SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris arrived in Puerto Rico on Friday as part of a whirlwind trip to tout the federal aid the U.S. territory has received following deadly hurricanes and attend a Democratic fundraiser.
Her visit comes days after U.S. President Joe Biden launched a campaign targeting Latino voters ahead of the November general elections. While those in Puerto Rico cannot vote in U.S. presidential elections despite being U.S. citizens, more than 5 million Puerto Ricans live in the U.S. mainland.
Accompanying Harris for the roughly five-hour visit to the island was U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Department of Housing and Urban Development Deputy Secretary Adrianne Todman. Welcoming them was Gov. Pedro Pierluisi, a Democrat whose New Progressive Party has long pushed for statehood.
Harris’ first stop was to visit a home in the northern municipality of Canovanas, located near the capital. It was built after Hurricane Maria hit the island in September 2017 as a powerful Category 4 storm, killing an estimated 2,975 people in its aftermath.
En route, the motorcade passed people holding their phones up as it went by. Some onlookers leaned out of their cars to take photos as they waited for the motorcade to pass, while others stood outside businesses and homes as the motorcade continued. One girl held a sign imploring help to fix their home.
“I see we are making a difference. There is still more work to do,” Harris said as she stood on the lawn of the new home draped with a large Puerto Rican flag. “We are ambitious. Yes, we are impatient.”
Harris said one of the ongoing challenges Puerto Rico faces is intermittent energy sources, with outages still occurring daily since Maria razed the power grid. She noted that the federal government has provided some $3 billion in reliable energy sources, including rooftop solar panels.
“(This) is about an upgrade on quality of life and just the well being and dignity of each family to be able to satisfy their basic needs,” she said, adding that hurricane resistance technology is being used. “Puerto Rico taught us some lessons.”
Meanwhile, Todman said that more than 6,000 homes have been repaired and more than 3,500 new units built since the devastating storm.
“It’s undeniable that more work remains to be done,” she said.
Reconstruction in the years following Maria was slow, in part given the spending restrictions that the Trump administration implemented at the time.
During Harris’ visit on Friday, Pierluisi thanked her and Biden for their help: “They’re with us in connection with this reconstruction.”
Hours before Harris’ arrival, a couple dozen protesters gathered in Puerto Rico’s capital to decry the island’s territorial status and demand a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.
“We find her presence disrespectful,” said Joselyn Velázquez, protest spokeswoman, as a group around her waved Palestinian flags.
Nearby, one demonstrator stood on a U.S. flag while others gathered additional U.S. flags and set them on fire.
“She is not welcome here,” said one protester.
After visiting the home in Canovanas, Harris was scheduled to stop by a community center in San Juan and later address a campaign reception before flying back to the U.S. mainland Friday evening.
It is Harris’ first visit to Puerto Rico as vice president, having visited as a U.S. senator in 2017 after devastating hurricanes Irma and Maria pummeled the island.