Movements Ask U.N. to Discuss Puerto Rican Independence

The Hostosian National Independence Movement asked the United Nations Organization Decolonization Committee to discuss the colonial situation of Puerto Rico in the General Assembly. The request was reiterated by the Non-Aligned Movement (NOAL, in Spanish), an integration of 117 countries that acts as an autonomous territory.

Participants at the meeting approved by a consensus that a review of the island’s independence would be discussed in the General Assembly of the U.N.

The governor of Puerto Rico, Anibal Acevedo Vila, as well as legislators Kenneth McClintock and Jose Aponte, are in agreement with the request made to the committee, and recognize the colonial character of the Associated Free State.

NOAL’s request was presented by the ambassador of Cuba, Rodrigo Malmierca, coordinator from the offices of NOAL.

In the request, Malmierca reaffirmed the position of the block of countries in defense of the Puerto Rican population’s right of “self determination and independence.”

The Independence Movement denounced the wave of violent actions, repression, and intimidation against those whom defend the territory’s independence, about which the Puerto Rican population is concerned.

In addition, they denounced attacks against journalists and the terrible conditions confronted by political prisoners Oscar Lopez, Carlos Alberto Torres, and Avelino Gonzalez Claudio.

“Since we came to the Committee in the past year, Puerto Rico has suffered one of the most brutal initiations by the United States Government with the objective to destabilize rights of self determination and independence. It has augmented persecution against the Movement, the plunder of archeological sites and natural resources, and the destruction of our possibility for nourishing self sufficiency”, said Hector Sevillano of the Movement during the Committee meeting.

According to the Movement, the United States government interferes in the electoral process of Puerto Rico and despises the country’s judicial system, as well as its national laws and rules.

Sevillano asks that the country at least be declared independent, and that the United States clean up and decontaminate all the occupied lands, such as the military complexes in Vieques and Ceiba, so that they may be returned to the Puerto Rican people.