People protesting with Puerto Rican flags and holding a banner that reads "Viva Puerto Rico Libre." Photo: AP/File photo.
By Berta Joubert-Ceci – Jun 26, 2023
This past week, the UN Decolonization Committee held a hearing on what has been called the Puerto Rico case, on Puerto Rico’s inalienable right to self-determination and independence.
Since the United Nations (UN) passed Resolution 1514 (XV) in 1960 for the eradication of colonies, recognizing independence as a fundamental human right and in accordance with the UN Charter, 41 hearings have already been held on our case.
Recall that the US disguised the colonial state of Puerto Rico by naming it a Commonwealth in 1952 so as not to have to report to the United Nations. But this farce was unmasked in 2016 when the US Supreme Court concluded in a double exposure case, that it is the US Congress who rules in Puerto Rico. Since then, in Puerto Rico it is no longer only independence who speaks of colony.
Over 60 organizations from Puerto Rico and its diaspora read papers opposing the colonial state. Even annexationist representatives who stubbornly remain lackeys of the US government and think that integration to the US would give Puerto Rico sovereignty.
However, the pro-independence presentations were clear and forceful in illustrating the urgent need for self-determination and independence because through the Fiscal Control Board and the privatization of essential services, an unsustainable intensification of colonial power is taking place that is destroying the Puerto Rican population.
Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Russia, Syria and Venezuela were the proponents of the resolution which was supported by the CELAC countries and the Non-Aligned Movement.
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It remains for the UN to decide to take this claim to the General Assembly once and for all and not to leave it as a simple oratory exercise every June.
Berta Joubert-Ceci spoke for Radio Clarín of Colombia.
