Naomi Klein’s The Battle for Paradise: Puerto Rico Takes on the Disaster Capitalists

Abstract

Building on her previous work on disaster capitalism and the shock doctrine, Naomi Klein’s latest (2018) essay analyses the disaster that ensued on the islands of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria hit on September 20th 2017. The essay (my Puerto Rican colleagues like to call it a librito a ‘little book’) is 80 pages long and is 16 cm x 11.5cm in size. It is easy to read and gives an overall picture of the challenges faced by Puerto Rico due to the recent natural disaster and the forces that existed prior to Maria. Unfortunately, due to its limited length and its appeal to a broad target audience, Klein only provides glimpses of the economic and political situation of Puerto Rico. One can only really understand Puerto Rico's plight by considering those forces that have existed since the Spanish-American War of 1898 that made Puerto Rico a de facto colony of the United States (after 400 years of Spanish rule); a process of double-colonisation that has undeniably affected the psyche of the people of Puerto Rico.