Ideological Statehood Reborns statement made by Zo M.

Laboy before
the Special Political and Decolonization Committee of the United
Nations, delivered during the Special Session of
June 22, 2015 New York, NY
Good morning. My name is Zo Laboy. I appear before this committee on
behalf of Ideological Statehood Reborn (RIE for its Spanish acronym), an
organization which, like many others appearing before you today, defends
equality for the people of Puerto Rico. I thank RIE and this Committee for the
opportunity to speak on behalf of what is the most important challenge facing
the people of Puerto Rico: the islands political relationship with the United
States. This is the centerpiece of most of the problems that adversely affect
our quality of life.
Let me start by saying that I am proud to be a Puerto Rican woman and I am
proud to be US citizen. I am, also proud of the principles for which the United
States and Puerto Rico stand. I am not proud, however, of Puerto Ricos
relationship with the United States. I am not proud of it as a Puerto Rican, an
American, and a woman. I cannot, nor should anyone, be proud of inequality.
THIS is the reason why I am a statehooder.
It is the unwavering principle that inequality is fundamentally wrong that has
brought about some of the greatest triumphs in human history. Slaves were
freed, women and blacks were given the right to vote, communism met its
demise, and the war against radical Islam will be fought and won because
brave men and women believed in democracy and equality.
The
essence
of
colonialism
is
inequality
through
systemic
disenfranchisement. This is the reality of Puerto Ricos relationship with the
federal government. So, yes, Puerto Rico is a colony. Faced with this reality,
I ask this Committee, why is Puerto Rico on the list of self-governing
territories? If it were entirely self-governing, wouldnt the people of Puerto
Rico have a right to vote for a voting congressional delegation and for the
President? And, if it were truly self-governing, wouldnt the democratically
expressed decision to end colonialism in November of 2012 be respected?
But I also call on this Committee, the deponents, and the people of Puerto
Rico to ask and, hopefully, answer a more basic and, perhaps, important
question. Why? Why doesn't the problem of Puerto Ricos status get
resolved? Why has it taken so long and why is it that we go back and forth
belaboring over the same issue, even after calling for a change?
My conclusion is possibly unexpectedly simple. Colonialism is similar to the
law of inertia when it comes to an object at rest: absent force it will remain at
rest. Why do we remain a colony? Because we are a colony. And, Puerto
Rico has been politically paralyzed since it became a territory of the United
States at the turn of the 20th Century.
In the early 20th Century, the Supreme Court defined the island as an
unincorporated territory of the United States. As such, the Island was and

remains subject to the Territorial Clause of the United States

Constitution. Almost fifty years passed and with the enactment of the Federal
Relations Act in 1950 that allowed the Island of Puerto Rico to organize a
state government, then Resident Commissioner, Antonio Ferns Isern, said of
the then bill that it would not change the status of the Island of Puerto Rico
relative to the United States. . . . It would not alter the powers of sovereignty
over Puerto Rico under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. Our first
democratically elected Governor Luis Muoz Marn admitted this as
well. These were the architects of the ill-named Commonwealth.
Fast forward 65 years and Congress still has the last word on Puerto Rico
under the Territorial Clause of the Constitution. Not only can Congress make
all needful rules and regulations and even dispose of this territory, as stated in
the Constitution, but it can also treat Puerto Rico differently than other states
in matters that do not affect fundamental rights. We witness this reality every
day in key areas such as education, healthcare, public safety, and debt
restructuring. This political, social and economic immobility has driven tens of
thousands of Puerto Ricans to leave the island and move every year, not by
preference, but by necessity. Indeed, there is nothing new under the Puerto
Rico sun.
Whats more troubling, however, is that the people of Puerto Rico rejected the
current status in a plebiscite in November 2012. Our Resident Commissioner
has presented legislation before the House of Representatives calling for the
Islands admission as its 51st state. But without the tools of democracy that
we so desperately want and need, this fight for equality, and let me stress
equality not special treatment, will be an uphill battle. Without will and force,
the Island, like the idle object, will not move.
There is one key difference between the inert object and our island. While
the former cannot generate force or energy from within, the latter can. Puerto
Rico needs the energy of its people to move the dial and demand change not
only at home, but in the States and before organizations like the U.N. and the
OAS. Speaking truth to the naysayers and championing the cause of equality
in the plazas of our Puerto Rican pueblos and in the main streets of our
stateside cities and towns. It needs the power of organizations like the United
Nations to have the courage to speak out about this unresolved matter. It
needs brave jurists and lawyers to question what is fundamentally inadequate
and unnatural. We, as believers of equality and proud Puerto Ricans, must
demand that this status that keeps us as US Appellate Judge Juan Torruella
called it separate and unequal be changed once and for all. Just like the
greatest men and women who defended equality through sacrifice and
struggle, so must we answer democracys beckoning. Lets be on the right
side of history. Then, and only then, will the immovable object of the colony
meet the unstoppable force of equality.
Thank you.