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The example of Puerto Rico
Hello everyone,
The APROFED association is contacting you again this week following the topic addressed today in the program “C pas si loin” on Puerto Rico , entitled: Puerto Rico, 51st State of America? (see Puerto Rico, 51st State of America? on replay – C pas si loin | France TV )
As a reminder, the association provides below some of the articles that mentioned this territory:
– Definition of a non-sovereign nation-state – APROFED ;
– The situation in New Caledonia: an isolated case? – APROFED ;
– What will the future “State of New Caledonia” be like with the Bougival Agreement? – APROFED ).
As mentioned in the reports and by the various speakers on the program, the island of Puerto Rico is what is called a “Free Associated State” , an institutional status that some pro-independence supporters have expressed interest in for New Caledonia and which had also been proposed by the State and debated during the Deva conclave, only to be ultimately rejected by the non-independence supporters, playing into the hands of France, which in reality did not want it (cf. The true face of the French State – APROFED ).
While this status is desired by some in New Caledonia , the example of Puerto Rico gives pause for thought , since this territory, although no longer part of the UN ‘s non-self-governing territories to be decolonized due to its status, remains subservient in its decisions to the central government and the American Congress, to such an extent that some stakeholders still refer to it today as a “colony” , if not “the oldest colony in the world”.
Although the island once leaned towards independence , the refusal of the United States and the assassination of the pro-independence leader Filiberto Ojada Rios (see Puerto Rico — Wikipedia ) by the FBI in 2005 (see Filiberto Ojeda Ríos — Wikipedia ) led some to request another option: becoming a federated state. The United States refused this, given that the island is not Anglophone , nor of European (white) descent , and is mostly poor (40% poverty rate), as the program explains, thus having many points of similarity with New Caledonia.
As such, the current institutional status quo does not fully satisfy the local population , where the United States, under the guise of autonomy, continues in reality to control the island unchallenged, which it considers its property, for its regional interests and out of fear of uncontrolled mass immigration from neighboring countries hostile to America such as Haiti, Cuba, etc.
As a reminder, of the 17 non-self-governing territories listed by the UN , 10 remain under the trusteeship of the United Kingdom, 3 under that of the USA, 2 under that of France, 1 under New Zealand, and the last being the special case of Western Sahara (see Non-Self-Governing Territories | The United Nations and Decolonization ). This summary is all the more important as it helps to understand the difficulty for Kanak independence activists in finding allies for their cause among the Western powers and their Pacific neighbors, since all of them still hold at least one colony . This could potentially steer them towards the BRICS+ countries, which they do not want in order to avoid importing conflicts related to the ongoing new Cold War onto New Caledonian soil and to prevent a disaster like the one in Palestine . The separatists thus find themselves, as in the 1980s, once again alone in trying to wrest scraps of autonomy from the French state, which, feeling it is in a position of strength, will obviously not give anything away, as evidenced by the proposed agreements of Bougival and Elysée-Oudinot, unless there is a possible reversal, unlikely at present but not impossible. Only time will tell.
Wishing you a pleasant read and reminding you that federalism is the only solution to reconcile unity in diversity.
L’association APROFED