Historical background
Puerto Rico was a colony of Spain from 1493 until 1898, when Spain was defeated during the Spanish-Cuban-American War. With a Commonwealth status (1950-1952), the US managed to remove P.R. from the list of non-self-governing territories and stop rendering reports under Art. 73 (e) of the UN Charter to the GA, pursuant to Resolution 748 (VIII) (1953)[1]. Since then, the US Congress has never sanction a process of self-determination. After 70 years, the case of Puerto Rico is ripe to be revisited by the UN GA.
On October 1950, a Nationalist Insurrection in Puerto Rico erupted. The National Guard was activated. Most members of the Puerto Rico Nationalist Party were arrested and incarcerated. As part of the insurrection, two nationalists, Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo, attacked the Blair House, temporary residency of President Harry S. Truman. The US retaliated by lobbying at the United Nations to cancel the seat of the
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party as an observer in the General Assembly as a liberation movement.
On March 1, 1954, four nationalists, Lolita Lebrón, Andrés Figueroa Cordero, Irving Flores and Rafael Cancel Miranda launched an armed attack inside of the U.S. Capitol at Washington D.C., claiming for the independence of Puerto Rico, protesting for the misinformation submitted to the United Nations for the approval of Resolution 748 (VIII) and testing of nuclear weapons in the pacific “territories”. All of them were arrested and served 25 years in prison.
1972: the U.N. Decolonization Committee reaffirmed “the inalienable right of the people of Puerto Rico to self-determination and independence” pursuant to GA Res. 151
4 (XV)[2] and has kept the question of Puerto Rico under continuous review for the past fifty one years. A/AC.109/419, et als.
The Congressional designed imposed by the US Government since 1953 has finally collapsed. Instead of promoting self-government and decolonization, the US has reaffirmed its sovereign powers over Puerto Rico, fostering economic dependence, population displacement and persecution of the liberation movements. U.S. policies in Puerto Rico are the true cause of it’s economic, social and political disruption.[3] U.S. Rule in P.R. has been characterized by political persecution, repression and assassinations; discrimination; military and economic exploitation, making us potential target of military retaliations.[4]
2016: PROMESA: On June 30, 2016, President Barack Obama signed PROMESA[5], a bill that establishes a Control Board[6]. The fiscal board consists of members appointed by the President of the United States. As such, the Board unlawfully “usurp[ed] the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico’s political and governmental powers.”[7]
PROMESA violates principles of constitutional and public international law
The right to self-determination is an erga-omnes right,[8] catalogued as a customary norm by the International Court of Justice (“ICJ”). See Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipielago. From Mauritius in 1965, Advisory Opinion, ¶ 160, (Feb. 25, 2019) The U.S.’s failure to render reports under Art. 73(e) of the U.N. Charter for decades constitutes a violation of international law. See ICJ, Adv. Op., Namibia[9], reaffirming the Principle of Non-Annexation”.
Pursuant to Res. 748 (VIII) the US ceased to render reports (pursuant to U.N. Charter, Chapter XI, Art. 73(e)) regarding the administration of Puerto Rico. PROMESA simply unmasked what was previously misrepresented as the acquisition of “full measures of self-government” by the US delegation in 1953. The Control Board serves as the “checkmate” to thwart the already discredited “constitutional government” with the power to overrule the decisions of Puerto Rico’s elected Government. It rules despite never being elected, disenfranchising the People of PR. It is undemocratic, unconstitutional and a violation of the object and purpose of the ICCPR.
Puerto Rico remains, effectively, an unincorporated territory of the United States. For more than 7 decades, the United States government has been in breach of its international, see Case of Namibia (South West Africa) Advisory Opinion, I.C.J. Reports 1971, p. 16. In the case of Puerto Rico, “the principle that the well-being and development of such peoples form ‘a sacred trust of civilization’ . . . to promote to the utmost the material and moral well-being and the social progress of the inhabitants” (I.C.J. Reports 1950, p. 131) has not been observed by the United States. PROMESA is an admission of this statement and the failure of a Congressional design. The Fiscal Board is a new instrument to continue the path of colonial rule pursuant to the so called “plenary powers of the U.S. Congress” under the Territories Clause.
Under international law, the U.S. has “an ongoing fiduciary duty to Puerto Rico pending the latter’s full decolonization.” S. Lausell, Id. It requires “that the United States act exclusively in the best interests of Puerto Rico” creating the conditions for economic, social and political development. Mostly due to the United States’ breach of its fiduciary duty, “Puerto Rico’s stunted development model has finally collapsed.” Id. U.S. policy in Puerto Rico is the true cause of the present economic disruption. Id.
The U.S. Congress has a great deal of responsibility regarding the public debt in Puerto Rico. Reparation of grievances is paramount to repair more than a Century of unequal, racist, discriminatory and colonial treatment. PROMESA cannot be used as a shield by Congress to escape its international obligations with Puerto Rico under Art. 1 of the ICCPR, Art. 73(e) of the U.N. Charter, and Art. 15 of the ICERD.
The fiduciary duty of the U.S. includes the obligation to render reports to the UN, General Assembly, something that the U.S. Government has been intentionally omitting for the past 70 years. In this regard, any TRANSITION to any process of decolonization must start immediately, without further delays, and including reparations, considering as illegal the US administration for the past 70 years.
After 7 decades, the case of Puerto Rico is ripe to be revisited by the UN GA. All branches of the US Gov. had confirmed[10] what Ambassador Menon, from India, then denounced in 1953: The international community is witnessing the creation of new forms of colonialism. This case must be raised for the consideration of the General Assembly in order to be referred to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for an Advisory Opinion, consistent with its previous rulings.
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