Independentistas who disrupted U.S. Congress are arrestedSix Puerto Ricans demand with civil disobedience in the House of Representatives freedom for Puerto RicoBy José A. Delgado/ jdelgado@elnuevodia .comMay 6, 2009http://www.elnuevod ia.com/arrestana independentistas queirrumpieronen congresodeestado suni dos-565647. htmlWASHINGTON – Singing “Oubao Moin” and demanding that the federal government define what it wants to do with Puerto Rico, a group of six Puerto Ricans today carried out an act of civil disobedience in the United States House of Representatives.The demonstrators, including artists and workers, asked president Barack Obama and the federal Congress— this time with a message of peace— to once and for all grant independence to Puerto Rico.Artists Luis Enrique Romero, María “Chabela” Rodríguez and José Rivera (Tony Mapeyé), as well as mechanical designer Luis Suárez, nurse Eugenia Pérez-Martijo and retired worker Ramón Díaz carried out the protest bearing Puerto Rican flags and signs that read “111 years of colonialism is a shame.” Singer and actor Carlos Esteban Fonseca accompanied the protestors, but maintained a distance from the protest.Authorities of the House of Representatives took them from their seats before they could read a statement they had prepared for the occasion. Capitol security detained the group of demonstrators, who were later arrested.“We, seven Puerto Ricans, have come here to protest against the colonialism to which Puerto Rico is subjected. We come in good will, in peace. We want to be a free nation,” said Suárez.In statements to El Nuevo Día, the demonstrators said that the selected date had no symbolism.They recognized that their peaceful demonstration contrasts with the shooting attack carried out by five Nationalists on March 1, 1954, from the same spectator area of the U.S. House of Representatives where they protested. But they stated that the message against the colonial situation was the same.“We are not politicians; we are just common people,” said Romero, who has acted in theater, television and film for the last three decades in Puerto Rico.For his colleague Fonseca, member of the group Caribe Gitano, the demand for decolonization and the independence of Puerto Rico must be made in Washington. “Our legislators cannot even guarantee us space on our own television channels, because it is territory occupied by the federal government,” he said.“They are the ones who must resolve the status,” Suárez added.The protestors indicated that they have been organizing their demonstration for the past several months, and that it was only a coincidence that it took place a few days from the time the resident commissioner in Washington, Pedro Pierluisi, will present his proposed legislation to promote a federal consultation about the political future of Puerto Rico. It was in Pierluisi’s office that the demonstrators obtained their tickets to enter into the House.“Freedom does not submit to electoral processes. Slaves do not conduct referenda to be enslaved,” commented retired worker Díaz.The civil disobedients sent letters to president Obama, speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, and vice president of the United States Joseph Biden, in his role as President of the Senate. “Puerto Rico has been a colony for 111 years: a humiliating colonial condition in the 21st century. The time has arrived for this crime against our people to be resolved,” they stated in the letters.
Mahalo Nui, e Pono for posting this very important article. Indigenous peoples all over the world are standing up and demanding their Independence. Long Live The Hawaiian Kingdom,
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