Vol. 73/No. 26      July 13, 2009

Opening the session, Cuban ambassador Abelardo Moreno presented a draft resolution on behalf of Cuba, Ecuador, and Venezuela that reaffirmed the “inalienable right of the Puerto Rican people to self-determination and independence.”

The resolution also called on U.S. president Barack Obama to release Oscar López, Carlos Alberto Torres, and Avelino González, locked up in U.S. prisons for fighting for the independence of Puerto Rico. The first two, convicted on “seditious conspiracy” charges, have been jailed for more than 28 years. González, arrested last year, awaits trial.

The UN Special Committee on Decolonization, which has adopted similar resolutions for the past 27 years, heard testimony from 32 petitioners, who overwhelmingly testified in favor of independence. These included representatives of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), Lawyers Guild of Puerto Rico, Hostos National Pro-Independence Movement (MINH), and Hostos Grand Jury Resistance Campaign. They called on the UN General Assembly to take up the status of Puerto Rico, which Washington claims is not a colony and not UN business.

Wilma Reverón of the Puerto Rico Committee at the United Nations condemned the fact that “the colonial administration has laid off 10,000 workers and has announced plans to lay off up to 30,000 more—all this to satisfy the demands of the bondholders on Wall Street.”

Edgardo Román Espada of the Puerto Rican Coalition Against the Death Penalty explained that while Puerto Rico’s constitution bars capital punishment, U.S. authorities affirm the right to impose it. Today five cases are pending in the U.S. court in Puerto Rico in which the death penalty could be imposed. He noted that the court conducts cases in English, although Puerto Ricans’ native tongue is Spanish.

Juan González, son of Avelino González, noted that since being incarcerated without bail in February 2008, his father has developed a neurological condition and has not received adequate treatment.

Since invading Puerto Rico in 1898 Washington has maintained a colonial regime there, González said, and the people of Puerto Rico “will continue struggling, with words and actions, against the imperialist attacks to achieve a final end to what is our right: our independence.”

Jan Susler, on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild International Committee, called on Washington to “quash the grand jury subpoenas and desist from using the grand jury as a tool of repression.” The U.S. government has used federal grand juries to harass and jail independence fighters since the 1930s.

Susler also demanded the U.S. government “identify and hold criminally liable all those responsible for the assassination of Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, Santiago Mari Pesquera, Carlos Muñiz Varela, and other militants of the Puerto Rican independence movement.” Ojeda Ríos was shot to death by FBI agents in 2005. The independence movement has accused federal cops of complicity in the killings of Mari Pesquera in 1976 and Muñiz Varela in 1979.

Sam Manuel of the Socialist Workers Party said a successful struggle to win independence for Puerto Rico is in the interests of vast majority of people in the United States (see statement on page 7).

Myrna Pagán of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques reported that, while the U.S. Navy was forced by sustained protests to stop half a century of bombing practice on the island of Vieques, local residents continue to suffer high levels of cancer and other ailments due to depleted uranium and other pollutants dumped there by the U.S. military.

A few speakers supported Puerto Rico’s colonial status. Héctor Ferrer of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) called for “enhancing” the island’s current “commonwealth” form of limited autonomy. Anthony Mele, chairman of the 65th Infantry Regiment Honor Task Force, argued for Puerto Rico to become the 51st U.S. state. Puerto Rico’s governor, Luis Fortuño, belongs to the prostatehood New Progressive Party (PNP).

Following the testimony, decolonization committee members from Dominica, Nicaragua, Panama, Ecuador, Saint Vincent, Venezuela, Bolivia, Syria, and Iran spoke in favor of the resolution, which was approved by consensus.

In concluding remarks ambassador Moreno said that “Cuba will continue to uphold the legitimate right of the Puerto Rican people to self-determination and independence, with our irrevocable commitment to walk with them to the final victory.”

After the hearing, pro-independence participants attended a reception hosted by the Friends of the Puerto Rico Committee at the United Nations and a public forum organized by ProLibertad at John Jay College.
 
 
Related articles:
SWP statement: Independence for Puerto Rico!  
 
 
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