Julio Murriente Pérez. (Photo: Prensa Latina)

San Juan, July 8 (RHC)-- Puerto Rican leftist leader Julio Muriente Pérez affirmed that those who defeated the British empire 248 years ago in what is now the United States would reject the consultation announced by the Puerto Rican annexationist ruler Pedro Pierluisi.

“We remember July 4, 1776 as fighters for self-determination and independence; as historical continuators, as combatants against the most powerful, violent and aggressive capitalist and imperialist power on the planet, which is what the United States became,” he expressed when repudiating the celebration the day before by the annexationist New Progressive Party (PNP).

Muriente Pérez, co-president of the National Hostosian Independence Movement (MINH), proposed remembering the anniversary “with the full conviction that, sooner rather than later, the people of Puerto Rico will also travel the path of freedom and independence.”

“Then, and only then, the date will acquire a worthy and respectable purpose (and) we will be able to commemorate the 4th of July with the transcendental meaning that it contains,” emphasized the candidate for a seat in the House of Representatives for the Country Alliance between the Victoria Movement. Ciudadana and the Puerto Rican Independence Party.

He stressed that July 4, 1776 is a date of great importance, when a group of influential citizens of the thirteen British colonies in North America signed a declaration that gave way to the first victorious war of independence on this continent, and as a result from which the first independent country of this hemisphere emerged.

“That transcendental liberating experience opened the route they traveled, first in Haiti in 1804 and later in numerous Latin American nations during the 19th century,” noted the Puerto Rican political leader.

For Muriente Pérez, the United States quickly degenerated into an expansionist, oppressive and colonialist power.  “As part of this process of colonialist, capitalist and imperialist expansion, Puerto Rico was invaded by the armed forces of the United States on July 25, 1898, within the framework of the Spanish-Cuban-American War.   Along with their troops came the imposition of their language, their religion, their laws and their history,” he said.

In this sense, he pointed out that the commemoration of July 4th was imposed on the Puerto Rican people as part of a permanent process of assimilation and adulteration of our national history.

That date, assured the leader of the MINH, independentist, anti-colonialist and transformative in origin, has been used to instill false loyalties, manipulate consciences and facilitate imperial control and domination.

“That is why in Puerto Rico, which has been a U.S. colony for almost 126 years, colonialists and annexationists celebrate that date, absurdly to exalt the independence of the United States while denying Puerto Rico's right to self-determination and independence,” he concluded. 

"For this reason," he indicated, "we Puerto Rican anti-colonialists and independence activists are the worthy and legitimate historical continuers of the process that took shape on July 4, 1776 and that through a war of liberation produced the first independent country in America."

“In the eyes of the protagonists of that July 4th, the colonialists and annexationists who here pay homage to political subordination would be considered traitors and enemies of freedom,” said Muriente Pérez.   (Source: Prensa Latina)