Tangled Temporalities and Nested Colonialism: Tracing “Crypto-Filibusterism” in Puerto Rico’s Late-Stage Empire

• In Event: Settler Militarism at the Edge/End of Empire

Abstract

This paper interrogates how futuristic crypto enclaves in Puerto Rico deploy “tangled temporalities” to obscure the persistence of older colonial logics. By analyzing nested colonialism—here referring to the multiple, overlapping layers of colonial relations that enlist local elites as “relay switches” for external capital—and what I term crypto-filibusterism—the updated practice of quasi-imperial “frontier” conquest recast through digital technologies—I demonstrate how contemporary narratives of technological salvation and decentralization rest upon longstanding patterns of extraction and U.S. expansion. On one hand, these “futuristic” projects appear to sever ties with past empire-building by championing innovative blockchains and stateless network solutions. On the other, they reconfigure (rather than erase) the boundaries between colonizer and colonized, as Puerto Rican intermediaries become indispensable collaborators for global investors. Through a preliminary genealogy of discourses in policy documents, promotional materials, and public commentary, I reveal how militaristic tropes of conquest resurface in seemingly progressive frameworks that tout “edge technologies” or “post-disaster opportunities.” By situating these crypto-filibuster ventures in a longer historical continuum of U.S. presence in the Caribbean, I show that late-stage empire not only reproduces but also rebrands its mechanisms of dispossession. Ultimately, this dual focus on tangled temporalities and nested colonialism illuminates the ongoing transformation of settler militarism, highlighting how emergent forms of exploitation gain traction precisely by cloaking themselves in the rhetoric of innovation and democratic “futurity.”

Author

• Jose I Fuste, UC San Diego