Puerto Rico at the United Nations
López, Ana M. & Reardon, Gabriela
NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS report: puerto rico popular interests. During the crisis, the labor movement split into three camps, including unions co-opted by the colonial regime that supported...
...yet during the 1980s and 1990s, the committee largely suspended puerto rico from its agenda, with no review between 1992 and 1998 and no resolutions, despite its declaration in 1990 of the international decade for the eradication of Colonialism (redeclared in 2001...
...also unprecedented was the attendance of a u.s...
...the committee also heard testimony of repression and harassment committed against pro-independence organizations and people by the u.s...
...Clinton’s pardon brought international attention to almost 15 years of work done by the National Committee for the Liberation of the Politcal Prisoners and Prisoners of War, headquartered in Chicago, and the educational campaign of the Unitary Committee Against Repression, as well as the groups Ofensiva 92 and the Comité Pro Derechos Humanos in San Juan...
...Will unions play a role as the true workers’ representatives or continue to act merely as intermediaries for the employer state...
...For many, Vieques— 76% of whose land was appropriated by the Navy in 1941—encapsulated the problem of Puerto Rico’s colonial status...
...Navy from the island municipality of Vieques...
...Puerto Rico at the United Nations t he united nations general assembly may review the question of puerto rico’s colonial status next year, thanks to a resolution passed in June by the special Committee on decolonization...
...In August 2005, a month before FBI snipers killed him, Ojeda Ríos predicted in his last radio interview that Puerto Rico would face an inflationary crisis, and that the parties would not only protect their narrow interests but even take advantage of the opportunity afforded by the crisis, as indeed they did: Along with the sales tax, Governor Vilá’s proposals included privatizing certain dimensions of the Education Department, as well as electricity, water, and other basic services.1 When Ojeda died—on September 23, the 137th anniversary of the legendary rebellion against Spanish rule known as El Grito de Lares—he had spent 15 years hiding from U.S...
...Gabriela Reardon is the coordinator of NACLA’s Media Accuracy on Latin America (MALA) Program...
...police forces and intelligence agencies...
...For many young pro-independence activists in Puerto Rico and the diaspora, his death amounted to a targeted assassination, and he quickly became a potent national icon, especially as the colonial fiscal crisis wracked Puerto Rico nine months after his death...
...although the committee has reiterated puerto rico’s right to self-determination over the years, it had not formally requested the general assembly’s review of the issue...
...the language of the resolutions became more assertive and explicit year after year...
...these new moves may mark a decisive turning point in the long history of efforts to call for the decolonization of puerto rico within the united nations...
...while a un resolution in favor of decolonizing would be nonbinding—and the united states has made it clear it is not bound by un votes—it would mark the first time a majority of nations rejected the united states’ grip on puerto rico...
...The words of Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, leader of the clandestine Ejercito Popular Boricua–Macheteros, inspired many on this issue...
...government to, among other things, halt its military drills there and to “return the occupied land to the puerto rican people...
...It had been a site of conflict before, first when the residents who lost their land and were harassed by the troops launched their own struggle, and again in the late 1970s, when independence organizations joined the Vi lutions calling for puerto rico’s case to be reconsidered...
...The political work to liberate the prisoners grew during the struggle against the U.S...
...NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS report: puerto rico popular interests...
...the island originally appeared in un files in 1946 in resolution 66 (1), which described it as a “nonautonomous territory,” thus requiring the united states to submit an annual report on social and economic conditions to the secretary general, as required by article 73 of the un Charter...
...Meanwhile the struggle to rid vieques, an island municipality of puerto rico, of the u.s...
...thereafter, the case of puerto rico remained under the observation of the special Committee, whose later resolutions reiterated the1978 language...
...delegate who sat up front and listened to all the many presentations...
...this year’s hearing was different in several important ways, according to wilma reverón, president of the Committee for puerto rico at the united nations, a group of independence activists who coordinate presentations at the annual decolonization hearings...
...navy reached worldwide attention...
...in 1978, the committee heard presentations defending independence, continuing the commonwealth, and u.s...
...and public sector unions under the AFL-CIO that opposed the tax but remained largely immobile as spectators during mass actions...
...Ana M. López is an adjunct professor in the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program and Humanities Department at Hostos Community College, Bronx, New York...
...the committee made specific reference to this effect in 2000, noting that it welcomed the prisoners’ release and expressed its hope that the president “would release all puerto rican political prisoners serving sentences in united states prisons on cases by Ana M. López and Gabriela Reardon related to the struggle for the independence of puerto rico...
...in 1953—largely as a result of u.s...
...it furthermore declared that “steps must be taken to transfer all the power to all the peoples and all the territories which have not gained their independence...
...according to reverón, u.s...
...And what kind of organization is necessary to push for popular demands...
...2...
...statehood for puerto rico, and for the first time all parties agreed that a colonial relationship existed and that the status question had to be resolved...
...During the crisis, the labor movement split into three camps, including unions co-opted by the colonial regime that supported the sales tax...
...this led to the creation of what is now known as the special decolonization Committee...
...it concluded that this violated puerto rico’s right to self-determination and independence, as described in resolution 1514...
...Navy...
...the committee again used forceful language in its 2000 resolution, calling on the u.s...
...the general assembly has not addressed the issue since 1953, when it approved a u.s.-sponsored proposal to remove the island from its list of colonized nations, following the establishment of its “commonwealth” relationship with the united states...
...only after president Clinton’s granting of clemency to 12 puerto rican political prisoners in 1999 did the issue reappear...
...the following year, ramón Medina ramírez, interim president of nationalist party of puerto rico (pedro albizu Campos, renowned nationalist leader, was incarcerated at the time), was accepted as a nongovernmental un observer, with no right to participate in debates, but this observer position was revoked unilaterally and without explanation after the october 30, 1950, nationalist uprising in Jayuya, puerto rico...
...unlike in past years, delegates from numerous Latin american and Caribbean nations—including saint Lucia on behalf of the non-aligned Movement, and especially Cuba and venezuela, which co-sponsored the resolution—voiced their support for puerto rico’s decolonization...
...The prisoners’ release proved that when progressive, pro-independence forces unite, the movement for national liberation can advance...
...delegates in the past have disparagingly observed the hearings from the back of the room...
...The most important precedents, in which many of today’s young activists cut their teeth, were struggles that gave way to popular victories: the clemency granted to 12 of 15 Puerto Rican political prisoners and prisoners of war, and the withdrawal of the U.S...
...independent progressive unions like the Federation of Teachers and others, that demanded a tax on capital, both island-based and foreign...
...But by 1960, following the Cuban revolution and the admission of 16 decolonized african nations to the un, the general assembly adopted resolution 1514 (Xv), which “solemnly proclaims the need to remedy immediately and unconditionally the colonial situation in all its forms and manifestations...
...A week before President Clinton pardoned the prisoners in 1999, about 100,000 Puerto Ricans marched in the rain from the Barrio Obrero in Santurce to San Juan, where they gathered at the Federal Courthouse, many of them holding signs with images of the prisoners...
...With the crisis, the working class, especially the public sector, was confronted with three questions: How viable is the ELA, since it depends on foreign investment...
...if a vote takes place, the united states will likely win over european countries that maintain territories (in addition to its usual maneuver of attaining the support of developing nations by threatening to cut off their foreign aid), since the passage of such a resolution would set a precedent that other territories could use to push for their own independence, according to reverón...
...Beginning in 1972, this committee issued a series of reso NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2007 report: puerto rico Not since the late 1990s has there been as strong a popular decolonizing sentiment in Puerto Rico...
...the resulting resolution called for “a democratic process which utilizes a mechanism freely chosen by the puerto rican people...
...authorities after being convicted for participating in a 1983 armed bank robbery...
...Nationalist militants from a previous generation like Rafael Cancel Miranda and Lolita Lebrón (who participated in the legendary 1954 attack on the U.S...
...whether the decolonization mandate of resolution 1514 should be extended to puerto rico could be discussed as early as the 2008 general assembly, but getting the item on the agenda for a vote will take longer...
...Congress and was later pardoned by President Carter) were present, along with the leadership of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, Illinois congressman Luis Gutiérrez, Aníbal Acevedo Vilá (now governor, elected in 2004), and an ecumenical religious contingent...
...hegemony within the united nations—resolution 748 (vii) approved puerto rico’s commonwealth status, noting that the “puerto rican people had exercised their self-determination,” that the country had “achieved attributes of political sovereignty,” and that “the requirement of providing information to the general assembly will end...
Vol. 40 • November 2007 • No. 6
