Puerto Rican organizations: Decolonization can’t wait!

Photo: Frente Independentista Puertorriqueño

Message to the UN from Puerto Rican Independence Organizations

Honorable Keisha Aniya McGuire
President, U.N. Decolonization Committee
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador
Permanent Mission of Grenada to the U.N.

Today, June 14, 2020, on behalf of the organizations of the National Liberation Movement of Puerto Rico and signatories of this declaration, we respectfully communicate to the honorable members of the U.N. Decolonization Committee the urgency with which the colonial case of Puerto Rico must be addressed as Puerto Rico remains under the imperialist rule of the United States.

Ever since the military invasion of Puerto Rico on July 25, 1898, the strategies of colonial rule have been implemented in accordance with the political-economic-strategic needs of the imperial power elites in Washington and to the detriment of the collective social welfare of the Puerto Rican nation.

Our country has historically been subjected to the most repressive strategies and techniques of manipulation and social control, among which include:

a) A direct military government.
b) Imposition of the English language in the education system.
c) Persecution, jail and murders of men and women who confront and resist colonialism.
d) Imposition of an economic model akin to looting by the imperial power in Washington.
e) Compulsory military service so that our young people die in unjust U.S. wars.
f) Imposition of massive sterilization of Puerto Rican women.
g) Promotion of the mass exodus of our people.
h) Abuse and plunder of our natural resources.
i) Militarization of our national territory.
j) Exploitation of our land and seas by using radioactive uranium pumps that have claimed the lives of hundreds of Puerto Ricans because of their carcinogenic effects.
k) Imposition of a dictatorial board (called the fiscal control board) which imposes measures contrary to the well-being of our people and deteriorates rights achieved by our working class.

In this historic moment, the collapse of the imperialist colonial economic model is self-evident — a failed model sustained by excessive public indebtedness benefitting the interests of financial vultures — leading to disastrous economic outcomes and without a national economic development plan for production; an economy based mainly on the importation of goods from the imperialist power, tax exemptions for large foreign corporations and capital, promotion of mass emigration of our population, dismantling of the country’s public educational system, privatization of the health care system and the dismantling of civil and labor rights, all causing both impoverishment and hunger in the population.

Against all that abuse and domination, our people have heroically struggled and resisted for the past 122 years. In confronting and fighting colonialism, we see its impact on the lives of our people, which is exponentially worsened when we confront forces of nature such as hurricanes, earthquakes and pandemics, while lacking the political and sovereign power to open our borders to international solidarity for effective disaster response.

Additionally, the parasitic and corrupt elites in control of the colonial government apparatus dedicate themselves to the looting of public funds and the material infrastructure of the country. Furthermore, our people have been subjected to the designs of a dictatorial Junta that constitutes the de facto government serving finance capital and imposed by forces of the imperial power stemming from Washington.

Against all this repression, the Puerto Rican people continue to fight and resist. In the summer of 2019, we wrote a glorious page in both national and international history, shaking off a puppet and corrupt governor who was forced to resign through the actions of a militant and indignant people. However, the unfinished agenda that raises the need to break the empire-colony relationship remains. The time has come to allow space for that new Puerto Rico, bidding to be born, to see the light and to flourish.

In the process of struggle and resistance, our people are discovering their capacity to bring about change, their right to have control over their own destiny, their possibilities of building the foundations of a diversified national economy, their proper and most efficient use of our land, their collective intellect, their human capital potential, and all with a wise policy of respect for the environment and its natural limits.

The organizations of the Puerto Rican National Liberation movement work from different theaters to establish a new country — we know how to create a representative power block that arises from all the collective outrage, and we will mobilize the forces of the people to confront and defeat the oppressor by all necessary means. An important component in our process of decolonization and national liberation is the support from the international community. It is important that this Decolonization Committee and the U.N. General Assembly remain vigilant, listening to our complaints and enforcing the statutes that declare colonialism an international crime and a crime against humanity.

Due to the aforementioned, we request that the U.N. Decolonization Committee conduct its 2020 hearing on the colonial case of Puerto Rico in whatever manner is deemed appropriate so that our claims are heard on behalf of our Nation.

Signatory Organizations in Puerto Rico

Comité de Solidaridad con Cuba de Puerto Rico
Frente Socialista de Puerto Rico
Jornada Se Acabaron las Promesas
Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño
Partido Revolucionario de l@s Trabajador@s Puertorriqueñ@s – PRTP-Macheteros
Movimiento Independentista Nacional Hostosiano
Movimiento Ñin Negrón

Signatory organizations in the diaspora
Frente Independentista Boricua and it’s members:

Comités de la Resistencia Boricua
El Grito
Friends of Puerto Rico Initiative
Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño de NY
Partido Nacionalista de Puerto Rico (Juntas NY y NJ)
(PRTP-Macheteros)
Puerto Ricans in Minnesota
Puerto Rico Me Llama
Unión Patriótica Boricua (Florida Central)
Virtual Boricua

Source: ElFrentePR.org


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