As long as Puerto Rico remained a colony, Puerto Ricans would be second class citizens in the United States.

For Puerto Ricans, the tragedy is perhaps even greater.

Solidarity Network Mr. Benito Torres, Colectivo Independentista 1423rd

Of the 61,000 Puerto Ricans who had served in the United States Armed Forces during the Korean War, 756 had been killed and 3,049 had been wounded.

Every Puerto Rican in the island and abroad has been united.

Almost half of the total number of Puerto Ricans resided in various parts of the United States where, for many generations, Puerto Ricans had intermarried with other ethnic groups.

The marriage consisted of historical, commercial, military, cultural and other ties.

Puig's success holds a very special meaning for Puerto Ricans everywhere.

Amid the darkness, Puerto Ricans' solidarity with fellow neighbors shone brightly.

Approximately 400 Puerto Ricans had been killed and 1,000 wounded in that war.

The Committee should consider the history of Puerto Rican participation in such wars.

Increasing numbers of Puerto Ricans were beginning to reject the social, economic and political situation of the country.

That is why the United States seeks to criminalize the heroic struggle of Puerto Rico.

Now, six decades later, the 4 million Puerto Ricans resident in the United States outnumbered their compatriots in Puerto Rico most of them were living in deplorable conditions.

Facebook user Margarita Javier shared just how meaningful that moment was for her and for countless Puerto Ricans

One of them was the participation of tens of thousands of Puerto Rican soldiers in wars waged by the United States.

It was time to end the longstanding discrimination that had relegated Puerto Ricans to a kind of second class citizenship.

Several Puerto Ricans prosecuted for their activities in support of Puerto Rican independence live secretly in exile.

She urged the Committee to consider the evidence and recognize the need for Puerto Ricans to secure their self determination and liberty.

With such distressing political and economic context, Puerto Ricans' kindness and cooperation with their neighbors during the blackout was indeed a bright spot.

Accordingly, the American Association of Jurists confirmed its support for the draft resolution, which stipulated that all Vieques areas, including the Roosevelt Roads base of the United States Navy, should be restored to the Puerto Rican people for their economic development.

She called on the President of the United States to put an end to the long standing discrimination against Puerto Ricans by granting the island statehood.

At present, 17 Puerto Ricans men and women both are serving long sentences in United States penitentiaries.

lf the Puerto Ricans are so concerned about sublevel housing... and lack of employment, they should... show more constraint in emigrating.

What Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans particularly needed was statehood and the same rights as other United States citizens.

The United States had also failed to respect the human rights of the Puerto Ricans serving disproportionate sentences in United States jails for their actions to fight for their country's independence.

The discrimination against Puerto Ricans is made clear by comparing their sentences with those handed down against members of neo nazi groups or the Ku Klux Klan.

It united a people who are spread between that archipelago and many other parts of the world, not the least of which is the United States, where most Puerto Ricans emigrate to.

Paradoxically, Congress could send Puerto Ricans to the battlefield but Puerto Ricans could not send representatives to Congress.

Such a broad based assembly would enable the Puerto Rican people to unanimously request the United States to grant sovereignty to Puerto Rico.

Those issues are first, the debate on citizenship secondly, the plebiscite of 14 November 1993 and, thirdly, the unjust imprisonment of 17 Puerto Rican nationals.

Under its current status, Commonwealth associated with the United States, Puerto Ricans enjoyed certain rights.

In fact, compared to those two states taken together, Puerto Rico had more United States citizens that were actual local residents and provided more personnel to the United States Armed Forces, National Guard and police.

Thirdly, hundreds of Puerto Ricans affirm their Puerto Rican nationality by signing sworn affidavits seeking to renounce United States citizenship and claim that of Puerto Rico.

In spite of a number of obstacles, that debate had moved on apace, and a growing number of Puerto Ricans of all political affiliations now regarded the proposed assembly as an indispensable tool in the search for consensus.

For more than 40 years, over 95 per cent of Puerto Ricans had favoured options that sought to guarantee permanent union with the United States and the irrevocability of United States citizenship for present and future generations.

The Puerto Rican people demanded that the United States should fulfil its obligations in that area by releasing those fighters, who had sacrificed their personal freedom, youth and family life to the cause of the decolonization of their homeland.

Our people has been divided by forcible and fraudulent emigration brought about by the deplorable economic conditions under which most Puerto Ricans must live, in line with the interests of the United States colonial administration.

Moreover, given the significant Puerto Rican and Hispanic presence in the United States, it would be in the interest of the United States Government to do so prior to the next presidential elections.

Seventh, Puerto Ricans struggling for the independence of their country are judged in tribunals of the United States, where the international law of decolonization is deemed quot irrelevant quot .

The very fact that the Special Committee held hearings of Puerto Rican petitioners even though each of them supported one of three alternative political statuses for Puerto Rico proved the colonial character of Puerto Rico's current relationship with the United States.

When Puerto Rico had begun its transformation from an impoverished sugar plantation into a modern industrial centre, it had been decided that there were too many Puerto Ricans on the island consequently, a mass exodus to the United States had taken place.

Second, the United States Government had failed to respect fundamental human rights by incarcerating political prisoners who had fought for the independence of Puerto Rico and the cessation of United States military activity on Vieques.

Since the only obstacle to the declaration of statehood was political discrimination, some special interest groups were talking of colonialism those who opposed the declaration of statehood were acting selfishly to preserve their own political and economic interests.

Although they had been dying by the thousands in wars launched by the United States to defend itself and democracy worldwide, Puerto Ricans lacked representation in the United States Congress or Senate.