One hundred and four years ago today, General Nelson A. Miles took the Spanish by surprise by attacking the town of Guanica, Puerto Rico - a southern coastal town which was barely defended by the Spanish.  Earlier efforts in May of 1898 to attack the capital, San Juan, failed due to the ferocious resistance of Spanish soldiers and Puerto Rican militiamen, not to mention the huge concrete fort known as El Morro.

General Miles, the same General who decimated the Native tribes in the Midwest, declared that he had come to extend democracy to Puerto Rico, but in one fell swoop the Americans outlawed Spanish citizenship (without replacing it with another - making Puerto Ricans citizenless), outlawed the Spanish language, and outlawed the independence movement, which had been in existence since the early 1800s.

Today, thousands of Puerto Ricans fill the town of Guanica, which is rich in history as the point where Ponce de Leon entered the island, where Puerto Rican separatists crept in and out of the island on secret missions in the 1800s, and where the Americans first disembarked.  July 25th was also chosen by the colonial government in 1952 as the date for the founding of the Commonwealth, that ambiguous and failed attempt at disguising colonialism.  So today, too, the Commonwealth government celebrates 50 years of its establishment.  

Puerto Ricans then remain divided: one celebration of the relationship between the two countries and another event rejecting the invasion of 1898 and calling for a true process of decolonization to occur.  In 1998, over 50,000 people showed in Guanica to demand an end to the colonial situation of Puerto Rico.  Today, the numbers are not in, but the passion and moral strength of that call cannot be ignored.  Those thousands will return to Guanica and demand for independence and sovereignty.  The pro-independence Federation of Students in the University of Puerto Rico staged a day-long protest yesterday, closing military recruitment stations and demanding that it be done all over the island nation.  

The level of frustration over militarism in Puerto Rico is beginning to simmer over.  Over one hundred years of being in a powerless and politically subservient position is leading to a growing expression of that frustration.  Thousands of people will be one hand in Guanica to hear the leader of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (and honorary President of the International Socialist organisation) Ruben Berrios, speak about the current struggle towards obtaining full political sovereignty.  People will also hear groups continue to call for the removal of the Navy from Vieques, and will also hear the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico (those who waged open rebellion in the 1950s) make its own speeches, and will even witness the annual audio messages sent by Los Macheteros, the main armed group dedicated to conducting anti-colonial action in Puerto Rico.  There is even an event in the central mountains of Puerto Rico which commemmorates the fallen heroes, or martyrs, of the independence cause, and it is held on the site where two young men were murdered by police in 1978, Puerto's Rico's version of Watergate.

What most North Americans do not realize is the level of frustration that Puerto Ricans feel about their political status and its sense of urgency.  Politicans are obsessed with it.  The electorate responds every four years with over 70-80 % participation rates, something unheard of in the States.  The time has come for the United States to correct its colonial problem: release Puerto Rico from its politically powerless position and allow self-determination to occur (not to mention the Vieques issue and the remaining political prisoners in federal prisons).  In over 100 years, Puerto Rico has not freely determined its future because Congress continuously blocks it.  There has been no federally sponsored initiative towards decolonization, and if the federal government wishes to avoid a return to the bombing campaigns of the FALN of the 1970s, they must pay attention to the growing frustration over the issue of political status and militarization that most Puerto Ricans are concerned about.  Until this happens, the United States will continue to shame itself and continue to degrade an entire people, by refusing to correct an inhumane and obsolete political relationship.

(( In New York on Saturday, July 27th, the Puerto Rican Independence Party will host an event dealing with the history of resistance in Puerto Rico and the struggle for identity and sovereignty.  The Event will feature Maria de Lourdes Santiago, Vice President of the party.  For more information, email PIPNY1@telocity.com. ))