Executive Order for the Independence of Puerto Rico

The central issue we face in Puerto Rico is our lack of sovereignty as a colony of the United States. This prevents us from developing an economy that sustains our people in a dignified manner, consistent with our identity, without being captive to the whims of the northern empire.  

After centuries of Spanish domination alongside Cuba and the Philippines, the Spanish-American War sealed our next captivity, this time under U.S. control. Yet, just before this, Puerto Rico had briefly achieved Autonomy — though it lasted only a few months before USA troops invaded in 1898. At the end of that war, the Treaty of Paris, signed between Spain and the U.S., ceded Puerto Rico to the U.S., formalizing the theft of an incipient free nation.  

Since then, the struggle for independence has continued, now against the North. This diverse fight has involved armed resistance, strikes, and severe repression that has claimed lives, such as those we commemorated on March 21 — the 1937 Ponce Massacre, where police gunned down 19 Puerto Ricans and left 150 wounded. Over the years, nearly every strategy has been tried, including plebiscites and electoral alliances, but so far, all efforts have been fruitless.  

Now, under the new U.S. administration of Donald Trump — who has been signing executive orders left and right, reshaping the U.S. political reality — a group of proud Puerto Ricans, independentistas with expertise in law, international rights, economics, social sciences, academia, and media, have submitted a draft document to the White House proposing an executive order for Puerto Rico’s independence. They aim to address the profound crisis facing our nation and leverage the current president’s approach to advance Puerto Rico’s liberation.  

This move has sparked fierce criticism from the local government and its corrupt cronies, who have bled our country dry for decades. Yet it has also thrust the critical issue of independence into the public spotlight. For two weeks now, serious and reflective debates have dominated public discourse.  

The question remains: How will the White House respond? Regardless, the discussion among our people about the necessity of independence has already progressed. That, in itself, is a significant achievement.  

From Puerto Rico, for Radio Clarín of Colombia, this is Berta Joubert-Ceci.