Original: Spanish
The Socialist International Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean, meeting in Montevideo, Uruguay, on 3-4 April 2006, reaffirms its support for the Puerto Rican people’s inalienable right to free determination and independence and its solidarity with the Puerto Rican Independence Party, PIP.
The Committee welcomes, along with the PIP, the historic step forward made by the formal acceptance on the part of the United States government that Puerto Rico continues to be a territorial possession subject to the full sovereign powers of the US Congress. This political conclusion was made in a document issued by the White House on 22 December 2005, entitled the Report of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Status of Puerto Rico, as requested by President George W Bush, in which it is also recommended that Congress approve legislation which will allow the people of Puerto Rico to overcome their current colonial situation.
In this way, the government of the United States has accepted the denouncements and the calls against political subordination, made not only by the PIP and the Socialist International over many years, but also by the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonialisation.
This encouraging development towards the decolonialisation of Puerto Rico is not only the result of ongoing demands by the international community, but also a consequence of the far-reaching changes brought about by the end of the cold war and the challenges facing the United States with respect to Latin America and the Caribbean at the beginning of the XXI century. It responds, furthermore, to the consensus which exists among the people of Puerto Rico on the need to move on from the current territorial situation, which has been the subject of unanimously approved resolutions by the Puerto Rican Legislative Assembly.
All the political parties in Puerto Rico have expressed their desire for the US Congress to approve legislation attending to the issue of status and there is already a draft prepared which has received the support of more than a hundred members of the House of Representatives.
The Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean offers its solidarity to the PIP in its efforts to ensure that, in line with the recommendations of the White House Report, the Congress consult Puerto Ricans on whether they wish to leave behind their current colonial situation and choose between alternatives which are not territorial.
The Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean agrees to be present at the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonialisation next June, when it will hear testimonies on the case of Puerto Rico, in order to manifest the commitment of democrats in Latin America and the Caribbean to the cause of independence for Puerto Rico.
The Committee also agrees to lend its support and solidarity to the Independence Party’s plan to convene and carry out a Latin American Congress in support of the decolonialisation and independence of Puerto Rico this year. It also urges member parties, through their best offices, to ensure that their respective governments and parliaments work in favour of the cause of the independence of Puerto Rico, an issue which constitutes an incomplete chapter in the liberation project of Simón Bolivar.
_________________