1970...
...VI, No...
...It is this common history of oppression and rebellion that recently took the PSP leader, Juan Mari Bras, to Cuba to talk with Premier Fidel Castro...
...The Ferre regime responded with a hard line: many of the makeshift villages were razed, their leaders were arrested, and heavy fines were imposed on groups advocating Such actions...
...The actions are designed to discourage American tourists and investors from coming to Puerto Rico...
...corporations have hired armed guards (many from Florida's Waskenhut Corporation) to protect their enterprises...
...Puerto Rico Iron Works: 1925Organizer of Ponce Cement: 1941 Puerto Rico Cement Corp.: Chmn...
...Nixon's appointees included Senator Henry M. Jackson...
...military operations in Puerto Rico see America's Worldwide Military Apparatus (NACLA 1972...
...one of every 42 casualties suffered by U.S...
...of Security: 1957 Republican candidate for gov.:'56,'60,'64,'68 Puerto Rico House of Rep.-at-Large: '52-'57 Member Chamber of Commerce Puerto Rico Massachussettes Inst...
...interests by granting limited participation in the spoils...
...The Miami Herald, January 23, 1971...
...Gabriel Roig Leon: The latest addition to the board, oining the company in 1971...
...Puerto Rico Glass Corp.: Pres., Dir...
...Since its founding it has acquired the Banco de Santurce, the Credit Union Bank, and the Bayamon Credit Bank...
...By then, most of the 17 year 'tax forgiveness' projects would have run their course, and business would prefer the stability of statehood to the amorphous commonwealth situation...
...building...
...Statlf is a bad man and Mr...
...capital has penetrated all sectors of the Puerto Rican economy.In 1968, for instance, 78% of retail sales, 65% of housing construction, 60% of banking transactions, over 90% of insurance premiums, almost all domestic and foreign transportation, and the vast majority of service companies were controlled by foreigners led by the U.S...
...These, and not outside forces are the real causes of the cracks appearing in the Caribbean's "showcase of democracy...
...Angel M. Rivera: Rivera has been a director of Puerto Rico Cement since 1970 and is the president of Puerto Rico's second largest bank, Banco Credito y Ahorro Ponceno...
...stock, with Jose Ferre's Pan American Investments, Inc...
...Subsidiaries: Antigua Cement, Ltd...
...cultural penetration in Puerto Rico is further promoted by the tourist industry...
...5. The Journal of Commerce, August 16, 1971 (a special supplement on Puerto Rico...
...10027...
...3 4 Kelso, co-author of The Capitalist Manifesto and The New Capitalists, is one of the foremost proponents of "progressive" capitalism, and Ferre has called upon him frequently as an economic advisor.- 16 - Japan's...
...When Luis took office, this newspaper, which is headed by his son Antonio Luis, was published and distributed solely in Ponce...
...Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y...
...government was building the giant Roosevelt Roads Naval Base in Puerto Rico, in an effort to keep German U-Boats from U.S...
...In 1970, 530,000 Puerto Ricans had to receive emergency food and if mainland standards were applied, over 1.2 million of the island's 2.8 million population would be eligible for food stamps...
...Luis Ferre is an anachronism...
...and Antonio Luis are all directors...
...As the New York Times reported in an article on the island's construction boom (March 23, 1969): "The new commercial and manufacturing elite have created the demand for expensive suburban dwellings and luxury high-rise apartments in San Juan...
...Ponce & Panama: Pres...
...You know, sometimes I think if I lived forever, I would own the whole world...
...Note: The official Commonwealth of Puerto Rico biography on Governor Ferre tell us: "A deep respect for God is reflected in a all his acts, and is (an) indestructable heritage of the entire family...
...or to Box 226, Berkeley, California 94701...
...In one night last year 21 bombs exploded in the plush El Condado hotel district, injuring no one, but driving home the message that tourism is oppressive to the island's labor force and subverts Puerto Rican culture...
...The family has sizeable investments in the Ponce Intercontinental Hotel (controlled by Pan Am) and is owner of the Hotel Borinquen in San Juan, both of which operate casinos...
...The ailing Cowles Comnunications empire formerly included Look,Venture, and Family Circle magazines...
...Now I can start making more money...
...See Dixie Bayo's three parts series in Claridad June 25, June 27, and July 2, 1972...
...1 3 Soon the new company surpassed the government-owned Puerto Rico Cement Co...
...The education the Ferres received in the United States was key to the development of the Empresas Ferre into what it is today...
...He is the president of Licoreria Trigo, a distributor and bottler of liquors...
...THE JOSE FERRE FAMILY IN FLORIDA It was the Ferres' move into cement that eventually brought the family name to Florida...
...Fortune, October, 1959 Don Antonio Ferre, born in Cuba in 1877, was the son of an engineer of French descent...
...The Knight chain includes the Miami Herald, The Detroit Free Press, The Charlotte Observer, and the Philadelphia Inquirer in addition to various other newspaper and broadcasting interests...
...The meeting, also attended by Lou Chesler, was called to plan the construction of a casino in the Bahamas...
...Ferre has ominously predicted that, "When we succeed here, political democracy and the free enterprise system, which has made the United States what it is toda 3 , will be seen to succeed in all Latin America...
...Another important aspect of the independence movement has been the struggle to force the U.S...
...It is misleading, however, to say that all who voted for Ferre voted also for statehood...
...Working with Kelso on this fund plan was Joseph A. Novak, a private tax lawyer in San Juan whose firm represents, among others, the Roig sugar interests...
...The Ferres are one of Miami's major downtown property holders.l Jose lives in an expensive mansion at 1627 Brickell Avenue in one of Miami's plushest neighborhoods...
...These are not realistic arguments...
...Five Ferres administer Maule: Jose is chairman, his son Maurice is president, and Herman, Herman Jr...
...and Puerto Rico, keeping track of the latest developments in technology and, on occasion, employing the services of continental (U.S...
...Further, he accuses those responsible of being communists trained in Cuba...
...The plight of the 800,000 Puerto Ricans in New York's slums is also inseparable from the polarization taking place on the island...
...Noticias (U.S...
...blanketed all Puerto Ricans with citizenship (1917).2 The saga of the Ferre family's rise to power is more than a story of how a Cuban migrated to Puerto Rico, founded a small machine shop near Ponce, and expanded it into a corporate empire worth hundreds of millions of dollars...
...Luis Ferre appointed him Secretary of the Treasury for Puerto Rico in 1969...
...Among Puerto Rico Cement directors are the following: Rafael Carrion, Jr.: A director of tne firm since 1963, Carrion is the president of Puerto Rico's largest bank, Banco Popular de Puerto Rico (see box on Ferres and banking...
...Jose is the Honorary Consul in Puerto Rico for Brazil's repressive regime...
...To date they have killed no one...
...CZ 4. _ I co o ' oC I co .0) ,_ OI 1 U 0 a -1 0 0 10 H D en r0 f O...
...Flamboyant Jose is the promoter, Luis is an engaging blend of Latin gravity and U.S...
...The resolution of this case, in the words of The Miami Herald, is "expected to provide a working definition of Puerto Rican residence for U.S income tax purposes...
...The.Hall is Leonard Hall, former Chairman of the Republican Nation al Committee...
...The previous owner of the hotel -- formerly called the Juan Darlington -- had been forced to sell because he could not compete against the hotels with casinos...
...Puerto Rico cannot lose its culture and the United States is not interested in seeing it lose its culture...
...Diego Cisneros: a director since 1969, Cisr neros was elected to replace Luis Ferre, who left to assume the governorship...
...the new commercial elites such as the Ferres) and the larger segment of Puerto Rican society, who are increasingly without obs or decent homes...
...Instant Crete of Florida, Inc...
...Today, the Ferre interests are represented by the governor's son, Antonio Luis...
...Ferre has also authorized the assignment of over 300 police to protect the island's diplomatic community...
...waters and to protect shipping lanes...
...0 Lz - OC...
...Luis Ferre has said that, Those who oppose statehood cite economic disadvantages and a possible loss of our culture...
...Part of the entertainment the Ferre's Hotel Borinquen offers to attract guests is a girlie show presented every Wednesday in the Cloud Room...
...Thus the paper, which for years operated at a loss, is now one of the Ferre's more lucrative enterprises.- 14 - Claridad goes on to cite other examples of how the Ferres utilize the occupation of La Fortaleza (the Governor's mansion) to further their corporate greed: -- The Ferre-owned Casera cannery obtained a Puerto Rico Department of Education contract in 1970 to supply foodstuffs to the island's schools, even though other companies had submitted more favorable bids...
...Republican" of American politics, helped the Ferres' Ponce Cement get key shipments of equipment for their newly founded plant...
...FERRE AND THE ECONOMY To counter claims that Puerto Rico's economy is rapidly failing, Governor Ferre has introduced measures that are desperate, spectacular, and designed to assure his re-election chances in November...
...Los Angeles Times, October 12, 1967...
...For information on the Ferre tax case in Florida see The Miami Herald, December 27, 1970, January 12, 15, 20, and 23, 1971...
...To escape the revolutionary "chaos" of Cuba, he fled to Puerto Rico in the late 1890's and twenty years later established a small machine shop foundry near Ponce...
...Jose and Luis both joined the Iron Works in 1927, followed by Herman the next year, and Carlos three years later...
...Transworld Investment, Inc.- owned by Herman Ferre family Maule Industries- Florida's largest concrete products firm (see "Ferres in Florida") El Nuevo Dia- controlled by the Ferre family, recently began national circulation WRIK-TV- (Ponce), this station was 10%-owned by Luis Ferre before he took office WPRP-TV- (Ponce), this station was 38%-owned by Luis Ferre before he took office Former Ferre Holdings: Fabrics Nacional de Vidrio- (Venezuela), a glass manufacturer controlled by the Ferres through Maule Industries...
...During his nationally televised "State of the Commonwealth" message on January 15, 1972, Ferre proposed a Proprietary Fund for the Progress of Puerto Rico...
...As a result of the bombings, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has increased its infiltration of Puerto Rico, and has utilized the sabotage as an excuse to harrass the aboveground independence organizing...
...Solow, op...
...Puerto Rico Cement Corp.: Co-Chmn...
...First, they acquired ready access to government development plans, crucial intelligence for any big-time entrepeneur...
...Caribe & Panama Investments: Pres...
...Another Ferre enterprise that has benefitted from the family's control of the governor's mansion is El Nuevo Dia...
...Governor Blanton Winship initiated the island's cement industry...
...in 1960, 253,000...
...By the middle 1930's the family fortune stood at about $250,000 and was growing fast...
...The elections are important not because they offer a real choice to the Puerto Rican people, but because if re-elected, Ferre will have four more years in which to attempt the complete annexation of Puerto Rico to the U.S...
...of Ohio, the "Mr...
...Benigno Trigo Gonzales: Luis Ferre's daughter, Rosario Ferre Trigo, is married to this director who has been at Puerto Rico Cement since 1967...
...An American, Karl Landegger, was the first to offer an attractive bid, but the Ferres lobbied for "nationals" to purchase the companies and they secured the sale for $10 million with a multi-million dollar loan from the Chase Manhattan Bank...
...Photo below: The two most powerful second generation Ferres- Luis Antonio at left and Maurice.(Fortune, Oct., 1959)-8worth millions (Luis was worth an estimated $7 million upon taking office), but as a philanthropist and a man of God, whose whole life had been dedicated to the masses...
...Panel Elected Governor of Puerto Rico: 1968...
...35...
...government loaned the Ferres enough capital to establish the Ponce Cement Corporation...
...It is Gov...
...In 1950, construction in Puerto Rico accounted for only 4 Percent of the GNP, but in 1960 it soared to over 20 percent and is growing rapidly as industrial plants, commercial buildings, and expensive suburban homes are in rising demand...
...The report links at least one hotel owner (though not by name) with organized crime in the United States and calls for strong action to correct the situation before a major scandal ensues...
...The Ferre's Cordillera Development Company bought up sizeable chunks of land near the proposed Bocachica International Airport before any other potential speculators (or much less, the public) knew the exact location of the new airport site...
...multinational corporations...
...Under the freeze the price of cement was restricted to a 5 rise per year...
...The growth of the firm is directly tied to the expansion of the construction industry...
...Hence, it is quite possible that Luis' entry into Puerto Rico's pro-statehood party was influenced by prospective economic benefits...
...National Foreign Trade Council), June 23, 1971...
...See The Miami Herald, April 18, 1971, for an interesting article on Puerto Ricans in Miami...
...In November he will be up for re-election against the Popular Democratic Party, which stands for essentially the same interests as Ferre's New Progressive Party -- big business and a continued dependent relationship with the U.S...
...Claridad is a Puerto Rico independence paper available at Claridad, Toscania 1153, Urbanizacion Villa Capri, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico...
...The U.S...
...business ournal, as follows: Tax exemption in the long run is not healthful...
...Now, Herman and Jose are co-chairmen, with Luis' son Antonio Luis serving as president and Jose's son Maurice serving as a director...
...Claridad, June 25, 1972, p. 6. 25...
...Puerto Rico Cement had been founded three years before Ponce Cement, in 1938, when the U.S...
...Its acquisitions include the Colonial Bank & Trust Co...
...Los Angeles Times, March 26, 1972...
...In a rare moment of insight, he theorized: "If you say running a casino is bad then you have to say Mr...
...1 4 The Statehood Republican Party of Puerto Rico became an affiliate of the mainland G.O.P...
...Attorney Robert Morgenthau in connection with illegal stock dealings of Maule's former parent company, General Development Corp...
...Unemployment today stands at 33X.11 Over 100,000 families in Puerto Rico earn less than $500 a year, and the infamous slums of San Juan (El Fangito, La Perla, and Los Bravos de Boston) are becoming more crowded and crime-ridden...
...He almost instantly drew the assignment to draft a detailed plan, which stayed quite secret until the governor sprang it earlier this year...
...NOTE: This box does not include the Ferre banking interests in Florida, which are covered in the "Ferres in Florida" section of the accompanying article.- 10 - Ferre Family Empire Puerto Rico Cement Corp...
...This firm is headed by Ed Ball, a member of the Du Pont family by marriage, and one of George Wallace's biggest bankrollers during the 1968 elections...
...The Ferre brothers -- Luis Alberto, Jose Antonio, and Herman -- are creative, forceful enterprisers...
...Outstanding among them are the Ferre brothers, owners of the Ferre Industries, or in the bilingual commonwealth better known as Empresas Ferre...
...Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico were all seized by manifest destiny's expansionism in 1898, and the evolution of their anti-colonialist fight has many similarities...
...Today the Ferre family controls 58 percent of Puerto Rico Cement Co...
...Among the Ferres' vast Florida real estate holdings was one tract sold for $1.6 million in the 1950's to Arthur Vining Davis, former ALCOA chairman...
...This cooperation is amply rewarded by U.S...
...Ferre's quote indicates the high priority Washington has put on Puerto Rico's development as a model for Latin America, and especially for Central America and the crucial Caribbean area...
...For example, a recent Business Week (May 13, 1972) review of 41 construction companies revealed that while the average gain in earnings for these companies between the first quarter in 1971 and the corresponding quarter in 1972 was 51%, the Ferre's Puerto Rico Cement Corp., which supplies over 90% of the cement consumed in Puerto Rico, registered a gain in earnings of 873...
...and in 1968, the year he finally won, he received 390,000 votes...
...Jose.is a director of one of Florida's most important corporations, the Florida East Coast Railway...
...interests...
...cit., p. 272...
...Come...
...3 The sabotage and student demonstrations are not the only levels of the independence struggle that are disrupting Ferre's dream of statehood...
...The Munoz political machine, through the Popular Democratic Party, ruled the island from 1940 until 1968, when it was defeated by Ferre's newly formed New Progressive Party...
...The latest polls in Puerto Rico have shown that only a minority backs statehood...
...What concerns Ferre the most about the sagging economy is that it dissuades potential investors...
...The historic event took place in a sports stadium in Bayamon in November, 1971 at a rally attended by over 7,000 people...
...Address all mail to Box 57, Cathedral Station, New York, N.Y...
...Cordillera Development)- warehouses in San Juan area Ferre Export Corp...
...2. Herbert Solow, "The Forceful Ferre Family," Fortune, October, 1959, pp...
...Sandra likes to walk around without panties, it's lots of fun, right Sandra...
...profit Cementos Nacionales- (Santiago, Cuba), formerly controlled by the Ferres L PI- 11 - themselves in the state's political and corporate affairs...
...The Miami Herald, March 28, 1971...
...Herman specialized in civil engineering and became production chief of the Iron Works...
...The package of companies launched Empresas Ferre into a multimillion dollar enterprise...
...In 1971, the New York based Young Lords Party, which organizes around the basic needs ot the Puerto Rican community, opened an office in Puerto Rico...
...The Ferres' attitudes towards labor and the treatment of their workers with a cautious hand was a direct result of their training in the U.S...
...Holds several key political positions in Florida...
...Ferre's dream that Puerto Rico become the 51st state...
...the 87th largest U.S...
...Jose Luis Ferres at a Glance 1% - r N I-7 - Herman The youngest of the sons, Herman is an executive of various Empresas Ferre corporations...
...Here is how a Claridad reporter described the show which features eight young Puerto Rican women who supposedly model underwear in varying degrees of nudity...
...Asked if buying into a hotel that had a casino was opening the gates to "undesirable" elements, Maurice responded that, "If it is bad to buy into a hotel with a casino, then Mr...
...1 7 Led by politician Maurice and his industrialist father Jose, the Ferres have firmly entrenched-9J~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ferre Banking Interests It is no suprise that the Ferres have close ties to Puerto Rico's three top banks...
...Upon taking office in 1969, Ferre was worth an estimated $8-million...
...Sold their stock interest in 1957 for $100,000...
...The figure jumped to $147.5 million between 1970 and 1971...
...Further, why does he favor a position that would terminate the lavish tax "holidays" now bestowed upon U.S...
...of Technology: Trustee Air War College National Security Forum New York University International Studies & World Affairs: Adv...
...El Nuevo Dia: Publisher The son of Herman, he is an executive of key Empresas Ferre corporations...
...270-271...
...The story behind the Borinquen casino provides another example of how the Ferres have used their access to the governor's mansion for their own profit...
...However, the story really begins much earlier -- in the 1890's when Don Antonio Ferre Bacallao came to Puerto Rico...
...Puerto Rico Cement Corp.: Dir...
...Its New York City offices are located at 20 West 48th St...
...see "Ferre's Dirty Linen" box Ponce Hotel Corp.- Luis Ferre was chairman from 1959-68...
...Banco de Ponce: Dir...
...slums, and on the other, the plight they faced once settled on the mainland...
...The proposal came at the start of an important political year and is clearly designed to counter claims by the independence groups and the opposition Popular Democrats that the island's economy is sagging and in Ferre's words, to "give all Puerto Ricans a piece of the action...
...Regis Paper & Bag Corporation and Desarrollos Multiples Insulares...
...Sol Luis Descartes, president of the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico...
...CONCLUSION The struggle for Puerto Rican independence cannot be seen only in the context of Puerto Rico...
...Puerto Rico Cement Corp.: Dir...
...Before assuming the governorship, Luis was a director...
...3 2 The forces opposing statehood--the independence groups--are rapidly gaining strength...
...government shortly preceeded Luis' entry into Puerto Rican Republican politics...
...M.C.: Perhaps this part of the spectacle has seemed a little boring...
...Rafael Carrion, Jr., Banco Popular president, is also a director of Puerto Rico Cement Co., 58%-owned by the Ferres...
...The faltering economy is at the root of the rising crime rate, the high rate of unemployment, the rapid increase in drug addiction, and the growing popular support for independence...
...in 1963, and it became the first Puerto Rican firm to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange...
...Lastly, what is Ferre's strategy for achieving statehood...
...Perhaps the most blatant sign of the North American presence in Puerto Rico is the use of the land by the U.S...
...see also The Christian Science Monitor, April 8, 1969, p. 4. 12...
...Governor Ferre tried to cover up an obvious conflict of interest case by appointing a separate commission to study the matter when his family's firm requested the increase...
...public lands in Puerto Rico...
...state legislatures...
...However, the economic benefits Ferre says his nation would receive do not tell the whole story of why he became involved in Puerto Rican Republican politics over thirty years ago...
...The backing of the cement plant by the U.S...
...It was Maurice who led the Ferre family into their interest in San Juan's Hotel Borinquen...
...Miami Caribe Investments: Pres...
...Heralded as a "New Deal" for the Puerto Rican people, "Bootstrap" proved to be more of a new deal for U.S...
...Ferre's supporters saw him as a symbol of their new found wealth, of their new surburban homes, and as the personification of their conservative philosophy...
...Juan Mari Bras, leader of the PSP, recently accused the FBI and CIA of taking over the repressive apparatus of the Puerto Rican police in an effort to harrass and discourage organizing by independence groups...
...Statehood would require the approval by two-thirds of the U.S...
...The Ferres were quick to identify with the new colonial masters...
...Casinos are a lucrative source of hotel revenue...
...3 6 Victims have included Woolworth's, Sear's, Kresge, IBM, Burger King, and the El San Juan and Americana hotels...
...The PSP program calls for an end to U.S...
...The Ferres merged Ponce and Puerto Rico Cement into a single enterprise -- Puerto Rico Cement Corp...
...The New York Times, May 21, 1972...
...When asked about the family casino operations and organized crime, Maurice Ferre laughed at the idea that opening a casino means that "all the Mafia will move in...
...Kelso's clients include Hewlett-Packard, a prime military contractor presided over by Nixon's former Assistant Secretary of Defense, David Packard...
...The Miami Herald, February 5, 1970...
...Ferre says that whatever the corporations lose in additional taxes as the result of statehood status, would be made up in federal aid...
...The government does not release figures on the size of gross gambling take, but informed estimates in 1967 placed the figure at about $30 million...
...2 9 THE DYNAMICS OF STATEHOOD Why does Luis Ferre shamelessly advocate the annexation of his nation as the 51st state...
...Orovitz' son, Maurice, is now a Maule executive vice-president...
...of Puerto Rico- produces extra strength bags for cement, coffee, rice, flour, and sugar Virgin Islands Cement Co., Inc...
...In 1963, for example, 51% of the island's income went to only 20% of the nation's population...
...Retired in 1942...
...Since its fortunes were so closely linked to that of the sugar industry (through repairs of equipment) the Iron Works was headed for hard times...
...Miami Caribe Investments, Inc.- owned by Jose Ferre family Pan American Investments, Inc.-owned by Jose Ferre family Ferre Investment Fund, Inc.- controlled by Antonio Luis Ferre Alfra Investment Corp.- owned by Antonio Luis Ferre Sound Investments, Inc.- owned by Herman Ferre, Jr...
...Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) off Puerto Rican campuses...
...Recently, the anti-colonial campaign reached a new stage when one of the island's key independence groups, the MPI--the Movement for Puerto Rican Independence--transformed itself into a socialist party--the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP...
...Caribbean Material Supply Corp...
...Pan American Investment: Pres...
...3,540 were wounded, killed or missing...
...Wayne Aspinall, chairman of the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, which oversees U.S...
...Ferre goes on to point out "that with a certain amount of political power in [U.S.] Congress you can funnel considerable business into your area even without tax exemption...
...Chesler, a close business associate of Orovitz, was a former president of General Development...
...Later Orovitz was indicted by U.S...
...Puerto Rico's Poet Governor," Latin American Report, September, 1956, p. 32...
...During Chesler's reign at GDC, "Trigger" Mike Copolla, a close associate of Lansk 's, was one of the firm's largest stockholders.2 Orovitz sits with Maruice Ferre as a trustee at the University of Miami, along with Gardner Cowles (president of Cowles Communications, which controls the San Juan Star, and a former director of GDC...
...2 4 These newly-acquired privileges are reflected in the balance sheets of the Ferre family enterprises...
...Ferre's appointments included: Alberto Santiago Villalorrga, whose San Juan law firm represents Bacardi, Ford, IBM, Intercontinental Hotels, its parent corporation Pan American World Airways, and the Central Aquirre Sugar Corp...
...markets, and its people are good with their hands...
...The crime generated by the drug trade costs another $200 million, he says...and that the large island dealers have connections with the Mafia, especially in New York and Florida...
...He is the first one to know of the new projects in addition to having the power to push those which are in his (the Ferre's) interest...
...The real measure of economic development, however, must include not only GNP and per capita income, but also the distribution of the benefits of the "economic boom" throughout the population...
...corporations...
...His firm, Salley, Barns, Pajon & Immer, is also the special counsel for Florida sugar interests, including William Pawley's Talisman Sugar Corporation, Gulf & Western Industries (which has vast agricultural holdings in the Dominican Republic and Florida through its subsidiary, South Puerto Rico Sugar Corp...
...12 per year for institutions ($22 for two years...
...Alberto Paracchini, the executive vice-president of the bank, is also a vicechairman of the board of Puerto Rico Cement Corp...
...Bootstrap's" main effects have been the creation of a small middle class, a rise in the gross national product, and the stratification of Puerto Rican society into those who benefit by continued dependency on the U.S...
...For more on the commission see The New York Times August 22, 1971...
...Luis attended the Morristown School in New Jersey where he "prepped" for two years before entering Massachussets Institute of Technology to study mechanical and electrical engineering...
...Before discussing the Ferres in detail, however, we must present a brief overview of Puerto Rico...
...Puerto Rico Cement has two main subsidiaries: St...
...Evelyn isn't wearing panties...
...THE RISE OF THE FERRE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM Though many Puerto Rican businessmen are steeped in Spanish traditions that hobble their enterprise, others have moved forward...
...SUBSCRIPTIONS: $6 per year for individuals ($11 for two years...
...Later, during the 1968 campaign for Governor, Ferre referred many times to his "progressive" employee-relations policies...
...This move brought it in line with the island's laws, and soon the newspaper began receiving government agency ads...
...THE FERRES HAVE A FRIEND AT CHASE MANHATTAN In 1950, the Muhoz Marin regime wanted to sell a group of state-owned cement, paper, glass, shoe and clay products companies (referred to above) that were losing money...
...of Miami and Barry College: Trustee Born in 1904, Luis is the second eldest of Don Antonio's sons...
...Roberto de Jesus Toro, chairman of this bank, is also a director of Puerto Rico Cement Corp...
...Puerto Rico Paper & Pulp: Chmn...
...The current governor of Puerto Rico, he was a former leader of the Statehood Republican Party until he founded the New Progressive Party in 1967...
...Today 107 of Fortune's list of the op 500 corporations are operating in Puerto Rico...
...Come, show these gentlemen...
...John Rodriquez, attorney and director of this bank, is also a director of Maule Industries, 83%-owned by the Ferres...
...The Miami Herald, January 23, 1971...
...This article recounts the rise of the Ferres to power, describes the principal components of their financial/industrial empire, identifies the family's chief allies, and provides a closer look at the family's two key members: Gov...
...In the Puerto Rican public school system, children are taught to speak English and to become "good and loyal American citizens...
...in output...
...Organizer of Luis A. Ferre Foundation Developer of Puerto Rico YMCA: 1950Citizen's Adv...
...Puerto Rico Iron Works: Chmn...
...In 1950, the Ferres acquired Puerto Rico Cement along with other paper, glass, and clay plants from the government as apart of a $10 million package deal...
...the undisputed leader: in 1966, U.S...
...The Cowles family controls Harper's magazine, The Minneapolis Star & Tribune in addition to various other broadcasting and newspaper concerns...
...He is the president of the Southeast Bancorporation, which operates four banks in Florida: the First National Bank of Miami (the state's largest), the First City Bank of Tampa, the First National Bank of Miami Springs, and the Coral Way National Bank...
...Hilton is a bad man...
...Carlos, Don Antonio's fourth son, died of a heart attack in 1958...
...Puerto Rico Cement Corp.: Co-Chmn...
...He is the General Manager of the Ponce Division of Caribe Motors Corporation -automobile dealers, and a member of the Roig sugar and banking family that originally helped finance Puerto Rico Cement...
...Pan American Bank of Miami: Dir...
...BANCO CREDITO Y AHORRO PONCENO Founded in 1895, it operates 42 branches in Puerto Rico...
...Land seizures have also plagued the Ferre administration...
...John Rodriguez: Attorney and director of the Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, the island's largest bank...
...BANCO DE PONCE The Ferre connections to this bank are the strongest...
...Herman, Jr...
...CRACKS IN THE "SHOWCASE": THE INDEPENDENCE UPSURGE Whenever a leader is incapable of coping with explosive social and economic conditions, it is a common maneuver for him to attribute the nation's ills to outside forces...
...It is also the saga of an island losing its cultural, economic, and political identity under seventyfour years of U.S...
...Florida East Coast Railway: Dir...
...Leonard Abess: Chairman of a large Florida banking network, the City National Bank group...
...A "free state" in which the people cannot vote for the officials who formulate the island's laws from chambers in Washington...
...Boston University: Trustee Clubs: Bankers, Rotary, Yacht, & Advertising Maurice The son of Jose, Maurice is the most powerful of the second generation Ferres with the possible exception of Antonio Luis...
...The Government would then give each worker (stockholder) an equal amount of common stock...
...They are part of the first Puerto Rican generation born and matured under the U.S...
...Another lucrative development for the company's future came about in June, 1971, when the Ferre Administration, ending a 23 year freeze on the price of retail cement, granted a 25 cents perbag increase in the price of cement...
...One of these measures was the proposal by Ferre for the establishment of a worker's "stock fund...
...Puerto Rico Marine Corp.: Pres...
...The establishment of the new office illustrates the common conditions that, on the one hand, forced the exit of hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans from their homeland to U.S...
...Internal Revenue Service is attempting to collect more than $28 million in back taxes from Jose and his son Maurice, the principal Ferre representatives in Florida...
...WAR BRINGS PROFITS FOR FERRES The events that followed illustrate how closely the Ferres' fortune was linked to U.S...
...Desarrollos is the corporation's real estate subsidiary and is primarily constructing warehouses in Ponce and San Juan...
...Ferre Development Corp.: Pres...
...In some instances the Puerto Rican people have begun to resist the use of their island as a military fortress...
...troops under General Nelson A. Miles invaded and secured Puerto Rico to end Spanish colonial rule and bring the island under U.S...
...corporations investing in Puerto Rico--a privilege that aids the very interests that he represents...
...Herman Ferre, co-chairman of Puerto Rico Iron Works, is a director and second vice-chairman of this bank...
...Of these, Union Carbide (the island's largest investor), General Electric, Phelps Dodge, RCA, the Chase Manhattan Bank, Squibb, ITT, and Ford stand out...
Vol. 6 • July 1972 • No. 6
