GI: "Puerto Rico - the dream of a country"

GI: Puerto Rico - The dream of a country
Posted by: "Walter Lippmann" walterlx@earthlink.net walterlx
Fri May 15, 2009 8:28 pm (PDT)


GRANMA INTERNATIONAL
Havana. May 15, 2009

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2009/mayo/vier15/puerto-rico.html

The dream of a country

Deisy Francis Mexidor

• ONE day, Puerto Rico will be part of the choir of free nations. With that conviction, Norma Pérez Muñiz speaks on every platform.

This reporter met her in Havana, during the Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Coordination Bureau, which Pérez attended at the head of a delegation from the Hostosian National Independence Movement of that sister country. Her organization was invited to the event.

In a conversation with Granma, Pérez acknowledged the traditional support that her country has received from the NAM and, especially the fact that, "the solidarity of our Cuban brothers and sisters has been historic and unconditional. Coming here gives us strength," she said.

The case of Puerto Rico is a painful one. This July 25 marks 111 years of yanki intervention in that country. Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since 1917, when the U.S. Congress voted that into law. Puerto Rico has the status of " associated free state," which encompasses its colonial condition…

Would you give a picture of the current situation in your country?

Puerto Rico has suffered one of the most brutal onslaughts of the U.S. government, with the goal of undermining the right to self-determination and independence. The harassment and persecution of the independence movement has increased, as has the plunder of archeological sites and natural resources and the destruction of our possibilities for food self-sufficiency in the poultry and the dairy industries.

For example, in the midst of this economic, food and energy crisis affecting the world, we Puerto Ricans, because we live in a U.S. colony, have an aggravated situation.

Recently, the federal court raised the cost of milk that is produced in Puerto Rico. It is the United States that determines the cost of products made and consumed in my country, which makes them more expensive.

Our economy operates according to the U.S. economy. It is a very unequal relationship, and at the same time we cannot solve our own problems, because all of our institutions respond to the dictates of the United States and not of Puerto Rico.

Also evident are attempts to destroy what is left of our agriculture, thus increasing food dependence as a U.S. captive market.

Federal government interference in national elections has been brazen. The elected government in Puerto Rico is a fallacy. In the 2004 elections, the U.S. federal court in Puerto Rico hijacked the results of our elections. In the recent elections, charges were made against the candidate who was opposed to Washington, and they engaged in a campaign to discredit him. By the way, he is not pro-independence, but he did speak in the United Nations and defended Puerto Rico's right to self-determination.

We also experience the disdain and lack of respect for the Puerto Rican judicial system, for our laws… The United States can go so far as to impose the death penalty on citizens of my country for acts committed within Puerto Rico.

At this time, the U.S. government has refused to collaborate in clearing up the murder of the independence leader Filiberto Ojeda Ríos and in the investigation of aggression against Puerto Rican journalists on the part of FBI agents.

What ideas are being debated today in Puerto Rico with respect to decolonization?

A consensus can be seen in my country regarding the need for decolonization, but not about the final solution to the problem.

When talking about this issue, I like to use a comparison with something that used to happen during the times of slavery. At that time, if the master asked slaves if they wanted to be free, they would say `no,' because it was inconceivable to them how they would survive; they did not know what to do with their freedom. It was the mentality imposed on them by vassalage. It's the same with those who cannot see themselves surviving without the "protection" of the United States.

But there are those of us who are fighting for Puerto Rico's independence, because we want it to be part of the Caribbean, and not the bastard child exploited by the United States, as Eugenio María de Hostos used to say in the 19th century. And all of this is related to the degree of political awareness, which needs more development in my country.

Right now, for example, we are involved in intensive work to try and bring the case of Puerto Rico to the UN General Assembly. We've been working on that for many years. In fact, we have won 27 resolutions of support in the Decolonization Committee. But under today's conditions, we see the day as being closer when my country's case gets discussed in a full UN plenum.

What is your greatest dream, Norma?

Definitely, the independence of my Puerto Rico, and more than a dream, it is the aspiration, the meaning of our lives.

And in that dream/aspiration, how do you imagine a free Puerto Rico?

As everyone's friend, with social justice, proclaiming equality among countries, the right to live in peace in a world without oppression, and where the nations that believe themselves the most powerful do not dominate over the rest. •

if they want to make a statement.

on the other hand, the US could just grant Puerto Rico independence. something I would certainly support.