The president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, spoke at the Opening ceremony of the Summit of the Americas about the absence of Cuba and Puerto Rico at the Summit."You can't call that summit 'of the Americas' because Cuba and Puerto Rico are missing". Obama spoke afterwards that evening about Cuba but did not say one word about Puerto Rico. Cuba was all over the news headlines. The untold story still is Puerto Rico's absence, an issue that Daniel Ortega brought to the forefront at the Summit and the US media ignored again.
During the Summit, Mr. Hugo Chavez gave Mr.Obama a book called 'The open veins of Latin America'. The book talks about the history of colonialism in Latin America and it's consequences, which includes Cuba and Puerto Rico.
In 2008, the former Head of Government of Puerto Rico, who favors a sovereign status for Puerto Rico (non-territorial, non-colonial based on the sovereignty of Puerto Rico with a treaty of association with another nation, also known as ''Enhanced commonwealth''), went to the United Nations. It was a historic speech that was ignored by the US press. In the United Nations decolonization committee the goverment of Puerto Rico denounced the territorial relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States, it reclaimed Puerto Rico's right to self determination as a Latin American nation with over 500 years of history in the making.
Some brief history here:
Puerto Rico was taken out of the United Nations list of dependent states and territories in 1953. The international community understood that Puerto Rico had achieved attributes of sovereignty and self government in accordance with United Nations resolution 1514 (XV). Puerto Rico's case was discussed and
resolution 748 (VII) was approved by the General Assembly, the US voted in favor of the resolution.
Puerto Rico's decolonization process which began with the establishment of the new political status in 1952 called Estado Libre Asociado (Associated Free State) was now being recognized by the International community, with US help. The new status would allow Puerto Rico to end the colonial military regime which began in 1898 when the US invaded the island along with Puerto Rico's sister island, Cuba and the Phillipines which was a spanish colonial outpost in the pacific during the Spanish- American war.
US-annexation and assimilation plans in Puerto Rico failed due to cultural and political resistance. During the 1930's nationalist revolts lead by nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos spread around the island. Puerto Rico was far from becomming a 'second Hawaii'. The US clearly understood this and allowed the proposal of Luis Muñoz Marín, a pragmatic independence leader that took the 'middle way' as a solution to the US colonial regime (Time Magazine called the proposed new status as a 'Democracy's Laboratory in Latin America'). He and his party, the Partido Popular Democrático (Popular Democratic Party), which had the nationalist and socialist undertone slogan of, "bread, fatherland and and freedom", proposed a self governing state with it's own national symbols and national identity, a first step towards full sovereignty (similar in some ways to the Irish Free State, a status held by Ireland before it became a republic). Puerto Rico today enjoys limited international representation, including it's own national olympic team among other international events.
Since 1953, Puerto Rico's self determination has been in a state of perpetual limbo, in an endless debate that has drained the spirit of many puerto ricans over many decades.
In the summer of 2008, the United Nations special decolonization committee approved a resolution by consensus on June 9th calling on the US to expedite Puerto Rico's right to self determination and independence. This was also greatly ignored by the US media and the news/talk shows. The record of Puerto Rico's case at the UN's decolonization comittee is also ignored as well.
In this year's Summit of the Americas, Puerto Rico was ignored by the US media again, we did not read essays about why Puerto Rico was absent, why the US keeps a neo-colonial relationship with a Latin American nation that still to this day is a non-sovereign nation, the only one in Latin America (with historic ties to Spain). Some even say it is the world's oldest colony since India became independent from the UK The word Colony was erased from the editing rooms that published stories about the Summit of the Americas 2009.
(below)former Head of Gov. of Puerto Rico, Anibal Acevedo Vilá, memorable speech at the United Nations on June 9th 2008 (direct link to YouTube, press here)