2023-06-22 23:15:17
United Nations- The UN Committee on Decolonization once once more asked the United States on Thursday to promote a process that allows the Puerto Rican people to exercise their right to self-determination and independence.
It did so in a resolution approved by consensus and similar to the texts that have been adopted year following year in this United Nations body since 1972.
In the document, the Decolonization Committee stresses that Puerto Rico must be able, “in a sovereign manner, to make decisions to meet its urgent economic and social needs, including unemployment, marginalization, insolvency and poverty, and problems related to the education and health”. As he points out, all of them “have been aggravated by the scourge of hurricanes Irma and María, the earthquakes that affected the southwestern part of Puerto Rico and the pandemic.”
The text also states that “austerity measures” imposed on the island “are the cause of the social and economic situation that the people of Puerto Rico are experiencing” and have led to “privatizing essential services, such as electricity, which It has caused an increase in the cost of living in an already precarious economy”.
The resolution – promoted by Bolivia, Cuba, Russia, Nicaragua, Syria and Venezuela – also “notes the broad support for the independence of Puerto Rico shown by personalities, governments and political forces in Latin America and the Caribbean.”
INDEPENDENCE OR STATENESS
That support was heard repeatedly during a long hearing held this Thursday, in which, however, there were also voices in favor of Puerto Rico joining the US as its 51st state.
Among the latter, that of the Secretary of State of Puerto Rico, Omar Marrero, stood out, who argued that “a clear majority of voters” on the island have expressed their desire to be part of the Union on many occasions and that now it is up to the US Congress solve the status problem.
Last year the US House of Representatives approved a bill so that Puerto Rico can hold a binding referendum on its status to decide between independence, “statehood” or free association sovereignty.
However, when Congress was renewed following the last elections, the legislative process has started once more and has been met with resistance among the Republicans, who now have a majority in the House of Representatives.
Marrero, in a speech in English, considered that it is time for the US to authorize this consultation and for the “aspirations” of Puerto Ricans who want “statehood” to be recognized.
Meanwhile, a majority of the politicians and representatives of different organizations -many from the diaspora in the US- who took the floor did so to defend independence and to denounce the serious economic and social problems
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