I’ve been reporting since January that reconstruction supplies donated to Puerto Rico never reached their intended recipients. Now the mainstream media has finally noticed this problem too, nearly eight months after the Intercept first broke the story:
Donated food sent to Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria were left to rot in a parking lot of a government facility, CBS News corresondent David Begnaud reported Friday. Additionally, about 10 containers filled with non-perishable supplies sat at the government facility for 11 months.
Video of supplies covered in rodent droppings was first posted by a Puerto Rican radio station Radio Isla on Thursday. When Begnaud visited, the trailers with the containers were locked Friday.
The National Guard said in a statement the donations that were highlighted were not distributed because they were expired. Stored items that were not expired would be distributed in the coming days, the National Guard said.
Nicolás Gautier, an official at the facility, told CBS News one of of the containers had “food for dogs, and apparently several of the boxes were broken. After the placement in the van, that brings a lot of rats and it infected everything.”
The goods were at Puerto Rico’s elections commission, which has been serving as a collection site for donations.
So, the question is, how will the media attempt to blame this on Trump? No doubt by saying it was his responsibility to distribute the relief supplies instead of the local government’s.
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