We are now on the threshold of a new year, and for the Puerto Rican people, it means a renewal of our struggle for independence and sovereignty. With renewed vigor, we may resume the battle against the militarization of our archipelago.
In 2003, we were able to expel the most powerful naval force in the world, the U.S. Navy, after four years of relentless struggle. The entire population, regardless of political beliefs, bravely united, facing beatings and arrests at the hands of U.S. security forces. The people were determined to close the bases that stored deadly weapons and from which the Navy bombed the pristine beaches of our small island of Vieques, sowing pain, disease, and death among its inhabitants. The people said, “Enough!” And they succeeded.
Now, with its new version of the Monroe Doctrine, but with the addition of new military technology, the empire intends to use us again to attack sister nations. Primarily Venezuela, with the main objective of seizing its energy resources. And for that purpose, they are filling our island, Puerto Rico, with troops, weapons, and military vehicles — land, sea, and air — to train their army of death.
And they don’t limit themselves to their military bases, which, unfortunately, although somewhat inactive, are still scattered throughout our territory, but rather they operate wherever they please. Without permission, without apologies, without any regard for our residents. They do it because they can. Because in 2016, in a double jeopardy case in which the issue was whether a person could be tried for the same crime in U.S. federal courts and Puerto Rican courts, the U.S. Supreme Court made it clear that Puerto Rico belongs to but is not part of the U.S. In other words, those who still clung to the fallacy of the Commonwealth as a state in collaboration with the U.S. had to wake up to the reality that we are a classic colony from the last century. Without rights or autonomy.
So the only way to stop the abuse by the gringos is independence.
Meanwhile, demonstrations are being organized in solidarity with Venezuela while we continue our century-long struggle for definitive liberation.
Gringos out of the Caribbean!
Venezuela must be respected!
Long live a free Puerto Rico!
From Puerto Rico, speaking to Radio Clarín of Colombia, Berta Joubert-Ceci
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