MINNEAPOLIS — Some 40 people attended an event here calling for independence for Puerto Rico held at El Colegio High School July 18.
“Our land is under attack and we will never stop fighting for it,” Miguel Fiol, a longtime supporter of independence for Puerto Rico, said to open the meeting.
Two talks highlighted the history of U.S. oppression of the Puerto Rican people. They also described how conditions there continue to deteriorate today in social services, growing unemployment and that exclusive private resorts are taking over public lands like the island’s beaches. Ten percent of the population has left the island because of the unfolding economic crisis there.
Fiol explained the meeting was sponsored by the Diaspora Puerto Rican Independence Party and other Puerto Rican groups in the area, in conjunction with events in eight other cities, including San Juan, Puerto Rico.
“The other purpose of the meeting was to stand in solidarity with all immigrants,” he said.
Organizers set up an easel displaying headlines from the Militant newspaper supporting the fight for independence. Coverage by the paper on the testimony presented at the recent United Nations decolonization hearing in New York was distributed. The program included music and a poetry reading.
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ORLANDO, Fla. — Puerto Rican flags snapped in the hot breeze as 50 protesters chanted and waved signs to passing traffic at a busy intersection in one of Orlando’s heavily Puerto Rican neighborhoods July 18. “Puerto Rico no se vende!” (Puerto Rico is not for sale!) they shouted. They came to demand independence for the U.S.’s biggest colony.
The Orlando march and rally coincided with a demonstration of thousands in Puerto Rico the same day. The action here drew people from Tampa, Miami and other cities across the state. Hosted by FloriBoris, whose name stands for Puerto Ricans in Florida, at least half a dozen organizations participated, Rafael Olivera-Cintrón, a principal organizer of the event, told the Militant.
Protesters also chanted, “La Junta pal carajo!” (To hell with the Junta!) The Junta is a popular phrase referring to the hated Financial Oversight and Management Board established by Barack Obama in 2016 to take dictatorial control over all the Puerto Rican government’s financial decisions. It has “gutted public services and privatized essential services,” Olivera-Cintrón said. “It decides what lives and what dies in public policy.”
Orlando’s Puerto Rican population increased in size after Hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017. Olivera-Cintrón told protesters through a megaphone, “We have such a large Puerto Rican community here in Orlando because they left us to die after Hurricane Maria! Those who could, came here.”
Olivera-Cintrón said FloriBoris exists to celebrate and connect Puerto Ricans in Florida in order to work together to demand change in Puerto Rico. “Without independence, it is impossible to imagine a prosperous future for Puerto Rico.”
Among the groups that joined the Florida action were Diaspora P’alanta, Young Lords, La Mesa Boricua, Victory in Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican Independence Party in the Diaspora. Rachele Fruit, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. Senate in Florida, joined the rally, along with campaign supporters.
— David Rosenfeld