Presentation to the United Nations Decolonization Committee Hearings on Puerto Rico by the National Lawyers Guild International Committee http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/nlgic210611.html

The Obama administration has joined the ranks of successive U.S. administrations which ignore the provisions of international law which this Honorable Committee has year after year conscientiously applied to the colonial case of Puerto Rico. In March of this year, the U.S. President's Task Force on Puerto Rico's Status -- of which there is not a single Puerto Rican member -- issued a report with recommendations proposing methods for purportedly resolving the status question, acknowledging that "status remains of overwhelming importance to the people of Puerto Rico," but nowhere expressly acknowledging the colonial status or the application of international law.

The report suggests convening a plebiscite process, polling the people of Puerto Rico regarding available status options of statehood, independence, free association and commonwealth. However, there is a significant potential for the elimination of the independence option. Although more than half the population lives in the United States, the Task Force suggests that "only residents of Puerto Rico should be eligible to vote in any plebiscite." The report, moreover, does acknowledge that it is the U.S. Congress that will ultimately determine the resolution of the status.

The history of criminalizing the independence movement continues unabated. The head of the FBI office in San Juan was recently promoted to an administrative position in FBI headquarters, a move attributed to the "disarticulation" during his watch of the clandestine pro-independence group The Macheteros, including the 2005 assassination of Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, the 2008 arrest of alleged Machetero Avelino González Claudio, and the 2011 arrest of alleged Machetero Norberto González Claudio.

[ALSO SEE...PUERTO RICO AND US IMPERIALISM-Clearing Out without Cleaning Up: The U.S. and Vieques Island http://thenakedfacts.blogspot.com/2011/05/puerto-rico-and-us-imperialism-clearing.html Puerto Rico is a Colony By Jose R. Bas García http://www.independencia.net/ingles/pr_is_a_colony.html Puerto Rico « United States Imperialism http://vivirlatino.com/tags/vieques Vieques, Puerto Rico Calls for Peace in Palestine http://vivirlatino.com/2009/01/16/vieques-puerto-rico-calls-for-peace-in-palestine.php

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Puerto Rico: ACLU delegation criticizes abuses http://thenakedfacts.blogspot.com/2011/05/puerto-rico-aclu-delegation-criticizes.html .Partisan Politics,Neo-Liberalism,and Struggle for Democracy and Public Education in Puerto Rico http://thenakedfacts.blogspot.com/2011/04/partisan-politics-neo-liberalism-and.html