Puerto Rico update

May 4, 2010

1. On April 29, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill, promoted by those who supported statehood for Puerto Rico, which purports to “provide for a federally sanctioned self-determination process for the people of Puerto Rico.” It does nothing of the sort, and wholly ignores applicable international law governing decolonization, which applies to the case of Puerto Rico. San Juan’s main daily newspaper, not known for its progressive stance on the status question, called the bill “one more inconsequential episode in a long path leading nowhere,” given that U.S. Congress is not bound by the results of plebiscites to be held on the island.

For the text of the bill:
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h2499/text?version=rh&nid=t0:rh:50.

2. University of Puerto Rico’s students have been on strike for two weeks, resisting attempts by the pro-statehood administration of the colony to slash the budget by $100 million; raise tuition; eliminate or limit the tuition waiver program; and potentially privatize the university system. The students enjoy the support of virtually the entire society— unions, including the professors and the non-teaching university staff; artists; churches; civic and political groups; the Bar Association; etc. Gates to the main campus are surrounded by riot police, as the administration and the students negotiate and litigate.

The Puerto Rico Supreme Court, now packed with supporters of the current colonial regime, has continued its practice of reversing lower court determinations against the government. In an extraordinary effort, pro se law students obtained a lower court ruling to keep the campus open for their protests, only to be reversed within hours, through a special certification proceeding filed before the Supreme Court.

Campus administrators then employed the Tactical Operations Unit against the students, resulting in violent clashes on May 4, 2010.

3. U.S. federal regulators brokered the sale of three banks in Puerto Rico late Friday in an effort to fix the commonwealth’s broken banking system. The New York Times reported that Puerto Rico’s “high unemployment, plummeting property values and gaping fiscal deficits have worsened the island’s ailing economy and added new urgency to the efforts to shore up its banks. As their losses piled up, nearly all local lenders pulled back on lending.”

4. The First Circuit ruled against the appeal of the Fideicomiso de la Tierra del Caño Martín Peña (Martín Peña Land Trust), finding that the government satisfied the “public use” requirement pursuant to the doctrine of Kelo v. City of New London. Community activists have vowed to continue the fight to preserve the land trust and their collective ownership of land as a means of assuring the continuation and integrity of their community and the collective benefit of the increase in value of these lands in the heart of San Juan. The legal team is currently considering filing a petition for rehearing en banc, as well as a case before the Puerto Rico courts. Meanwhile, the government has stepped up efforts to destroy the community and to break its spirit, attempting to undo years of community efforts and open up the area for land speculation and profiteering.

5. The Colegio de Abogados (the Bar Association) is still fighting for its survival in the face of efforts by the administration to destroy it. The Colegio de Abogados has, for almost two centuries, represented one of the few independent voices against repression and colonialism, and has offered a voice to sectors of Puerto Rican society which struggle for economic and social justice. It has challenged legislative measures aimed at stifling that voice, eliminating compulsory bar membership and placing draconian restrictions on the institution, including an express prohibition against speech reflecting any political views and the prohibition of any funding to any groups, such as legal services or legal aid, which maintain any connection whatsoever with the Colegio. While the Colegio is challenging the laws as unconstitutional bills of attainder and violations of equal protection and freedom of expression and association, a massive membership campaign has demonstrated the overwhelming support of members of the bar for the institution and repudiation of the government’s attempt to destroy it. The IC delegation to Puerto Rico plans to file an amicus in the litigation.

6. On April 13, a judge in the U.S. District Court in Puerto Rico dismissed a suit on behalf of over 7,000 residents of the island of Vieques who alleged that U.S. Navy activities on their island poisoned them, pointing to U.S. government admissions that napalm, agent orange, depleted uranium, white phosphorous, arsenic, mercury, lead and cadmium are all present on the former bombing range, and the EPA’s identifying Vieques as a Superfund site. The court granted the Navy's motion to dismiss under the defense of sovereign immunity, recognizing the discretionary function exception, and ruling that the pleadings failed to meet the heightened standard of Iqbal and Twombly. Plaintiffs plan to appeal, arguing that the Navy acted beyond its discretionary function and breached the duty to warn residents of hazardous biochemical warfare being tested on their island. The IC is working with the lead counsel on the case and advocates to craft a strategy for seeking amici for the appeal.

7. April 4 marked the 30th anniversary of the arrest of Puerto Rican political prisoner Carlos Alberto Torres, making him the longest held Puerto Rican political prisoner in Puerto Rico’s history. May 29 will mark the 29th anniversary of the arrest of Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar López Rivera. The anniversary inspired activists in Puerto Rico, New York, Philadelphia and Chicago to participate in art installations, voluntarily locking themselves into mock jail cells in storefronts or in the middle of public events, making the prisoners a current conversation. The U.S. Parole Commission has not yet ruled whether it will accept its hearing examiner’s recommendation to release Torres. In Connecticut, on May 26, Puerto Rican political prisoner Avelino González Claudio is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in the 1983 Wells Fargo expropriation. Supporters are planning rallies in several cities.


Judith Berkan
Jan Susler
Natasha Lycia Ora Bannan
National Lawyers Guild, International Committee