Honorable Congressman:

April 25 2006




Congressman Richard Pombo
Resources Committee
US House of Representatives
Washington DC 20515




Honorable Congressman:

I urge you to please include this statement for the record for Hearings that will be held on April 27th, 2006 on the White House Task Force Report on Puerto Rico.

First of all I would like to thank the House of Representatives and the Resources Committee for this opportunity to express my point of view regarding the White House Task Force Report on Puerto Rico.

My name is Antonio Velázquez-Vera, a very proud American Citizen, resident of Carolina, Puerto Rico. I would like to endorse all the recommendations made by the Presidential Task Force on Puerto Rico’s Status and those included in the Puerto Rico Democracy Act 2006. Without any reservation on my mind and heart I can say that the recommendations of the White House report on Puerto Rico are not only appropriate but fair, in my view, to all major political movements, parties and most important to Americans in Puerto Rico and the Mainland.

The report its not only fair in its substance, but also in its structure which consist of a review of presidential orders by George Bush, Sr., Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, reflecting a bipartisan consensus on the importance of the final Political status of Puerto Rico. This structure continues with a historical review of Puerto Rico’s Status. In third place, it explains all political status options legally and economically. Finally, based on all of the above, it makes a simple but bold proposal on how to deal with the political issue facing Americans in Puerto Rico. The report basically asks two questions, the first one; Do you want Puerto Rico to remain a United States territory under the authority of the Congress? . The second, If not, which permanent political status do you prefer? Statehood or Independence? The report recommends these questions be made separately from each other and in that order.

Now I would like to point out what I consider the geo-political importance of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Region and Latin America in a Post 9-11 world in which the United States National Security is primal to America’s future. First, Puerto Rico as a U.S. Territory is a natural link between both poles of the hemisphere, militarily and commercially. Second, we have to add the fact that Puerto Ricans are Americans and are able to come and go to the Continental United States without a passport thru the X-rated, Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport. Third, our neighbors in the region are Cuba, Venezuela and Brazil, all of them ruled by totalitarian leaders, socialist sympathizers or out-front anti-American governments. Both Cuba and Venezuela have argued in favor of an oil embargo to the United States in the OPEP. These facts prove, in my humble opinion, that America must remember that the only thing that a good person or society has to do, so that evil prevails, is to do absolutely nothing. That’s why I urge this Congress to adopt the Puerto Rico Democracy Act 2006.

Respectfully,

Antonio Velázquez