https://www.facebook.com/BUDPR/videos/173824590840420
As a follow-up to the February 1 Latino Rebels story about what happened to a scheduled self-determination panel that was postponed during a Puerto Rican Diaspora Activism Summit, the panel happened last Friday.
The panel featured the following speakers and was moderated by Edil Sepúlveda of Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora (BUDPR):
- Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), in a recorded video.
- Carmen “Yulín” Cruz, former San Juan mayor
- Juan Dalmau, the Puerto Rican Independence Party 2020 candidate for Governor
- Rafael Barnabe, a member of Puerto Rico’s Senate
- Luis Gutiérrez, a former Congressman from Chicago
According to BUDPR, three statehood advocates were invited to speak at the panel. BUDPR told Latino Rebels last week that two of the advocates declined the invitation, with the other individual not responding.
Near the start of the panel, Velázquez discussed the latest about the Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act, which she is co-sponsored with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes (D-NY).
As El Nuevo Día reported in English:
In a pre-recorded message for an online panel on Puerto Rico’s political status – which was held Friday and organized by Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora – Congresswoman Velázquez said the legislation will seek again to call a status convention through which the people of Puerto Rico would exercise their natural right to self-determination and establish a mechanism for congressional consideration of such decision. The island’s government would call that convention to debate and draft options.
“I think many of us can agree, regardless of our own personal opinions, that the current relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico needs to be vigorously scrutinized,” Velázquez said, indicating that the options for Puerto Rico could be “statehood, independence, free association or any other relationship other than the current territorial status.”
“We hope that this bill will be reintroduced by the end of this month,” said Renata Beca Barragán, Velázquez´s staffer, who participated in the Democracy & Self-Determination Special Panel Finding Consensus on a Serious Self-Determination and Decolonization Process for Puerto Rico with panelists.
[…] Last August, Reps. Nydia Velázquez and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, along with 20 other representatives, submitted the Puerto Rico Self Determination Act of 2020 to the House of Representatives. The act would recognize the right of Puerto Rico to call a status convention through which the island’s residents would exercise their natural right to self-determination and establish a mechanism for congressional consideration. A revised version is expected to be resubmitted soon. […]
[…] That act, if passed, would “prompt Puerto Rico’s Legislature to create a Status Convention whose delegates would be elected by Puerto Rican voters. This body would develop a long-term solution for Puerto Rico’s status, be that statehood, independence, free association or any option other than the current territorial arrangement,” Ocasio-Cortez and Velázquez wrote last year. A new version of the self-determination bill was expected to be reintroduced by the end of February. […]
[…] The Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act, which was submitted to the House last year by Reps. Nydia Velázquez and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The act, if passed, would “prompt Puerto Rico’s Legislature to create a Status Convention whose delegates would be elected by Puerto Rican voters. This body would develop a long-term solution for Puerto Rico’s status, be that statehood, independence, free association or any option other than the current territorial arrangement,” Velázquez and Ocasio-Cortez wrote last year. A new version of the self-determination bill was expected to be reintroduced by the end of February. […]
[…] New York Reps. Nydia Velázquez and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are re-submitting the Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act that counters the statehood […]
[…] de Nueva York Nydia Velázquez y Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez están volviendo a presentar la Ley de Autodeterminación de Puerto Rico que contrarresta el proyecto de ley de […]
Ellos no representan al pueblo de Puerto Rico…están politicamente descartados. Representan al partido socialista madurista.