A man rides his bicycle along a road in Puerto Rico damaged by Hurricane Maria in September 2017 (Ricardo ARDUENGO)

Miami (AFP) – One year after Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico, the island’s governor blamed US “colonialism” for delays in receiving aid and the weak emergency response to the disaster that left nearly 3,000 people dead.

“Puerto Rico is a colonial territory,” and therein lies the “inherent difficulty,” Rosello said in an interview with local radio WKAQ 580, as commemoration ceremonies for the hurricane victims were under way.

Puerto Ricans are US citizens, but since the island is a US territory they cannot vote in national elections, and are represented in Congress only by a non-voting representative.

Rosello complained that bureaucratic dealings with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) “have been excessive,” and said the response by the Army Corps of Engineers — which sent personnel to the island days after the hurricane struck to re-establish electrical power — “was insufficient” and “lacked urgency.”

He compared the sluggish response last year to the quick federal responses in Texas and Florida, states hit weeks earlier by hurricanes Harvey and Irma, as well as the federal response to 2005’s Hurricane Katrina in the US Gulf of Mexico.

“Why are there bureaucratic processes here that were addition to those in Florida and Texas?” he asked.

“And why, when Katrina struck, did they pay 100 percent of the emergency work and they did not extend this to Puerto Rico?”

Bitter debates still rage over the failings of the US government’s response to the Category 4 storm in Puerto Rico and the terrible human toll it took.

Maria destroyed Puerto Rico’s electricity grid, leaving the island largely without power for weeks and crippling its health care system.

The local government decreed a day of mourning to remember hurricane victims on Thursday. Flags fluttered at half mast across the island and in Florida, where many Puerto Ricans who fled the hurricane moved to live.

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