Caribbean: Venezuela to propose entry of Puerto Rico into CELAC

In a TV broadcast last night President Nicolás Maduro announced that Venezuela has drawn up the paperwork to propose the incorporation of Puerto Rico into the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). The proposal will be made at the next CELAC summit due to be held in Havana on January 28th.

In Caracas, President announced the proposal to bring Puerto Rico into CELAC during a celebration of the the 55th Anniversary of the Liberation of Cuba. He stated,

“Sooner rather than later we will see an independent Puerto Rico, a free and independent Puerto Rico. One day it will be seen as a republic and all of us, Latin American and the Caribbean along with our Puerto Rican brothers, are going to consolidate that republic and independence," adding, "It would be our greatest tribute to the giants, to (Simon) Bolivar (Jose) Martí and (Hugo) Chavez."

CELAC consists of 33 sovereign nations representing 600 million people. Its next summit will be held January 25-29 in Havana when Cuban President Raúl Castro will assume the CELAC's presidency for one year on the 160th anniversary of Jose Marti, a national hero in Cuba for his role in the country’s independence movement in the 19th century. CELAC was organized to deepen integration of Latin American countries, excluding membership of Canada and the US as a bulwark against US interference in Latin American affairs.

CELAC is an organization formed under the guidance of the late President Hugo Chávez in February 2010 and has all sovereign nations of Latin America and the Caribbean basin as members. In contrast to the Organization of American States (OAS) CELAC excludes the US and Canada but includes Cuba that was expelled from the OAS in the early 1960’s. In fact, Cuba holds the current presidency of CELAC.

Conceived by Bolívar

The original plan for a CELAC was conceived by Chávez’s historical mentor, the Liberator Simón Bolívar, who had a vision of a united Latin America and called the first meeting to organize this unity in Panama - then part of La Gran Colombia (Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador) in 1825. Unfortunately the Congress of Panama as it was called was sabotaged by Bolívars mortal enemy Francisco de Paula Santander, the Vice President of La Gran Colombia at that time, who invited the US to participate and apparently discouraged other nations then being formed on the South American continent from attending.

Hector Pesquera, president of Puerto Rico's Movimiento Independentista Nacional Hostosiano (MINH), thanked President Maduro "for recognizing the reality that Puerto Rico cannot be outside of the Latin American caucus" and that CELAC offered an "exit of colonial chains to become a republic".

Bolívar’s continental vision also included liberating Cuba and Puerto Rico from imperial Spanish control during the independence wars in Latin America. The current Venezuelan proposal to incorporate Puerto Rico into CELAC is a concrete step to free Puerto Rico from under the jackboot of modern day US imperialism. The US invaded Puerto Rico is July 1898 and wrested control from Spain effectively making Puerto Rico a US colony as it still is to this day even though it does have some local government elections but is effectively governed from the US.

Puerto Rico has its House of Delegates and all Puerto Rican citizens are US citizens. This does not make Puerto Rico the 51st state of the US but it is just one step away from being incorporated into the US union.

The Venezuelan proposal to incorporate Puerto Rico into CELAC raises many questions about how independent Puerto Rico really could be. CELAC is encroaching on what the US has considered to be its “backyard” for well over 160 years or even as far back as the enactment of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 that declared “America is for the Americans” (i.e. US Americans).

Readers can bet that Washington will see the possible incorporation of Puerto Rico into CELAC as a direct challenge and affront to US territory and dominance in their “backyard”. It will be another excuse for the US to point the finger at Venezuela as being a “destabilizing influence” in the region and by extension step up its own destabilizing efforts in Venezuela and in other incompliant countries in the Latin America and Caribbean.

The Venezuelan viewpoint is simply to rid the Caribbean of all vestiges of US imperialism and since this is not possible by force or arms, then international legal methods and diplomacy as well as citizen participation is the best route to take.

¡Chávez vive, la lucha sigue!

READ MORE ANALYSIS AND ESSAYS BY
AXIS OF LOGIC COLUMNIST, ARTURO ROSALES