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Press Release June 20, 2024
adelante@adelantereunificacionistas.com
Adelante Reunificacionistas and Reunificacionistas en Acción urge the United Nations to recognize the Reunification of Puerto Rico and Spain as a form of decolonization.
Adelante Reunificacionistas and Reunificacionistas en Acción, represented by Annette Falcón and José Miguel Velázquez Sánchez, shall present a series of arguments, at 10 in the morning on June 20th, 2024, that justify the option of the reintegration (reunification) of Puerto Rico as the eighteenth autonomous region of Spain on the basis of the historical and cultural ties that unite the two territories — a potential solution to the one-hundred twenty-five years of an uncertain political colonial status.
Adelante Reunificacionistas and Reunificacionistas en Acción are cultural organizations, based in Puerto Rico and Spain respectively, that operate on various social networks — analyzing the current political reality of Puerto Rico and the historical events that have brought it to a political impasse as a colony without congressional representation in the United States — and that promote the island’s liberty through public gatherings, cultural events, dialogue with local politicians, and a considerable media presence.
In 1898, the United States invaded Puerto Rico and stripped it of its newly bestowed Autonomy Charter that granted it the right to self-government — an improvement to the already extensive list of rights the island enjoyed — for instance, the right to vote for the president of the Spanish courts — without cutting ties with the country of which it constituted an integral part. Since that date, Puerto Rico’s status was turned on its head and, with it, the right to pass judgment in Congress on institutions and statutes that affect the daily lives of its citizens. The Hispanic identity of the island is equally under attack by a possible, though unlikely, annexation to the United States.
‘Puerto Rico is Spanish’, José Alfedro Lara Fontánez, the president of Adelante Reunificacionistas, reiterates. ‘It’s time we reclaim our roots’.
The reunification of Puerto Rico and Spain distinguishes itself from other propositions for decolonization:
- As it assures that, with the equitable incorporation of the territory to another nation, our cultural identity — our language; history; culinary, literary traditions — are not relegated to folklore and will continue to thrive.
- By guaranteeing that the socioeconomic and geopolitical implications of independence do not compromise the stability of the island and the wellbeing of its people.
- Through offering a superior amount of representation in relation to other provinces than would be possible as a state of the American union: 1.9% in the US Senate and 0.91% in the House compared to 2.56% and 4.1% in the Congress of Deputies and the Senate of Spain.
- By providing economic liberty from the fetters imposed by the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico and unfair cabotage laws that prevent us from trading with other nations.
Adelante Reunificacionistas is a non-profit cultural organization founded on February 3rd, 2017, that operates in Puerto Rico. Reunificacionistas en Acción, its sister organization in Spain, collaborates by advocating for legislation that pave the way for the reincorporation of Puerto Ricans in Spanish society.
To find out more information, please visit https://adelantereunificacionistas.com/and https://www.españaconpuertorico.com/.
UN Press Release English UN Decolonization Committee 06/20/2024
