Copy of the flyer for distribution at the June 16 & 23 UN Protests

 

On the day that Puerto Rico (PR) celebrated the abolition of slavery, March 22, 2014, we had our First Oscar – Mandela March in Puerto Rico.  It was a huge success!  Click on the link below to see TeleSur's coverage of our march, and 2 other protests that occurred on that day:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ja9pi_conmemora-pr-abolicion-de-esclavitud-exige-libertad-para-lopez-rivera_news

Puerto Rico has been a colony of the United States for 116 years.  Before that, Puerto had been a colony of Spain for 405 years.  Puerto Rico has never been an independent nation. 

Despite the fact that colonialism violates the United Nations’ (UN) Universal Human Rights Resolution, and its 1960 Resolution 1514 (XV) that declared that colonialism is a crime against humanity because of its threat to world peace, the government of the United States (US) has ignored thus far 32 UN resolutions asking it to immediately decolonize Puerto Rico.  The UN has specifically asked the US to immediately release from prison Puerto Rican political prisoner of 33 years Oscar López Rivera in the more recent ones of these resolutions.  Martin Luther King would have explained the UN’s justification this way, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”  It is noteworthy to mention that these resolutions are approved by over 90% of the UN.  If the United States government is really about promoting democracy around the world, here’s an excellent example of it not practicing what it preaches!

Those of us who have had the tenacity to study the real Puerto Rican history since 1493 are convinced that 116 years of US colonialism means that the US government has no intentions of ever decolonizing Puerto Rico.  So what is a realistic way to force the US to comply with the 32 UN resolutions?

 

We need to find a way to unite all those who believe, like the UN, that colonialism is a crime against humanity to peacefully protest for the decolonization of Puerto Rico.  These protests must be permanent, so that more protesters may unite, as their level of indignation grow every year that the US government ignores yet another UN resolution to decolonize Puerto Rico. 

One thing is irrefutable.  The US government does not believe in justice for all, after 116 years of Puerto Rico colonialism!