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Former Gov. Acevedo Vilá to Demand Decolonization at UN Hearing Monday

By on June 20, 2016

SAN JUAN – Former Gov. Aníbal Acevedo Vilá was presenting his case Monday before the United Nations’ Special Committee on Decolonization, saying the United States reneged on the positions it presented in the 1950s regarding the political status of Puerto Rico.

Acevedo Vilá, who noted he has testified three times since 1997, said he would testify “as a Puerto Rican who is very concerned about the future of my country…due to concrete actions that go against our dignity and our democracy.”

In his deposition, the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) politician says he will not use his “limited time to analyze or summarize the events of 2016 or for recrimination…. It is no longer about bills introduced or reports, but about concrete actions. I did not come here to go into philosophical discussions but to state that the United States has expressed itself clearly,” he said.

Former Gov. Aníbal Acevedo Vilá

Former Gov. Aníbal Acevedo Vilá

“There is not much left to litigate, what is proper now is to act, and that is why I am here today, so these United Nations exert their best efforts and push the United States to initiate, as soon as possible, a process of political and economic decolonization of Puerto Rico,” Acevedo Vilá’s deposition reads.

“To move forward, I request and urge this committee…to recommend to the full General Assembly a separate discussion regarding the case of Puerto Rico and that if the United States refuses to accept the international consequences of its recent admissions, the General Assembly request an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice in the Hague,”  Acevedo Vilá says in his testimony.

He also asks that the decolonization committee “express its strong condemnation of the actions of the U.S. government in intending to approve H.R.5278 [the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA)] for it being a crude exercise of colonial power over Puerto Rico and a unilateral revocation of the restricted powers of self-government that Puerto Rico has achieved.”

The former governor will also demand that the United States say what the cost of statehood is as well as what the consequences of a transition process toward independence are.

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