These past few weeks (the weeks of September 23rd and 30th) marked the United Nations‘ 68th annual General Assembly meeting in the Tudor City neighborhood in Manhattan in New York City. It is a time of year when world leaders come together from their respective countries to give a speech about any world issue. There were also protests outside the UN building by protesters focusing on different issues. The issues ranged from Falun Gong in China and the Iranian democracy movement to the civil war in Syria and the Tibetan independence movement. Just like the General Assembly meetings, the protests outside the UN are also on an annual basis for the most part.
It is well known that the UN was created at the end of World War II in 1945, replacing the failed League of Nations. The organization consists of many institutions, but the main political institution is the Security Council. The Security Council, which consists of 5 permanent member countries and 10 non-permanent member countries (membership among the non-permanent members rotate continuously over time). The 5 permanent members of the Security Council are the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia (formerly the Soviet Union) and China. While the main mission of the UN is to promote peace, stability and human rights around the world, it is not perfect.
Over the course of 7 decades, the UN, like the League of Nations, had failed to prevent major atrocities that have occurred around the world. In addition, many institutions at the UN are controlled by despotic regimes who use the UN in order to export their propaganda and to advance their agendas. In many instances, the UN institutions seem to promote an anti-Western bias at meetings. The David Horowitz Freedom Center (DHFC), an American conservative organization reporting on political news and a critic of the UN, as written and published a pamphlet titled “Ten Reasons to Abolish the UN”. The link to the pamphlet posted on Front Page Magazine, the Freedom Center’s online news website, is here: http://frontpagemag.com/2011/frontpagemag-com/10-reasons-to-abolish-the-un-1-2-1/ . While I do not fully agree with everything on the pamphlet (I am in favor of reforming the UN, rather than abolishing it), I believe that the pamphlet makes very good points about why the UN has not been the organization that it is supposed to be. In many circumstances, the UN has passed many resolutions condemning Israel (the only democratic state in the Middle East) for alleged misdeeds in human rights, while allowing despotic regimes like Cuba and Syria to head the UN’s Human Rights Commission (HRC). In addition, because of the presence of powerful despotic regimes like China, the UN also ignores other important issues like the right of Tibetans to have self-determination in Tibet. Tibet was a historically independent country that was forcefully annexed by Communist China in 1950, shortly after Communist dictator Mao Zedong took power in Beijing the previous year.
In addition to notable biases, there is also a double standard when discussing territorial integrity. While the UN Charter states that every country in the world should respect each other’s sovereignty, at times, there are certain countries who get involved with the internal affairs of another country-and sometimes the UN encourages that through one of its “committees”. Regarding Puerto Rico, the UN’s Committee on Decolonization has been trying to coerce the United States government into taking certain “action” that would lead to the “decolonization” of Puerto Rico. While the UN has generally been neutral in what the island territory’s ultimate political status shall be, there is a somewhat separatist element behind the Decolonization committee’s stance regarding Puerto Rico’s political status. That shouldn’t be surprising, considering the fact that Communist Cuba, which is a key member in that committee, has been behind every action that is anti-American and which harms U.S. national interests in the international arena. Regarding Puerto Rico’s status, the official position of the Communist dictatorship in Cuba is that it opposes any efforts to annex PR (i.e. statehood), while at the same time, it does not oppose anything the Puerto Rico Independence Party (PIP) supports or advocates. It is clear that the Communist dictatorship in Cuba (which has been in power in that country since 1959), supports independence for Puerto Rico. This is despite the fact that independence has never had more than 5% support from the island’s population for a long time. In fact, most residents of Puerto Rico want the island territory to become a state of the United States of America. Statehood for Puerto Rico is strongly supported by this blog. Having an opinion is one thing, but trying to obstruct the democratic process by using subversive tactics is a whole different thing. The Communist dictatorship in Cuba (run by the infamous Castro family and headed by criminal brothers, Fidel and Raul Castro) has been meddling in Puerto Rico’s internal politics for a long time, including financing small, radical left militant groups aimed to force the island territory to secede from the U.S. The Castro family dictatorship also harbors numerous fugitives in Cuba who are hiding from American justice, including militants from radical left organizations like the Black Liberation Army (BLA), an off-shoot of the Black Panther Party (BPP). One of the fugitives belonging to one of the radical left militant organizations is a man named William Morales, who was a key member of the far-left separatist terrorist group, the Armed Forces for National Liberation (FALN). He was arrested in 1978 while trying to build a bomb in a factory when the device exploded on him. He was treated at a prison hospital in New York and was given prosthetic arms. However, he escaped from prison with help from his comrades from the FALN and other similar ideological groups. Morales went to Mexico, where in 1983, he was arrested by authorities for being involved in some drug gangs. After spending 5 years in prison, he was released. Despite calls from the U.S. government to have the fugitive militant extradited back to the United States, Mexican authorities just released him from prison and decided not to extradite him. Morales then went to Cuba, where he got political asylum and lives there to this day. The Communist dictatorship in Cuba uses the UN’s Decolonization Committee not for reasons of morality, but to attack the United States for propaganda purposes. You can check out the link from Babalu Blog, which is a Cuban-American political blog focusing on issues and news pertaining to the world, but particularly Latin America (and especially Cuba): http://babalublog.com/2013/06/27/reports-from-cuba-playing-dirty/ . What is even more disturbing is that only a few people are calling out the Castro dictatorship for this subversive action. In addition, Communist Cuba’s actions are hypocritical, considering the fact that it often complains about the United States “meddling” in its internal affairs, yet has no problem with meddling in U.S. internal affairs. Of course, Communist Cuba has no problem with supporting Communist China’s illegal occupation of Tibet, since both countries are ideological allies.
In a more neutral note, Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner (and president of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party), Pedro Pierluisi, testified at the Decolonization Committee regarding Puerto Rico’s political status and the results of last year’s status plebiscite. The Committee responded by calling on the U.S. government to replace Puerto Rico’s current territory status with either statehood or nationhood (standalone independence or free association). While the UN can help clarify its stance status options for residents of Puerto Rico, it is best for Puerto Rico’s ultimate status to be decided by the insular government and by the U.S. federal government. No outside interference is necessary (or even approved). It is my opinion that Mr. Pierluisi needed to be tough on Communist Cuba and its allies, telling them not to interfere in the internal affairs of another country, but he didn’t do that. America’s enemies need to be told loud and clear that the people of Puerto Rico voted for statehood and that they need to back off on meddling in the island territory’s affairs.
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