Vol. 71/No. 26      July 2, 2007

The document calls on Washington to “expedite a process that will allow the Puerto Rican people to fully exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and independence,” and requests that the General Assembly consider the question in all its aspects.

“It is impossible to hide that our country is the last major colony in the entire world,” said Paula Santiago from the New York chapter of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico. She was one of the more than 20 people who testified, most of them from Puerto Rico, backing the resolution.

Many of the speakers provided facts highlighting the colonial reality of Puerto Rico, and how Washington has denied the Puerto Rican people their right to self-determination and independence since it took over the island in the 1898 Spanish-American war.

A handful of people spoke for the current commonwealth status or for making Puerto Rico the 51st U.S. state.

Ismael Guadalupe, a member of Desobedientes del Este de Vieques (Eastern Vieques Civil Disobedience), was among the speakers. His group is fighting to take back the lands formerly occupied by the U.S. Navy on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, and force the U.S. government to decontaminate the area it polluted and pay reparations for the damage caused by tons of explosives and radioactive material left by the Navy.

“We have not gotten justice,” said Guadalupe. He described how more than 52 percent of the land formerly occupied by the U.S. Navy is now under control of the federal government. He noted that only 4,000 acres of this land have been placed in the hands of the municipal government, and that a big part of the rest are in the hands of big landowners. “Our people have not given up their lands,” said Guadalupe.

In 2003, in face of sustained mobilizations by fishermen, farmers, workers, and other Vieques residents, the Navy was forced to leave and abandon control of the area it used for target practice and other military exercises. But only a small portion of this land has been turned over to working people in Vieques, many of whom were its original owners, Guadalupe pointed out.

Other speakers called on Washington to immediately cease the harassment, incarceration, and murder of independence fighters, trade unionists, and others opposed to U.S. colonial rule. A number demanded the immediate and unconditional release of Puerto Rican independence fighters locked up in U.S. prisons—Oscar López Rivera, Carlos Alberto Torres, Haydée Beltrán Torres, and José Pérez González.

In his closing remarks, Cuba’s UN ambassador, Rodrigo Malmierca, noted that for the first time the resolution explicitly requests that the colonial status of Puerto Rico be taken up by the UN General Assembly. The decolonization committee has reaffirmed in 25 resolutions or decisions Puerto Rico’s right to self-determination. All have been ignored by Washington.

“For Cuba, the adoption of this resolution is highly relevant, considering our long-standing commitment to the self-determination and independence of the brotherly Puerto Rican people,” said Malmierca. “The Puerto Rican people can always count on our unconditional solidarity.”

The representatives of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, and of the Non-Aligned Movement also spoke in favor of the resolution.

Those speaking for independence included Fernando Martín of the Puerto Rican Independence Party; Julio Muriente of the Hostos National Independence Movement; Wilma Reverón of the Puerto Rico Committee at the UN; Ben Ramos of the ProLibertad Freedom Campaign; and Argiris Malapanis of the Socialist Workers Party (see below).

After the hearing, ProLibertad hosted a forum at Hunter College attended by 40 people to continue discussion on the issues presented by the pro-independence delegation at the UN.
 
 
Related articles:
‘Puerto Rico’s independence in interest of U.S. toilers’  
 
 
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