First Published: The Call, Vol. 2, No. 10, July 1974.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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United Nations, New York–Five months after the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly declared that Puerto Rico is in fact a colony of the U.S., pro-independence forces on the island have challenged the colonialists to debate the future of the island before the world body.
Last month at the United Nations, Juan Mari Bras, secretary-general of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP) issued the challenge at a news conference. The representatives of the two pro-colonialist parties in Puerto Rico, he said, should appear before the Decolonization Committee when it again takes up the status of the island at a session to be held this August.
Independence forces hold that the first step towards any “decolonization,” must be total independence. This demand has been supported not only by the masses of Puerto Ricans, but by over 100 countries of the world. Under pressure, the colonialists on the island and in the U.S. have begun to talk of “autonomy” rather than independence, as a cover for continued domination.
For example, shortly after the U.N. committee rejected the U.S. assertion that Puerto Rico was “free” and declared that the island was a colony. Gov. Hernandez Colon quickly set up an Ad Hoc Committee to make recommendations for the island’s “autonomy.” Its recommendations include more freedom for the Puerto Rican government to license radio stations and a greater say in granting shipping rights to the island’s excellent ports.
Fearing that even these timid moves toward autonomy might anger his U.S. backers, Hernandez Colon is, at the same time, always quick to add that while he favors “needed revisions” in the island’s charter, he wants no real separation of the island from the U.S. Ties with the imperialist giant to the north, he says, are “a unique experience in interdependence.. .many decades ahead of its time.”
Mari Bras said he wants the representatives of the two pro-colonialist parties to be there in August at the U.N. meeting, “so we independence forces do not win by default.” “The governor,” he told the news reporters last month, “should not avoid this opportunity. If he really believes that his proposal is valid and legitimate, he should not fear international confrontation. Especially when he realizes that, whether he appears to defend his opinion or not, the U.N. will pass judgment on our colonial case and this judgment will be the basic factor – whether he likes it or not – in the final determination of our country’s destiny.”