Colonial regime threatens life in the Caribbean

by Dianne Viera

Moving towards the regional integration of Latin America and the Caribbean, proclaimed and defended by our patriotic ancestors, requires ending colonialism in the Caribbean. It is in this region where there is the largest presence of colonies in the world. Among the Caribbean nations that have not achieved independence are Bonaire (colonized by the Netherlands), Curaçao (Netherlands), Guadeloupe (France), Cayman Islands (United Kingdom), Turks and Caicos Islands (United Kingdom), British Virgin Islands (United Kingdom), Yankee Virgin Islands (USA), Montserrat (United Kingdom), Puerto Rico (USA), Saba (Netherlands), Saint Barthélemy (France), Saint Eustatius (Netherlands), Saint Martin (northern part : France), Saint Martin (southern part: Netherlands).

Despite the commitment of the United Nations (UN) to eradicate colonialism in the world, in the Caribbean it is alive and well. The integration of Our America cannot be achieved without eradicating colonialism in the Caribbean, because WITHOUT THE CARIBBEAN THERE IS NO OUR AMERICA. National independence is essential for the efforts of these nations to have the possibility of achieving a dignified life. The colony makes their lives precarious, which becomes even more acute with the problems generated by global warming. Due to the control exercised by the invading countries, measures are erected that impede the socioeconomic development of these island nations and put restrictions on the security measures necessary to face the problems that arise due to climate change. In the face of the climate crisis, colonialism further harms Caribbean colonies because their ability to apply effective and contextual solutions is restricted, as Pilar Assefh explains.

Given the precarious situation faced by the colonies in the Caribbean, the UN continues its effort to eradicate colonialism. Hearings are held before the Decolonization Committee (C-24), resolutions are adopted, but the General Assembly announces – each year – that there are no resources to implement the actions of the mandates of those resolutions (Corbin 2024).

For this reason, it is essential to raise militancy in the unitary struggle of the island nations in the Caribbean in order to create a wave of Caribbean actions that put the colonial powers in check. The creation of a Caribbean Front against colonialism is necessary. It is necessary for our sisters and brothers of Continental America to take militant and supportive action with the processes of struggle in our people, pointing out and supporting actions so that we advance in this process of struggle to eradicate colonialism in the Caribbean. Let’s replenish without hesitation: THERE IS NO OUR AMERICA WITHOUT THE CARIBBEAN!

Fiscal Control Board: Colonialism at its finest

by Carlos Rafael Alicea Negron

Analyzing what the Fiscal Control Board (JCF) is in Puerto Rico must be guided by some basic premises:

1. The debt that they want to impose on our people is illegal, illegitimate and odious. The debt was generated under a colonial regime, it is the responsibility of the invading country, in the case of Puerto Rico, the USA, to assume the debt as part of its fiduciary duty towards the colony.
2. The JCF is a colonialist tool that demonstrates that the so-called “self-government” is a fiction; It has always been a fiction and that since 1898, Puerto Rico has been a colony.
3. The JCF does not make us more of a colony. This reflects what the executive, judicial, and imperial legislative branches have affirmed, in 1898, 1900, 1917 and 1952 and 2016, Puerto Rico IS a colony, in the Congress of the nation that invaded us, it is usurped and denies political sovereignty to our nation. The board guarantees and ensures the continuation of the theft of wealth generated by Puerto Rican workers for the benefit of the industrial-military-financial banking complex of the USA.

They steal non-stop.

Dr. Neftalí García Martínez estimates that “between 1950 and 2023, foreign American companies took one trillion dollars in profits from Puerto Rico.” From the expropriation of natural environmental resources, water and agricultural land, the use of extensive portions of the national territory as military bases without paying a cent, contaminating and destroying natural ecosystems; and the billions of dollars in interest payments charged to Puerto Rico for subordinating our economy to that there, that is the formula for the big gringo business.

The JCF imposes the payment of the illegal debt which results in the COFINA “debt” – which after a 30% adjustment that was equivalent to $12 billion dollars – our people will pay $32.3 billion and a tax on consumption for 40 MORE YEARS. One button is enough to show. On top of that, the JCF lives in luxury.

Between 2016 and 2023, these vultures, banking mercenaries, have spent billions of dollars to impose on us the payment of illegal debt, money that comes from the taxes paid by Puerto Rican workers. Meanwhile, the JCF destroys the retirement systems, closes public schools, loots the university, destroys the electrical system and destroys the water service, destroys and repeals the rights of workers, destroys what remains of the health system and They deny services to the elderly, because there are no kids for the people, but they spend more than 200 million dollars a year to make us pay an illegal, illegitimate and odious debt.

In an invaded and occupied nation like ours, it is essential that we confront vehemently and perseverance and organized actions the violence inherent to the colony. This entire struggle must be rooted in creating the conditions to advance National Independence, which – according to the United Nations Charter and Resolution 1514 XV – is the only way to exercise the political powers that will allow us to create a nation that promotes and sustains the possibility of a just and dignified nation for all our people. This fight has to include overthrowing the JCF, but that is not enough to end colonialism in Puerto Rico, this is only possible with National Independence.

Colonial congruences: Canadians and Puerto Ricans

By Estelí Capote Maldonado

During the past weeks we have received news about the struggle waged by the Kanak people (New Caledonia) against France, administrative agent (colonizer), now suffers another of the endless consequences of being a colony under French government since 1853. Just as in Puerto Rico – a colony of the United States since 1898 – the state of military invasion and political subjugation to which it is subject prevents the natural process of independence from materializing because the colonial state controls unilaterally the processes in the process of maintaining the status quo.

On this occasion, the Kanak people are protesting against the French National Assembly, which intends to grant voting in the New Caledonia elections to foreign residents. The intention of the French project is to dilute the independence position of the Kanaks by allowing the invaders to vote in a referendum in favor of maintaining the colonial relationship with France. In Puerto Rico we have been fighting for at least 10 years to eliminate Laws 20, 22 and 66, whose purpose is to gentrify our nation with foreign investors, allowing them to carry out their businesses from Puerto Rico without paying taxes on their profits, at an absolute advantage against Puerto Ricans. While the colonial administration, assisted by the US imperial government, invites foreigners to move to Puerto Rico, our young people have to migrate due to lack of opportunities and decent jobs.

In short, the United States government carries out a process of population replacement with the same intention as France, to maintain the colonial status quo. This situation of colonial domination, both in New Caledonia and in Puerto Rico, is just one example among the multiple conditions that we go through as peoples and nations subjugated to Western colonialism without intervention or supervision by the international community.

In Puerto Rico, when we refer to a situation it is of exclusive advantage to one of the two parties and to the total detriment of the other, we say that “they want to put the goat on the lettuce”, this saying applies without exception to France and the United States. United, two hungry goats who live off their colonies and who depend on the international community to take a long view in order to continue exploiting the subjugated nations.

New Caledonia and Puerto Rico will continue their fight for independence and will demand that the international community cast its eyes on our geography if it truly aspires to a change in the, until today, hegemonic imperialist policy that dominates world politics.