The hearings, held by the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization, adopted a resolution that affirmed “the inalienable right of the people of Puerto Rico to self-determination and independence.” As in the past three years, the resolution, sponsored by the revolutionary government of Cuba, was adopted by consensus.

Many of the two dozen representatives of pro-independence organizations who took part in the hearings spoke about the importance of the hard-fought victory to bring to an end 60 years of bombing exercises and military maneuvers by the U.S. Navy on the Puerto Rican island. At the same time, they said the fight was not over.

The statement from the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, stressed that they were still fighting for the removal of the Navy’s over-the-horizon radar (ROTHR) on the island’s southeast zone. The lands previously used by the Navy have been handed over to the U.S. Department of Interior. The committee, which helped spearhead the movement against the Navy’s presence, demanded the U.S. government clean up the island, contaminated by the Navy’s use of “an enormous quantity of military toxins”; the “devolution of every inch of the territory of Vieques to the people”; and “development projects that principally benefit the people and not the hotel interests, political parties, or other powerful politico-economic forces.”

With the victory in Vieques, one of the central political campaigns in Puerto Rico today remains the fight to release the Puerto Rican political prisoners. Benjamin Ramos of the New York-based ProLibertad Freedom Campaign joined other speakers in calling for the immediate release of Oscar López, Juan Segarra Palmer, Haydée Beltrán, Carlos Alberto Torres, and Antonio Camacho Negrón, who were imprisoned by Washington for their actions in the cause of Puerto Rican independence.

“With release dates of 2024 and 2027, two of the five prisoners will be in jail the rest of their lives if we do not win their freedom,” said Luis Rosa, who spoke on behalf of the Committee for Human Rights, one of the organizations that has led the fight for freedom for Puerto Rican political prisoners. Rosa, who spent 19 years in U.S. prisons, was among 11 independentista political prisoners who won their freedom in 1999. He now lives in Puerto Rico. Rosa condemned the fact that several of the current prisoners had been thrown into solitary confinement “under the banner of ‘antiterrorism.’”

Jorge Farinacci of the Socialist Front pointed out that eight of those arrested in the anti-Navy civil disobedience protests on Vieques “were labeled by the government as ‘domestic terrorists’” under U.S. laws that are part of the “antiterrorist” campaign.

Berthaida Seijo Ortiz of the Puerto Rican Lawyers Guild spoke in opposition to the efforts by U.S. officials to impose the death penalty in Puerto Rico in violation of Puerto Rico’s colonial constitution. Héctor Acosta Martínez and Joel Rivera Alejandro, for example, have been charged with breaking federal laws while on Puerto Rican territory and face the death penalty. “The death penalty was abolished in Puerto Rico in 1929 and expressly prohibited since 1952 by our Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico,” she said.  
 
Opposition to U.S. colonial rule
Almost every speaker condemned U.S. colonial rule and spoke for independence. Many voiced opposition to the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, and pointed out the continued U.S. colonial rule of their homeland is part of the expansionist drive by U.S. imperialism.

Alice Hernández, a leader of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party in New York, said, “Puerto Rico is the oldest colony in this hemisphere. The United States refuses, against our right to self-determination and independence, to take steps towards a genuine process of decolonization.

“All of us have been witnesses to the invasion of a sovereign nation justified with lies,” Hernández said, referring to the U.S. assault on Iraq. “But this was nothing but a redivision of the world among the great powers. While they expressed some differences at first, they have now fully reestablished their alliance under U.S. domination.”

Martín Koppel of the Socialist Workers Party said, “a successful struggle for independence is in the interests not only of the people of Puerto Rico. As long as the Puerto Rican people have the U.S. boot on their necks, labor in this country will not be able to throw the source of exploitation off our backs either” (see “Puerto Rico independence is in the interests of vast majority in the U.S.” in this issue).

“The condition of Puerto Ricans in the United States, especially in the cities, is closely connected to the colonial relationship,” said Ricardo Gabriel, president of the Hostos Puerto Rican Club at Hunter College in New York City. With the public university system in New York under attack, “the forthcoming tuition increases and budget cuts will force thousands of Puerto Ricans and other people of color out of school, thereby denying us our right to an education.” At the same time, he noted, the number of people locked up in U.S. prisons, a disproportionate number of whom are Puerto Rican, is now 2 million.

Róger Calero, who recently defeated U.S. government attempts to deport him from the United States, told the hearing, “Washington’s colonial rule over Puerto Rico reinforces the racist discrimination promoted by employers and the government” (see “Calero kicks off national victory tour” in this issue. Calero, an editor of Perspectiva Mundial and staff writer for the Militant, offered his victory as a “weapon that can be used by others fighting to defend their rights” both in the United States and beyond. “The frame-up methods used by the FBI against Puerto Rican unionists and independence fighters are the same ones the U.S. government uses against working-class militants in this country,” he said.

Other speakers included representatives of the Puerto Rican Independence Party and the Hostos National Congress, two of the main pro-independence groups on the island.

The pro-independence delegation put its stamp on the deliberations. A lone speaker testified for a group that defends the current “commonwealth” setup. Two individuals argued for making Puerto Rico the 51st U.S. state. No leaders were present, however, from the main colonial parties on the island, the pro-commonwealth Popular Democratic Party (PPD) and the pro-statehood New Progressive Party.

That evening, more than 50 people attended a reception and forum at Hunter College, sponsored by ProLibertad, featuring a panel that included many of those who had testified at the United Nations as part of the pro-independence delegation. Among the speakers were Frank Velgara of the Vieques Support Campaign, Jorge Farinacci, Luis Rosa, Ricardo Gabriel, Alice Hernández, Benjamin Ramos, Róger Calero, Wilma Reverón, and Vanessa Ramos of the Association of American Jurists. The presentations and discussion period were an exchange of views on the current state of the Puerto Rican fight for sovereignty and independence.

Rosa stressed the importance of placing the fight for Puerto Rican independence and freedom for political prisoners within the context of the international struggle against U.S. aggression. “We can’t take on the biggest imperialist power in the world, if we don’t fight its attacks on other countries,” he said.
 
 
Related article:
SWP: ‘Puerto Rico independence is in the interests of the vast majority in the United States’  
 
 
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