Don’t cut pension, cry Puerto Ricans

A GROUP OF Puerto Ricans angered by proposed cuts to the island’s crumbling pension system held a protest rally in lower Manhattan Thursday.

“Puerto Rico is not for sale,” protesters shouted outside the U.S. Customs House, where the federally-appointed oversight board will vote on an an austerity plan for the island next month.

“We need (Puerto Rico’s) governor to listen to us right now,” pleaded Daiza Aponte, 29. She fled storm-ravaged Puerto Rico with her two young children in December. She’s been living in a hotel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, ever since.

The control board in charge of Puerto Rico’s fragile finances wants to impose steep cuts on the island’s pension system and has said it will consider raising the minimum wage in return.

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello on Wednesday spoke out against some of the proposals.

The board had written to Rossello saying it wanted a 10% cut to the pension system. The system has approximately $50 billion in unfunded obligations.

Megan Cerullo Sgt. Bret Barnum and Devonte Hart, then 12, hug at Portland, Ore., rally in 2014 to protest killing by cop in Ferguson, Mo. Devonte was in California crash Monday in which he and seven other family members (above) are presumed dead. Car...