Independence for Puerto Rico activists raided. Venezuelan National Assembly acts.

On February 10th the CIA and the FBI carried out a “preventative raid” on several condominiums in San Juan, capital of Puerto Rico. Journalists covering the event were the object of violence and aggression by the CIA and FBI operatives whose intention of the raid was to flush out Puerto Rican independence activists. Puerto Rico is not a US state and has the status of a US colony in many ways which is why there exist independence groups in what is theoretically a sovereign nation.

This whole story was silenced by the corporate media and not one word was said either on CNN or CNN in Spanish. MVR deputy, Luis Tascon, showed a video of the events in the Venezuelan National Assembly (AN) yesterday, February 23rd.

In light of these events, the AN approved a motion demanding that the US government stop its colonial actions against Puerto Rico based on principles enshrined in international law such as independence, sovereignty and self-determination. The actions carried put by the CIA and FBI operatives were disproportionate, a violation of human rights and the freedom of expression.

Deputy Tascon stated that the only intention of the people whose homes were raided was to seek real Puerto Rican independence. “If this were to happen in Venezuela, the Inter-American Press Society (SIP) would be here saying that our government is a dictatorship.”

Tascon continued, “This obliges us to reopen the subject of Puerto Rican independence in the light of these fresh aggressions against pro-independence groups asking for a Constituent Assembly to decide democratically between being a colony and being free. However, it will be the US Congress that will take the final decision”.

He added that the commitment should be to construct and conclude the unfinished project of the Liberator, Simon Bolivar who said, “in order to liberate the whole of America (South), we have to liberate Puerto Rico as well”. Tascon declared that the AN should continue to support this initiative until this country is liberated.

On-going protests in Puerto Rico, specifically on the island of Vieques, forced the US to withdraw its troops which used this island as a “shooting and bombing range”. The legacy of more than 100 years of US troop maneuvers in this part of Puerto Rico has been an increase in cancer of the inhabitants probably due to the Depleted Uranium left behind if the soil from the munitions used by US troops “practicing” there.

This story is another example of US interference into the internal affairs of other states as well as the complicity of the corporate media, which is at the beck and call of the US authorities when illegal actions such as this raid are carried out. It also coincides with US interference into Venezuelan internal affairs as illustrated in recent articles publish on the VSC site.

On the other hand, and in line with the historical role of Venezuela being the hub of liberating countries from Spanish colonial rule from 1810 - 1824, the Venezuelan AN is true to this tradition in modern times, where the colonists are no longer the Spanish Empire, but US troops, advisers, military missions and US military bases, US embassies and consulates, US banks, multinationals, the CIA and in the case of Puerto Rico, the FBI as well.
Andy Goodall
VSC Coordinator
andy.goodall@venezuelasolidarity.org.uk
www.venezuelasolidarity.org.uk