Ocasio-Cortez supports social policies in final electoral speech in New York

New York, June 16 (efe-epa).- United States congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defended Tuesday the importance of deepening aid to the communities hardest hit by COVID-19, such as Latin America, at a press conference prior to the June 23 primaries.

Ocasio-Cortez also accused President Donald Trump of using the people as a “hostage” for not wanting to approve the new battery of stimuli.

“We are dealing with massive unemployment and the crises that small businesses in our community are facing,” said the Puerto Rican congresswoman, who on Tuesday will be re-elected as a candidate for Congress for a shared district of the Bronx and Queens, two eminently working-class entities and with a great presence of Latino and black communities.

Ocasio-Cortez, from the Democratic Party, backed support for protesters of the “Black Lives Matter” movement and defended one of their main demands: that police funds be withdrawn to cover social programs.

“All of us, including Republicans, must listen to the demands of black Americans and black people in this country. If Republicans are trying to campaign against black people and their demands (…), then I think we should focus on structural racism that is quite inherent and embedded in the Republican Party, “Ocasio-Cortez said.

Specifically, the congresswoman rejected that the proposal to withdraw funds from the police is “utopian” and pointed out that the restructuring of the security forces is an issue that had been carried out successfully in some parts of the United States, such as Camden County, in the state of New Jersey, where, according to Ocasio-Cortez, the police force was dismantled to rebuild it on new standards.

“Essentially, what they did was fire the vast majority of Police Department agents and demanded higher standards for reincorporation. (…) And what happened? That violence descended, that brutality descended and that incidents of police brutality went down, “he said.

On Trump’s management of the situation after the protests broke out, Ocasio-Cortez was blunt: “It is not that he has not addressed it, it has made it worse.”

For the congresswoman, there is “a very disturbing pattern of white supremacy in the White House and sympathy for white supremacists, if not absolute adoption,” and it is in this sense that she accused Trump’s main adviser on immigration issues, Stephen Millen. , of “white supremacist”.

The congresswoman, one of the main representatives of the most progressive wing of her party, is a strong advocate of universal health care (“Medicare for All”), a transition towards an economy free of polluting emissions and free education, among other policies.

Their positions are often branded as radical by Republican Party politicians and even by fellow members of their own party.

Ocasio-Cortez also accused the Republican Party of being “deliberately” blocking in the Senate the new economic stimulus package of more than 3 trillion dollars to mitigate the effects on the economy of COVID-19, which was proposed by the Democrats on last May.

The new initiative provides $ 1 trillion for state, local and tribal authorities, as well as the health system, and establishes a $ 200 billion “Hero Fund” to boost wages for essential workers.

It also includes a second round of direct payments to individuals, which could reach $ 6,000 per family.

“Republicans are holding the American people hostage and what they are doing is intentionally and deliberately blocking the second payment of stimuli within the Heroes law,” Ocasio-Cortez said, before saying that the Trump party wants to keep This law was blocked until July with the intention of forcing Democrats to accept other aid packages for big business or for the “friends” of the President.

Asked about the June 23 election date, Ocasio-Cortez charged her main opponent in the primaries, journalist Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, whom she accused of being financed by the Republican Party.

“She lived in the Trump Tower (owned by the President), is financed by Republicans, and has been a Republican for most of her life, so in fact she cannot be trusted and is not even a member of our community,” he said. Ocasio-Cortez, who in 2018 defeated the candidate Joseph Cro in the primary elections of the party, until then one of the party’s main heavyweights in Washington.

Ocasio-Cortez also insisted on the importance of the Latino vote, especially in the general and presidential elections next November, to defeat Trump.

“This year the power of the Latino vote is very, very important; in November, especially. It is very important in states like Colorado, Arizona and Florida where we have a growing Latino community,” said the politician, who at the age of 30 has It has become an icon of the youngest progressive generations in the country. EFE-EPA

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