Puerto Rico Update… 3 May 2010
Committee for Puerto Rico at the United Nations
Tel. 787-360-0457, olgasdavila@ gmail.com
Deadend United States Legislation passed on 30 April 2010
A non binding draft bill of the U.S. House of Representatives (Draft 2499), authored by Puerto Rican Resident Commissioner in Washington, was adopted in that body last 30 April. Through this bill, on which there was no consensus in Puerto Rico, the sector that denies Puerto Rico’s national identity promotes its assimilation proposal while wresting the issue of Puerto Rico’s colonial status from its natural context of international law and United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514(XV). But the United States Senate must now entertain the bill – when will it do so, who knows? The United States Senate has never dealt with the political status of Puerto Rico at all. Besides, Puerto Rico’s case cannot be solved in the context of the United States Congressional legislation while plebiscites take place within the framework of the colonial relationship.
An editorial printed on 3 May 2010 in El Nuevo DÃa, Puerto Rico’s most broadly circulated newspaper, states that this legislation is a sterile exercise on the political status of Puerto Rico that should be rejected. It refers to the fact that the legislation is non binding in nature, and also that although it purports to be an exercise in self determination, it is the legislation that determines and not the people of Puerto Rico. Thus, the editorial questions that the legislation facilitates a self-determination process for the people of Puerto Rico.
It is noteworthy that Draft 2499 was subjected to important amendments before it was adopted. The draft calls for two consultations, first one in which the Puerto Rican people would vote whether or not they want a change in the present Free Associated State status. If vote for a change wins in that consultation, a second would consult on status option preferences. In its initial version, the second consultation excluded the Free Associated Status which many believe might have led to a false majority for statehood. The amended version includes the Free Associated State status in order to avert the false statehood majority maneuver.
1998 legislative process repeated
Twelve years ago, in 1998, the Young Bill was adopted by one vote in the U.S. House of Representatives. This was also a bill for action on Puerto Rico’s political status which did not go on to be entertained in the U.S. Senate and went absolutely nowhere. This year’s Draft bill 2499 will also go nowhere. In the House of Representatives Committee on Resources, Mr. Young still represents the forces that favor United States statehood for Puerto Rico.
White House Inter Agency Task Force Hearings on Puerto Rico
The convening in Puerto Rico on March 3, 4 and 5, 2010, of public hearings of the White House Inter Agency Task Force on the Political Status of Puerto Rico was an initiative with no impact.
The White House Inter Agency Task Force refused to disseminate information on its hearings, and persons in Puerto Rico had to step forward and inform the hidden agenda. The way the White House Inter Agency Task Force acted before arriving was so crass that Puerto Rico’s Senate adopted a resolution rejecting the hearings, and the rest of Puerto Rico ignored them. The three-day hearings were reduced to four hours on day three. Then the Task Force members got on airplanes and they have not been heard from since. Except for the brave participation of Manuel RodrÃguez Orellana, the Puerto Rico Independence Party head of North American relations, the hearings served only to confirm the incapacity of North Americans power circles to understand, internalize and become familiar with Puerto Rico’s reality and understand that Puerto Rico is much more than a territory inhabited by persons extended North American citizenship.
It is interesting that the day of the hearings coincided to the day with the date when the “famous†Young bill was adopted in the U.S. House of Representatives 12 years ago.
U.S. Congressional Research Service updates situation of Puerto Rico
As a result of the discussion of draft 2499 a Congressional Research Service issued a report pointing its defects and updating Puerto Rico’s situation for the U.S. Congress. The result was amendment to the draft before its adoption.
The Congressional Research Service report draws attention to the relevance of a Status Assembly as a mechanism for dealing with Puerto Rico’s status issue. According to the report, such a mechanism is closer to the political premises to be consulted at the same time that it offers more negotiation possibilities. In 2008, Puerto Rican Congressman José Serrano of the U.S. House of Representatives and Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner in Washington, had authored another draft bill (Bill 900). The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Resources had amended that draft in order that it incorporate a Status Assembly as a procedural alternative.
Clearly the North Americans have tried to convince the pro-statehood forces to refrain from deception through plebiscites that favor an annexationist victory, and especially to refrain from threat that after an annexationist victory in a trumped up plebiscite, they will automatically send seven representatives and two senators to immediately be seated Washington, in a repeat of the Tennessee Plan whereby the present state of Tennessee became a state of the U.S.
Background on case of Puerto Rico at the UN and Resolution 1514(XV)
For many years the Puerto Rican forces in favor of decolonization have been waging a tremendous battle in the United Nations in order to correct errors made after Puerto Rico was characterized as an autonomous territory in 1953. At that time Puerto Rico’s Free Associated State status was validated as a regimen of free association. Today it is recognized that that process was a farce, and that under the Free Associated State status the United States did not give up any real or effective power over Puerto Rico; consequently Puerto Rico did not arrive at “full self government,†as was then stated.
After 1953, the processes that took place in the United Nations should have accelerated Puerto Rico’s transit to decolonization. The Decolonization Committee, mandated to ensure compliance with the decolonization plan was created in 1961, the year after Resolution 1514(XV) was adopted and transparently set forth a decolonization strategy. On the part of the United Nations, this was a brave action destined to put an end to colonialism. The nature and breadth of General Assembly Resolution 1514(XV) weakened the whole strategy that pushed Puerto Rico to its unfortunate encounter with the United Nations in 1953. But, despite the continual expansion of the membership of the Decolonization Committee and the fact that it has actively been considering the colonial case of Puerto Rico as one which legitimately belongs under the jurisdiction of the organization because it has not arrived at independence, the United Nations General Assembly has not examined and debated our case in conformity with Resolution 1514(XV).
Puerto Rico and international law
In 2010 it will 50 years since the adoption of the historical Resolution 1514(XV). Also, it will be ten years since the United Nations for the second time proclaimed a ten year term for the eradication of colonialism in the world. That hope has been maintained for twenty years. It is possible that while not being able to put an end to colonialism, which was the creation of imperialism, new processes and mechanisms shall have to be invented which will conduce to continued collaboration in the eradication of colonialism, an infamous and undemocratic condition.
The forces that favor Puerto Rico have waged and continue to wage a battle in order that the United Nations fulfill its own norms since its founding. The United Nations Decolonization Committee has adopted twenty-eight resolutions which reaffirm the right to self determination and independence of the Puerto Rican people in conformity with General Assembly resolution 1514(XV), and the applicability of the fundamental principals of 1514 to the question of Puerto Rico. Each resolution since 2000 has expressed that the General Assembly examine the question.
ALBA group of countries supports Puerto Rico’s independence
In the context of its IX Summit of Presidents and Heads of State, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our Americas (ALBA, by its Spanish acronym) adopted a manifesto in which the Presidents and Heads of State ALBA expressed their commitment to “preserve and help preserve peace by establishing the forums and accords that will strengthen its capacity to guarantee the national sovereignty of the peoples against foreign intervention, in particular, against the military occupation and threats of the empire.â€
In this regard, they manifested their support of the people of Puerto Rico in their struggle for independence and their national sovereignty in the face of U.S. imperialism. In the text the ALBA sets forth the goal of advancing toward political, economic and social union, full integration and unity and the greatest level of political stability.
The Puerto Rican political prisoners
The Puerto Rican political prisoners Oscar López Rivera and Carlos Alberto Torres are accused of seditious conspiracy and weapons possession. They have been imprisoned in the United States for almost thirty years due to their disproportionately long sentences. Two other political prisoners are Antonio Camacho Negrón and Avelino González Claudio. Avelino González is scheduled to be sentenced on 26 May 2010.
Resolutions on Puerto Rico adopted by the Decolonization Committee recognize that there is a consensus among the people of Puerto Rico in favor of the release of these political prisoners, and they request the President of the United States to release them. Further, in late 2007, the Senate of Puerto Rico adopted a resolution in favour of the release of the prisoners. Oscar López Rivera and Carlos Alberto Torres are scheduled to leave prison in 2027 and 2024, respectively.
On January 19, 2010, Carlos Alberto Torres attended a video hearing presided over by a U.S. Parole Commission hearing examiner with respect to his request to be released on parole. Carlos Alberto’s attorney, Jan Susler, asked that the Parole Commission release him on parole as previously recommended. She pointed out the vast, ongoing support for his release, and argued that there is absolutely no risk in releasing him, as evidenced by the example of Puerto Rican political prisoners who were released by presidential commutation in 1999. The hearing examiner made a favorable recommendation. The Parole Commission’ decision is pending and a petition campaign to the Parole Commission is being carried out.
Human Rights review comments on situation in Puerto Rico
A recent report to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) regarding U.S. Human Rights and Foreign Policy was compiled by members of the U.S. National Lawyers Guild and other human rights lawyers and coordinated by the U.S. Human Rights Network. The report addresses U.S. human rights violations in Colombia, Haiti, and Puerto Rico.
The UPR is a powerful new human rights mechanism established in 2006, which allows the United Nations Human Rights Council to periodically review all member states regarding their compliance with their human rights obligations and commitments. The U.N.’s first Universal Periodic Review of the U.S., scheduled to take place on November 26, 2010, offers an opportunity both to measure how the U.S. is meeting its human rights obligations and to continue pressuring its government to comply with those obligations. The report of the U.S. National Lawyers Guild, et al, will be considered in the process.
It will be posted on the UN/UPR website along with all the other NGO reports. (http://www.ohchr. org/EN/HRBodies/ UPR/PAGES/ BasicFacts. aspx)
Puerto Rican university students on strike
Several campuses of the University of Puerto Rico (the country’s largest and most prestigious higher education institution) have been closed for almost two weeks due to a student strike against tuition increases and elimination of tuition exemption based on academic performance, among other issues.
The Association of University Professors has joined the student protests, and the students have also garnered the support of the University Union of Non-teaching Staff (HEEND, by its Spanish acronym). Meanwhile the University administration has maintained a confrontational discourse while closing down the institution and also calling for dialogue and non violence.
Tuition increases and other measures have added to the social tension in Puerto Rico resulting from the neo-liberal policies of its Governor Luis Fortuño. These policies are reflected in Economic and Fiscal Reconstruction Law 7 of 2009 which mandates the elimination of 30,000 government employees as part of the effort to close the government’s fiscal deficit.
Approximately 20,000 government workers have been dismissed to date. In response to the neo liberal policies and actions of the government of Puerto Rico elected in 2008, several massive demonstrations have taken place during the last year, including a one-day work stoppage in October 2009 when the government, and public schools and universities in the country closed down, as well as the major commerce and major arteries of the capital.
Several Puerto Rican Banks closed
On Friday, 30 April, officials of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation entered three banks in Puerto Rico that had been acquired by other banking institutions due to their state as a result of the Puerto Rican recession which, according to the New York Times, makes the U.S. recession seem mild. “Washington policy makers, who watch over the territory’s banks as they do its defense and foreign relations were moving to broker mergers among several major lenders there to head off what could be a series of costly failures,†said the New York Times articles by Eric Dash.
The article cites rising unemployment, sinking real estate values and deteriorating government finances as having worsened “Puerto Rico’s chronically troubled economy and added new urgency to the efforts to shore up its banks.†According to the article the scarcity of loans is making life harder for many local businesses and “a lending slowdown of this kind often causes a vicious circle – slower growth, more job losses and, in turn, an even sharper pullback in lending.†Three of Puerto Rico’s banks – Eurobank, R-G Premier Bank and Westernbank, had been operating under cease-and-desist orders from regulators which restricted their ability to make loans. The three were intervened on April 30.
The New York Times article also states that the economy of Puerto Rico has been shrinking for the last four years, while the island’s unemployment rate is 16.2 far higher than the rate in the U.S. state of Michigan which has the highest unemployment rate of any other U.S. state.
