Puerto Rican citizens got a chance on Tuesday to express their fears about a massive debt overhaul plan before a judge with the power to decide Puerto Rico’s economic future, the Washington Post reported. After months of wrangling by attorneys, economists and bondholders, the session was an opportunity for retirees, housewives and others to share their worries that the plan would strangle small businesses, freeze pensions and cause yet more hardship for a U.S. territory that has suffered years of steady economic decline. Some said they worried that despite such a squeeze, greater cuts on money owed to creditors are needed to stave off yet another bankruptcy and even more dire hardships. The testimony in a San Juan courtroom came more than six years after the island declared it was unable to pay its more than $70 billion in public debt accrued through decades of mismanagement, corruption and excessive borrowing and more than four years after it filed for the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.
