波多黎各四億美元債務違約

The governor of Puerto Rico says the island is defaulting on a $422 million debt payment due Monday, and he says the U.S. is partly to blame.

Garcia Padilla said in a televised speech Sunday to the island's 3.5 million residents that he has made the "painful decision" to not pay the island's creditors, but will instead fund public sector salaries and health and education budgets to avoid a "humanitarian crisis."

Padilla said he did not want a bailout and had sought to restructure the existing debt. The U.S. territory, however, needs U.S. Congress to pass a restructuring bill for the island, but partisan politics have bogged down any movement on that measure.

Puerto Rico has defaulted on payments before, but Monday's default is the largest.

Economic analysts say the U.S. territory is basically bankrupt with a total debt of about $70 billion.波多黎各總督說，星期一將出現4億2200萬美元的債務違約，並表示美國應對此負部分責任。

波多黎各總督帕蒂拉星期日發表電視講話，告訴波多黎各350萬居民，他做出了拒付債務的“痛苦決定”，但將保障公務員工資以及衛生和教育領域的開支，以避免發生人道危機。

帕蒂拉說，他並不尋求債務救助，但曾爭取進行債務重組。做爲美國託管地，波多黎各債務重組議案必須得到美國國會的批准，而黨派政治使有關議案未能有任何進展。

波多黎各過去也曾出現過債務違約，但星期一的債務違約數額是最大的。

經濟分析人士說，波多黎各實際上已經破產，債務總額約700億美元。