New York – While Puerto Rican lawyer Adi Martínez-Román shared and spoke with inhabitants of that and other territories of the United States last year as part of an initiative of the non-governmental organization “Right to Democracy” that she directs, she confirmed that there are more similarities than differences among residents of the five jurisdictions.
Although there are cultural, economic and even citizenship particularities between Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the United States Virgin Islands and American Samoa, the basic reality is the same: the daily impact of colonialism on the lives of its residents. .
After the emergence of the organization last year, Right to Democracy has held 17 dialogues in the different territories; six of them in Puerto Rico.
The conversations included young people, community leaders from environmental and other organizations, as well as union members. The meetings ended in a summit in October on American colonialism in which representatives of the different territories participated with a view to creating a coalition.
“We spent almost all of last year listening to the people of the territories about what the colony means; what does citizenship mean; how they see the relationship with the US; what are the family and social challenges faced; what are the strategies for decolonization; how these strategies can be inclusive,” listed the also professor at the School of Law of the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras (UPR) in an interview with El Diario.
Martínez-Román and the rest of the team know that information is power, that it can be the seed of change, and they are betting on that.
“Our theory of change is based on some very important values for us, and it is to concentrate our work on identifying those common areas between the territories. We elevate the conversation. This is not about Puerto Rico, about the Virgin Islands, about a specific territory, it is about all the territories that still continue under the category of unincorporated territory under the plenary powers of the US Congress. The other thing that we have defined as One value is to stay focused on the dismantling of the colonial framework,” explained the former director of operations of the UPR Resiliency Law Center.
Martínez Román assured that finding common ground was easier than he thought.
“Part of the beauty of doing all these dialogues with the territories is that if you take the roles of all of these and put them in a room, you will not know which one corresponds to each territory. The perceptions about colonialism, citizenship, about the challenges we have are very similar. Even among young people and adults. In that sense, having focused on the dismantling of the colonial framework and seeking common ground is what facilitates and elevates the conversation. It doesn’t make it more difficult for us, it makes it easier for us, because if we concentrate on a single territory we get stuck, because each territory has an internal complication of colonial policy…”, added the interviewee.
The members of Right to Democracy also seek to broaden the discussion about colonialism beyond ideological or party inclinations, for example.
“We are not going to talk about political status in our conversations. We are not here to discuss the outcome of self-determination…We are here to talk about our colonial condition and how we can confront that condition. The result has been fascinating. All the people who participated in the dialogues thanked us because they felt they were able to speak and share ideas that they had not been able to share, because whenever they participate in something that has to do with colonialism, especially in Puerto Rico, the discussion is divided, “It becomes toxic, because people begin to talk pejoratively about one status ideology or another,” said Martínez-Román, who also fled as executive director of the Access to Justice Fund Foundation.
The weight of the word colonialism
“It seems that the US government doesn’t even want to use that word (colonialism); How do you plan to change that?” El Diario asked.
“We are working a lot with that. In the part of changing the narrative, we are trying to influence the media, such as this report, it is one way. We are doing art competitions and we are promoting the word to get out more. But in the legal profession, this change in narrative is also being promoted,” he responded.
In the titanic work, the Puerto Rican has as her main ally the lawyer born in the US, but raised in Guam, Neil Weare, who is co-director of the initiative.
Neil’s experience in litigation seeking to overturn the US Supreme Court’s Insular Cases doctrine to the detriment of the territories comes together with Martínez-Román’s community activism in order to confront the colonial governance that is legitimately instituted by the decisions of the highest forum since the last century.
What are Island Cases?
The Island Cases are a series of decisions made by that court that legitimize the unequal treatment of the inhabitants of the different territories of the United States. The territories are jurisdictions supervised, in this case by the United States Government, and with minimal sovereignty. Although they have their own local governments, at the end of the day, it is the laws of the federal government that, in most cases, prevail.
The rulings of the Supreme Court basically justify the discriminatory and racist treatment of the inhabitants of the territories versus that given to citizens in the states.
As recently as last February, the United States Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) published a memorandum confirming that the fact that PR is an unincorporated territory keeps the island in a state of limbo, which in turn It has served the US Congress as an excuse for not addressing the civil rights of Puerto Ricans or their political status in its entirety.
The document approved by the members of the Commission’s advisory committee was the result of a hearing held in Puerto Rico last year in which different panelists and experts on the subject of unincorporated territory participated. Martínez Díaz was one of the speakers.
In summary, the report notes that the non-incorporation doctrine treats residents in the territory as “less than” and has been used as an excuse for the continuation of colonial status, indicating that it is one of the main obstacles to achieve decolonization.
The three pillars of Right to Democracy
Martínez Román explained that the action strategy to go from the micro to the framework is divided into three pillars or strategies. The first is advocacy, which includes both litigation focused on community advocacy, and lobbying regarding laws and regulations.
The second pillar is to create an ecosystem through dialogue processes; and the third is the change in the “toxic” narrative that affects the debates on these topics daily.
“We met, we had many dialogue sessions until we decided to create a new organization with strategies in which we continued to do advocacy and litigation, but in a participatory way to incorporate the techniques of community and participatory advocacy within the work of litigation and public policy that Niel was already doing on his own trying to revoke and destroy that colonial framework,” the lawyer added.
“The change in narrative is how we push that recognition by the US Government and senior officials that the system of governance they have over the territories is colonial. It is a first step of the 12 steps, that there must be a recognition of the colonial reality of governance over the territories,” he added.
Part of Right to Democracy’s efforts will be directed at trying to revoke the century-old judicial doctrine, which, according to the lawyer, legitimizes the inaction of other government components such as the United States Congress on matters that affect the inhabitants of territories such as PR.
“I would like to know what aspects of the Island Cases can be supported, because what is being supported is governance, a non-application of rights in the territories and a plenary power of Congress over these…. The status quo continues because it is legitimized,” she questioned.
Regarding the approach of some sectors that even revoking the Insular Cases, it would be up to the federal Congress to promote a decolonization process in Puerto Rico, Martínez Román argued: “The revocation of a case or a doctrine does not produce an immediate political effect, because this It is a political process. But our position is that you cannot absolutely separate law from political reality or how political reality moves. Yes, you are right, you revoke the Insular Cases and there will not be a change, it will continue to be the plenary power of Congress. But, it will no longer be legally legitimized by the (Supreme) Court.”
“No, the change is not going to be immediate, of course not. It will continue to depend on political work, self-determination and all the factors. But, it does not take away the reality that Congress will not have that green card to continue exercising plenary powers if it is declared by the one that is called to declare what is constitutional right, which is the Supreme Court that is called to interpret constitutional right. , ‘that’s not correct’; ‘that is not right’; ‘That is not under the Constitution,’ he added.
Keep reading:
Puerto Rico: They seek to promote a movement to overturn Insular Cases from the US Supreme Court.
Puerto Rican activists in Washington DC assure that there is no appetite in Congress to advance the status issue