First Published: Unity, Vol. 3, No. 17, September 12-25, 1980.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
Copyright: This work is in the Public Domain under the Creative Commons Common Deed. You can freely copy, distribute and display this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit the Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line as your source, include the url to this work, and note any of the transcribers, editors & proofreaders above.
Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico: Elections will be held here this November. But Puerto Ricans, as U.S. colonial subjects, cannot vote for president; the big contest here will be for governor.
The election issue defining the candidates is the political future of the island: will Puerto Rico remain in commonwealth (colonial) status, or become the 51st state?
Current Governor Romero Barcelo and his New Progressive Party (PNP) are pro-statehood. His opponent, former governor Rafael Hernandez Col6n, of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), is pro-commonwealth.
Though Washington has not yet decided on what to do with Puerto Rico’s status, neither statehood nor commonwealth challenge U.S. domination of the island. The U.S. has backed both parties for decades.
Commonwealth means maintaining the status quo, which includes over 50% unemployment in many areas, 75% of the population on food stamps and no political representation in Congress. Statehood carries an illusion of equality, while maintaining U.S. domination. Actually statehood would step up the destruction of Puerto Rico through forced assimilation, like teaching only English in the schools.
Romero’s forces are advancing their statehood drive, chiefly through creating the conditions for more direct economic and political dependency. Recently some secret papers pilfered from a government office were made public, exposing that Romero had paid large sums of government money under the table to a personal friend, U.S. filmmaker and publicist Charles Guggenheim, to make a movie encouraging U.S. corporate investment in Puerto Rico. Guggenheim is also preparing Romero’s election campaign promotion.
Romero was embarrassed by the scandal, but not by his “Puerto Rico, U.S.A.” campaign, which is going full-steam ahead. In two recent cases, Romero made deals with United Fruit to exploit the southern part of the island; and with AMMAX and Kennecott to strip-mine gold, copper and nickel in the Utuado-Cabo Rojo area.
The pro-statehood forces are also using funds given by the U.S. Navy in their election campaigns. It was exposed in last month’s Congressional hearings on Vieques that the Navy backed and financed the pro-statehood candidate for mayor in Vieques. There is widespread speculation that similar doings are involved in the current gubernatorial race.
The conditions faced by the masses of people are chaotic. They are already deplorable and are now aggravated as everything has become highly politicized by the two parties.
Health services, for example, are awful. Death due to negligence is common as in the recent case of eight children in Bayamon who dies in the local medical center from improper treatment.
In Cabo Rojo, the pro-statehood forces control CETA and federal funds and use them to play politics. Medical personnel in the municipal clinic are pressured to wear pro-statehood buttons; the health director is a pro-statehood candidate for mayor.
Services are so politicized that the mayor of Cabo Rojo is the only person in town who you can go to for a signature on a prescription for special drugs not available at the government health center.
The housing situation is worse. Government loans for low-cost housing and parcelas – lots granted for housing in the countryside – are handed out as political favors each election year.
These parcelas have become extensions of the city slums into the countryside. There are parcelas where 300-500 families have had no electricity or water for years. Such is the case in Las Parcelas la Playita de Puerto Real in Cabo Rojo, where there has been no water or roads built for two years. The people in Villa Justica in Carolina and Barrio Janacas in Yauco have been without water for four years.
Each election year, the PPD and PNP candidates promise services to win votes. But after the elections, they do nothing. Many say this is because they must have something to promise in the next election.
The whole statehood vs. commonwealth debate gives the illusion of democracy, and the U.S. and the local elite will no doubt claim this November’s election results as some sort of referendum on statehood.
Yet the choice is not real, because the option of independence is not being offered. Both PPD and PNP support the continued U.S. military occupation and corporate exploitation of the island.
The independence movement today still suffers from a lack of unity. But the island is alive with struggle against the effects of U.S. domination. These range from the big strikes like those of the UTIER (electrical) and Coca Cola workers, to protests against poor health services in Mayaguez and Bayamon, to the movement to defend Puerto Rican culture.
There are barrio committees and groups across the island. The Committee Against the Mines in Cabo Rojo opposes the strip-mining plans of U.S. multinationals which will devastate local agriculture, water resources and ecology. Similar groups oppose the proposed referendum which would severely restrict bail for prisoners. And of course, Vieques continues to rally support throughout the island. Such opposition to U.S. control of Puerto Rico is bound to continue through November and beyond.
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Luis M. Ramirez is a Puerto Rican activist in New York who recently visited Puerto Rico.