Friday, October 10, 2008

PIP official blasts US Democrats on PR status


August 9, 2008
Press Release

San Juan, Puerto Rico - PIP Secretary for North American Affairs, Manuel Rodriguez Orellana, criticized statehood representatives for caving in to commonwealth supporters on a Democratic Party status plank that accepts territorial status as a legitimate option for Puerto Rico.

“This is a giant leap backwards. After all their rhetoric about ‘decolonization,’ there is no attempt to even suggest that Puerto Rico must move towards a non-colonial, non-territorial status. This represents statehooders’ unprincipled submissiveness to political expediency in order to please their colonial masters. It is a shameful reversal of American politicians to attempt to reverse U.S. official policy to achieve a fully democratic, non- territorial status to correct 110 years of colonial domination of a Latin American nation of the Caribbean,” according to Rodríguez Orellana.

Reportedly, in its pertinent part, the plank reads: "We believe that the people of Puerto Rico have the right to the political status of their choice, obtained througha fair, neutral and democratic process of self-determination."

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