On Wednesday afternoon, the href="http://www.aclu.org/intlhumanrights/racialjustice/sronracism.html">Special
Rapporteur on Racism, Racial
Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance, Mr. Doudou
Diène, boarded his flight to Washington, D.C.,
clearly
affected by his visit to Puerto Rico. Mr. Diène
had heard numerous accounts of pervasive systemic and institutionalized
criminalization of poverty and race by both Puerto Rican and Federal
authorities.

On his first day, Mr. Diène was driven to the Guerrero
Prison facility, over three hours from San Juan, where he toured the prison facilities and residence areas, with
limited and guarded interaction with prison inmates.
Leaving Guerrero Prison, Mr. Diène visited the town of
Hormigueros, the site of the FBI’s 2005 raid on Filiberto Ojeda Rios’
home. In that raid, over 100 FBI agents stormed the house under cover
of sniper fire. When Rios was mortally wounded, the FBI
denied him medical aid and left the Pro-Independence and Machetero
leader to bleed to death over a 24-hour period. Mr. Diène
examined up-close evidence of the FBI’s use of high power fire against
72-year-old Ojeda and his wife, and stood on the very spot where Rios
died. To this day, the FBI has obstructed all attempts by
Puerto Rico’s government officials to investigate the
incident. On an island known for its political in-fighting,
the Rios killing has unified people across the political spectrum in
outrage.

Later the same day, Mr. Diène
presided over a public hearing in the west coast City of Mayaguez,
where at the Eugenio Maria de Hostos School of Law he heard stories
from ex-political prisoners, advocates of indigenous rights, residents
of marginalized communities. The ACLU of Puerto Rico’s Eva
Prados read from her preliminary findings in an ACLU investigation into
42 unexplained prison deaths of mostly young drug-addicted homeless men
at the Guerrero Prison facility previously visited.
On the second day of his visit Mr. Diène visited the east coast Villa
Cañona Community in the town of Loiza. The town of
Loiza was settled hundreds of years ago by
“Cimarrones” or escaped slaves. To this
day, Loiza maintains its strong African roots and closely guards its
culture and music, to its credit, and to its detriment.

Loiza’s people told stories of vicious police abuse against minors and
women with children. Two ACLU clients spoke: One, an alternative school
principal, related being stripped naked, beaten, and verbally abused in
the presence of his students, and another, the mother of a severely
mentally disabled young man, spoke of outrageous misconduct by police
officers targeting her son and other residents of this proud community
of African heritage. Presenters spoke of how in the name of
the War Against Drugs, they have become prisoners in their own homes,
too fearful even go to the community mini-mart or send their children
to school.

Mr. Diènes visit to Puerto Rico ended
with a public hearing at the Inter-American University School of Law in
San Juan, where members of the Dominican community spoke of racial
profiling and vicious police brutality against young Dominican
immigrants. Presenters spoke of a particular method of baton
beating by that always ends in organ damage. Several
young men displayed the scars of operations necessitated by these
beatings. Community leaders and advocates spoke of
displacement of poor black communities of San Juan to make room for
businesses and the rich.

Human Rights Attorney Wilma Reverón explained that the FBI
in Puerto Rico has more power than the Puerto Rican government itself
and uses it to repress the people. She spoke of the intrinsic and
inescapable relationship between race and Puerto Rico’s 500 year
history of colonialism which renders meaningful application of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights impossible.

Hopefully, the Special Rapporteur’s visit to Puerto Rico is
only the beginning of a thorough investigation into racism here. In the
last U.S. census, 80 percent of Puerto Ricans classified themselves as
white, in contradiction of a common Puerto Rican quote “el
que no tiene Dinga, tiene Mandinga” which roughly means you
are either from Dinga, or from Mandinga. Approximately 4 million people
live separate and unequal, politically speaking, in a U.S. territory
that is neither fish nor fowl.

Permalink |	Human Rights, Immigrants' Rights, Racial Justice