Millions of People Around the World Are Not U.S. Citizens by Manuel Rodríguez Orellana

Manuel Rodríguez Orellana is Secretary for North American Relations for the PIP. He has also held the positions of Senator and Electoral Commissioner for the PIP. The following is an excerpt from a statement presented at the Puerto Rican Bar Association of Florida Seminar held on Saturday, June 13th.

"I have decided to resist the temptation to indulge in entertaining—but useless—debating jabs as to who is more, or less colonialist; or go into interesting but ultimately peripheral explanations of why a political party or movement would get more, or fewer votes in one electoral event or another.

I have also decided not to lecture on the economic feasibility of independence. As I assume we would all agree, Puerto Ricans are inferior to no one. Since many nations, smaller than Puerto Rico are doing better without federal funds or U.S. citizenship, while many of the more powerful or wealthy nations are currently in deep financial trouble, the economics of an independent Puerto Rico are collateral matters of public policy or fiscal administration, not a core issue of status politics. Therefore, I have decided to talk about the essence of Puerto Rico’s status problem: a nation’s inalienable right to self determination denied."

To read the full statement click........And yes, Puerto Ricans are inferior to no one!