the cuban flag was made first, not the puerto rico flag.
the cuban flag was made first, not the puerto rico flag.
which flag was made first cuba or puerto rico?
cuban
in november 2009, the puerto rico women's national baseball team made its international debut, participating in the first edition of the women's pan american baseball cup, which was classificatory to the 2010 women's baseball world cup. in its first game, the team defeated venezuela with scores of 6:3. puerto rico scored five runs in the first inning and one in the seventh, while venezuela scored 1 in the first, second and fourth innings. the game was won by johana ramos. in its second game, the team defeated cuba 7:5. cuba scored first with two runs in the first and one in the third, but puerto rico got on the scoreboard by scoring twice in the third and added two more runs in the fifth, in the seventh inning puerto rico scored three times and cuba two. the game was won by krizia rivera, who by then was fifteen years old, while elizabeth santana registered a saved game. for the team, lisandra batted 3-2 with an rbi, coralys ortíz 4-2 and yariam rivera with an rbi. in the third date, the team participated in a double-header. in the first game puerto rico defeated the dominican republic by mercy rule, 10:0. with this victory the team advanced to the finals, classifying to the world cup. in the second game of the date, they defeated cuba in a rematch 3:1. after four games, puerto rico dominated the statistics in batting average (.347), earned run average (2.24) and defensive percent (.950). in individual fields, first baseman berríos, who was twenty years old, led in hits (6), rbis (5), runs (7) and stolen bases (3) and was second in batting average (.500). in their fifth game, puerto rico defeated the dominican republic by mercy rule in the third inning, 20:0. the game was won by ariana vélez. the team concluded their first participation by winning the silver medal, only losing to venezuela in the finals. in 2010, the team won the v cuban sports olympics, defeating the occidentales de cuba seven runs to one in the final. yinoska claudio was selected the tournament's most valuable player, also finishing second in batting average (.571). the team compiled a record of 4-1, only losing to centrales de cuba.
puerto rico national baseball team
beginning with christopher columbus's arrival on the island in 1493, spain colonized puerto rico. at the end of the spanish–american war in 1898, puerto rico was ceded to the united states. the united states then refused to pay the colony's creditors, asserting they held odious debt. prior to 1898, the people of puerto rico had spanish citizenship; after puerto rico stopped being part of spain, the people of puerto rico had neither independent nor colonial citizenship. in april 1900, president william mckinley signed the foraker act, which allowed popular election of only the house of representatives of puerto rico. the insular cases, a series of supreme court decisions issued in the early 1900's, defined puerto rico as an unincorporated "territory appurtenant and belonging to the united states, but not a part of the united states within the revenue clauses of the constitution." although legally defined as a commonwealth or protectorate, puerto rico's relationship with the united states, in which ultimate economic and political decision making rests with the u.s. federal government and citizens who reside in puerto rico do not enjoy full constitutional rights, was deemed by juan r. torruella to be a colonial one. the political status of puerto rico makes it subject to u.s. laws. the jones-shafroth act is one of these laws, which exempts interest payments from bonds issued by the government of puerto rico and its subdivisions from federal, state, and local income taxes (so called "triple tax exemption") regardless of where the bond holder resided. this right made puerto rican bonds attractive to municipal bond investors. this factor led puerto rico to issue bonds that were always attractive to municipal investors, regardless of puerto rico's account balances. puerto rico thus began to issue debt to balance its budget, a practice repeated for four decades since 1973. the island also began to issue debt to repay older debt, as well as refinancing older debt possessing low interest rates with debt possessing higher interest rates. in 1984, congress explicitly forbade puerto rico from declaring bankruptcy under chapter 9, title 11, united states code. between 1996 and 2006, congress eliminated the tax credits, contributing to the loss of 80,000 jobs on the island and causing its population to shrink and its economy to contract in all but one year since the great recession. because the constitution of puerto rico established that "all available resources" must first go towards payment of the commonwealth's general obligation bonds, in 2006, the commonwealth began issuing puerto rico sales tax revenue bonds, to avoid its constitution's limits by being paid directly into a separate urgent interest fund. sales tax was increased to 11%. the last property tax assessment was done in 1958. it was not until puerto rico enlarged its outstanding debt to $71 billion—an amount approximately equal to 68% of puerto rico's gross domestic product (gdp)—that puerto rican bonds were downgraded to non-investment grade (better known as "junk status" or speculative grade) by three bond credit rating agencies between february 4 and 11, 2014. this downgrade triggered bond acceleration clauses that required puerto rico to repay certain debt instruments within months rather than years. investors were concerned that puerto rico would eventually default on its debt. such a default would reduce puerto rico's ability to issue bonds in the future. puerto rico currently states that it is unable to maintain its current operations unless it takes drastic measures that may lead to civil unrest. there have already been protests over the austerity measures. these events, along with a series of governmental financial deficits and a recession, have led to puerto rico's current debt crisis.
puerto rican government-debt crisis