Puerto Rico: Nation Or State?
Bernard, Brian A. Kane And Ruel
PUERTO RICO Nation or State? BY BRIAN A. KANE AND RUEL BERNARD The scene was drenched with irony. Outside, on a San Juan street in mid-June, more than 70,000 of Puerto Rico's 3.2 million people...
...Some 65 per cent of the island families receive food stamps or other forms of public assistance...
...By one estimate, the island accounts for 42 per cent of all U. S. profit earned in Latin America...
...Card conveyed Bush's desire to move ahead with the process-without the Popular Democratic Party...
...Many times they still follow us...
...In 1987, former FBI director and now CIA boss William Webster called Puerto Is it legitimate to have a plebiscite if the U.S...
...We don't think that is an accidental combination...
...Conspicuously absent from the debate on Puerto Rico's status is U.S...
...organizes it?' Rico the "Achilles heel" of the United States...
...Reasons cited by Puerto W W Rican activists include mounting international pressure...
...Senate majority leader George Mitchell lent the full weight of his support to the process in a speech to the Senate on June 1. Many activists in Puerto Rico are dubious about the plebiscite for historical reasons...
...Inside the luxurious Gov^ ernment Reception Building, formerly a private club for rich colonialist Puerto Ricans, two U.S...
...Right after [the Wells Fargo robbery], they began to discuss modification of the political process," says Ismael Davila, spokesperson for the Caribbean Project for Peace and Justice...
...Cheap labor is another attribute Puerto Rico shares with other Third World countries...
...Appearing just one day before the massive protest, Puerto Rican Socialist Party secretary general Carlos Gallisa demanded the committee recognize the island's colonial status and transfer sovereign powers so Puerto Ricans could determine their own future without coercion...
...The representatives strongly suggested they would spend heavily "educating Puerto Ricans" about the right option to choose...
...Navy has taken over two-thirds of the island, much of it for the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Facility, a naval target range...
...The independence movement is going to grow," says former Bar Association head Colon Martinez...
...Government offices...
...Government faces in Puerto Rico: "Certain problems, the result of decades of unwise practices, threaten the health and security of our people...
...multinationals so that Puerto Rico could have the time to develop an independent economy...
...island when, in his January inaugural speech, Hernandez Colon announced a strong desire to begin the process...
...The most glaring symbol of Puerto Rico's colonial status is the extent of the U.S...
...The general public as well as the activist Left have remained for years in a cloud of ignorance and acquiescence concerning U.S...
...Your proposal would be productive of endless litigation^ said Johnston...
...His turnaround appeared to come as the result of direct White House pressure...
...There can be no doubt that economically the island's dependence on the mainland for Federal funds and private industry makes it very vulnerable to unilateral policy changes," observes the British magazine The Economist...
...In defiance, the following year the group fired on the FBI office in San Juan with a bazooka...
...Since Governor Luis Munoz Marin held office, both the electoral parties which have nominally governed here have tacitly or directly supported the repression...
...Appearing on behalf of the island's multinational and financial corporations, representatives from three trade associations threatened dire economic consequences if tax benefits were abruptly canceled...
...While the Senators said ten years would probably be the limit, they suggested that hefty, long-term lease payments on military bases in Puerto Rico could smooth the transition...
...But the Senators appear determined...
...At gatherings in 1979 and again in 1983, political parties from a number of Latin American countries, including many pro-American parties, passed resolutions supporting Puerto Rican independence...
...Ruel Bernard is a freelance writer and activist in Albany...
...We are sure they are still making a subversive list...
...Brian A. Kane Johnston was unmoved...
...Files are being distributed to those whose names appear on it...
...Despite the migration, and the tax incentives designed to create jobs on the island, unemployment officially stands at 17 per cent, and the real rate is closer to 35 per cent...
...Puerto Rico's political status is up for grabs...
...There are eleven bases in all, and security forces operating on the island include the FBI, the Naval Intelligence Unit, the 302nd Battalion Army Intelligence Unit, the National Security Agency, and the CIA...
...Given the military and economic interests of the United States, there is widespread skepticism about U.S...
...Presidential aide Andrew Card, George Bush's representative atvthe governor's inaugural, reportedly met with Hernandez Colon before his speech...
...Romero was shaken when the Senators insisted that the New Progressive Party delete from its proposal references to Spanish as an official language...
...Under Section 936 of the Federal tax code, companies operating in Puerto Rico pay no taxes on billions of dollars in profits earned there...
...One said the agents wanted to know about her alleged Mach-etero connections, although she is not involved with the group...
...Lists of one kind or another date back to the early part of this century and have been used systematically to undermine the movement...
...It is going to act in a more unified way and if they [members of Congress] want to give independence a chance they have many ways to do that in future...
...the need for the United States to maintain markets in an increasingly competitive world economy...
...Los Macheteros, an armed clandestine group, bombed the U.S...
...We need a campaign that can reach the hearts and minds of the U.S...
...By all accounts, the 1991 deadline is a difficult one to adhere to...
...He has long supported the option of statehood (or annexation, as indepen-dentistas call it...
...At the June hearings, the speck of dust had not caused much irritation...
...The list was used not only by security forces to keep track of so-called subversives and to crack down on the Left...
...It is not enough pressure to have the U.S...
...the Federal budget deficit, and the evident discontent of islanders with the current status...
...There is none...
...Puerto Rico is considered the Gibraltar of the Caribbean, essential to protect the shipping lanes from South America and the Panama Canal...
...colonial policy in Puerto Rico—a constant source of frustration for island activists...
...Former governor Carlos Romero Bar-celo, who recently replaced Corrada as leader of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, hopes statehood will lead to an increase in Federal grants and public assistance...
...But at this crossroads in Puerto Rican history, the Left on the mainland has largely been silent, acutely disappointing independentistas, who hope to prevent annexation of the island...
...Senator Johnston startled the hearing by admitting that both were invalid...
...They still have our phones tapped," says Rafael Cancel Miranda, a nationalist who spent twenty-five years as a prisoner in the United States...
...In June, Gallisa said he was approached by two women who were visited by FBI agents...
...The hearings proved embarrassing for Governor Hernandez Colon...
...We must go home, when we go to the plebiscite, and say that it is not Congress's or the nation's intention to force a language on us," worried Romero...
...The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held eight days of public hearings in June and July...
...wonders Angel Falcon, director of the New York-based Institute for Puerto Rican Policy...
...Puerto Ricans generally believe the economy will collapse without the continued massive infusion of Federal funds...
...organizes it...
...the strategic value of Puerto Rico...
...As island discontent has grown, inde-pendentistas have built international support for their cause...
...His effort to create a "permanent union" based on guaranteed U.S...
...Los Macheteros took responsibility for bombing a branch of the Bank of Boston and an Army recruiting office...
...In 1952, "the opportunity to vote for alternatives to commonwealth was not present," he said, and in 1967 there was "a sea of doubt and ambiguity as to what the three [alternatives] meant...
...Last November, pro-commonwealth Popular Democratic Party candidate Rafael Hernandez Colon won re-election by a narrow margin to a four-year term as governor of Puerto Rico...
...One positive consequence to the plebiscite initiative is the unprecedented unity it has forged among independentistas...
...This is an important factor in their reluctance to support the Puerto Rican Independence Party at the polls...
...For Gallisa, the examples are typical...
...an end to FBI harassment of the independence movement...
...The case, he says, provides an excuse for harassment...
...Although Puerto Rico is nominally self-governing, "the power of the United States Congress [over Puerto Rico] is absolute," insists Noel Colon Martinez, former head of the Puerto Rico Bar Association...
...But far from being purely defensive, the island has served as a stationary aircraft carrier, a surrogate aggressor for its master to the North...
...See Page 36...
...The revelations set off a lengthy investigation by the Puerto Rico Civil Rights Commission and a lawsuit against the police by David Noriega, a member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives...
...Island of Repression Revelations three years ago that a special unit of the Puerto Rico police department kept a 130,000-name list of "subversives" rocked the mainstream political establishment...
...Puerto Rico was also a base for offensive Cold War maneuvers, playing a key role in the CIA-engineered coup in Guatemala in 1954, the naval blockade of Cuba in 1962, and the invasion by U.S...
...Now, at a time of shifting policy, Puerto Rican activists need allies on the mainland to build support for a truly independent Puerto Rico...
...Violence and threats of violence against military personnel and installations have become a constant fact of life for the U.S...
...security forces...
...military...
...He called for release of political prisoners and an end to political trials...
...The June demonstration was a stunning display of unity for the independence movement, the likes of which has not been seen in twenty years...
...heightened internal "national-security" concerns...
...I don't think there is any meaningful difference in the way the [ruling electoral] parties used the list," says Eric Ne-gron, an aide to Representative Noriega, who is a member of the Puerto Rican Independence Party...
...Many of the so-called subversives were prominent politicians, actors, and athletes as well as leftist independentistas...
...Some 90 per cent of companies operating in Puerto Rico are U.S.-owned and three-fourths of the consumer goods are imported from the mainland...
...Left unattended, they will only get worse...
...The key element in the situation is that Puerto Rico's terrorism and political status exist in a symbiotic relationship: Until the issue of independence is solved, the terrorism will continue," says Puerto Rican analyst Juan Garcia Passalacqua...
...payment for the "damage of colonialism," and continued Federal grants distributed through a local authority...
...Clearly in charge, both Senators Johnston and McClure repeatedly suggested changes to the proposals and warned that none of the parties would get all they wanted...
...The FBI gathered hundreds of hours of taped recordings and subsequently staged a dramatic raid using more than 300 heavily armed agents to arrest sixteen people for the 1983 bank robbery by Los Macheteros, an armed clandestine group...
...These protests, often led by independen-tistas, enjoy wide support...
...The plebiscite, tentatively slated for 1991, is expected to offer the options of independence, "enhanced commonwealth," and statehood...
...This is compounded by a plebiscite process that independence forces see as wholly U.S.-initiated and controlled...
...At the hearings, Puerto Rican Independence Party President Ruben Berrios called for a twenty-five-year phaseout of tax breaks for U.S...
...The public hearings, which began in Washington, D.C., in early June, were held to consider legislation that would allow Puerto Ricans to vote on their political status...
...removal of all military bases from the island...
...Independentistas point to the ongoing Wells Fargo case as clear evidence of continued repression...
...In February, Bush announced his support for statehood and endorsed the plebiscite...
...The 1980s witnessed a growth in popular organizing around both military and environmental issues...
...public opinion...
...Puerto Rico has served as a staging point for the invasion of Grenada and a stopover for British warships on their way to the Falkland Islands...
...Outside, on a San Juan street in mid-June, more than 70,000 of Puerto Rico's 3.2 million people marched to demand independence, their enthusiasm hardly dampened by a sudden tropical downpour...
...In 1983, the sixty-three nations of the Socialist International also endorsed independence and admitted the Puerto Rican Independence Party as a member...
...They are urging the North American Left to wake itself from its inactivity and get involved in the decolonization process...
...That dependency is engineered to provide significant benefits to American multinational corporations doing business in Puerto Rico...
...The proposal would "reinforce separateness," he claimed...
...Is it legitimate to have a plebiscite if the U.S...
...troops of the Dominican Republic in 1965...
...The island is bombarded, according to a Congressional report, by "30,000 pieces of ordnance (not including 200mm strafing rounds) and 533 tons of explosives every year," thrown at it by "96 Atlantic fleet ships, 30 NATO ships, and 400-560 aircraft from the United States, Brazil, Venezuela, Holland, and Great Britain...
...He is a long-time friend of eighty-five-year-old Luis Ferre, former governor and New Progressive Party leader, who campaigned vigorously to deliver delegates to Bush at the 1980 and 1988 Republican national conventions...
...Since February, the process has catapulted forward...
...citizenship for islanders was dealt a severe blow when Senator Johnston revealed the existence of a staff memo that suggested Congress could revoke citizenship under commonwealth...
...The U.S...
...The FBI is still "investigating the ramifications of the Machetero case...
...As island activist and labor attorney Jorge Farinacci asserts, Puerto Rico has entered "one of its most important political junctures in the last several decades...
...Senators held court at a public hearing that may decide the island's future...
...Ever since the United States first invaded and seized the island, the relationship between the two countries has been one of gross inequality...
...It was also used by public and private employers, who often refused to hire those on the list...
...My offhand judgment is to leave this out of the legislation...
...In 1952 and 1967, the United States staged plebiscites to justify the current commonwealth status...
...The Senators want a political option that is "revenue neutral" and will not add to Federal budget woes...
...The commission's report, released in February, painstakingly documents that the independence movement has been for ninety-one years the unrelenting target of repression by Puerto Rican and U.S...
...These admissions do not inspire confidence that the plebiscite this time will be any fairer...
...bleed," admits Manuel Rodriguez, former North American representative of the Puerto Rican Independence Party...
...For years the island's poor have been promised that Federal entitlements would be raised to mainland standards with statehood...
...In 1983, the dramatic $7.2 million Wells Fargo heist pulled off by Los Macheteros sparked an FBI crackdown that led to the arrests of sixteen people...
...In 1984, 30,000 Puerto Ricans showed up for a march to protest military maneuvers at Roosevelt Roads...
...Despite the decades of repression, Puerto Rico still has a determined and vibrant independence movement, as the massive June march indicates...
...A recent study, published in the Puerto Rican Business Review found that among twelve industrialized countries, including the United States and Japan, Puerto Rico manufacturing workers are simultaneously the most productive and the lowest paid...
...Initially concerned that he would lose control of the process, he rejected a move toward a plebiscite...
...Economic policies have historically caused massive migration of Puerto Ri-cans to New York, Hartford, Philadelphia, and other cities...
...The Spanish, British, and Dutch all coveted and fought over the island before the United States prevailed...
...intentions...
...With the bombs that exploded in the last two days [during the mid-June Senate hearings in San Juan], they are going to intensify their efforts," explains Carlos Gallisa, secretary general of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party...
...Air National Guard in San Juan, destroying nine fighter jets...
...So it came as a surprise to many on the Brian A. Kane writes for Community Focus, a Puerto Rican community newspaper in Philadelphia...
...The second was questioned by agents about why her son allowed Gallisa to stay with him during a visit to New York last August...
...Gallisa says his party will not participate in the plebiscite without the power transfer...
...As a result of Representative Noriega's lawsuit, the practice of keeping the list was declared illegal...
...AVhy the sudden rush to a plebiscite...
...Roosevelt Roads, located at the eastern end of the island, is one of the largest U.S...
...military presence...
...Many on the Left believe that the revelations will simply force the police agencies to act in a more subtle and sophisticated way...
...Federal transfer payments, from food stamps and Social Security to direct Government grants, amount to $6 billion a year...
...While the Senate hearings were in progress in San Juan, bombs exploded at two banks and two U.S...
...It's probably like a speck of dust in your eye...
...Puerto Ricans say it is another example of the Federal Government's callous disregard for local customs and law...
...If the list provides unequivocal proof of repression in Puerto Rico, it hardly covers the extent of activities by local and Federal police agencies...
...Committee chairman J. Bennett Johnston, Democrat of Louisiana, and Idaho's James McClure, the committee's ranking Republican, have dominated the hearings, alternately negotiating directly with party leaders or scoffing at suggestions offered by other interested groups...
...A key to Hernandez Colon's proposal, a policy that would essentially allow Puerto Rico to veto Federal laws that did not take into account the island's culture or economy, was soundly rejected...
...The recordings and raid sparked indignation on the island because the Puerto Rico constitution bars telephone wiretaps...
...people," says Carlos Gallisa, general secretary of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party . The move toward the plebiscite began several months ago...
...military installations outside the mainland...
...Even pro-statehooders identify themselves as anticolonial...
...In his February speech, Bush himself alluded to the political difficulties the U.S...
...The small island of Vieques, off the southeast coast of Puerto Rico, has 8,000 residents...
...Like any colony, the island is totally dependent economically on the United States...
...There is also the ever present "problem" of Puerto Rico's armed resistance movement...
Vol. 53 • September 1989 • No. 9
