[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 100 (Thursday, July 7, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H4678-H4679]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS CRISIS IN PUERTO RICO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Yesterday, the American Civil Liberties Union, the 
Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the National 
Institute for Latino Policy published this full-page ad in Roll Call, 
one of the key newspapers here on Capitol Hill.
  These respected civil rights and policy organizations have 
investigated and denounced the civil and human rights crisis in Puerto 
Rico. They bought a full-page ad to alert Congress about the ``serious 
concerns about civil and human rights abuses against the citizens of 
Puerto Rico by their government, including the infringement on the 
rights of free speech, peaceful assembly and freedom from police 
violence and abuse.''
  And they make an essential point: If these abuses were happening 
anywhere in the 50 States, they would not be tolerated. These abuses 
would be on the front page of every newspaper, as they are in Puerto 
Rico.
  It's time for this Congress to start paying attention. Students and 
working people, journalists and environmentalists in Puerto Rico are 
paying attention because the freedoms we take for granted in America 
are being denied to them each day.
  I would like today to remind you what has happened. On this floor I 
have condemned the use of heavily armed riot squads against peaceful 
student and labor protesters at the University of Puerto Rico and in 
the streets of San Juan. I have denounced the beatings of students by 
police armed with night sticks, the use of pepper spray on protesters 
and even journalists, the groping of female students.

[[Page H4679]]

  I have stood up to defend the Puerto Rican Bar Association, a clear 
voice for justice that has been attacked by the ruling party and their 
legislature and their allies on the Federal bench.
  I have spoken on the House floor and leaders have spoken on the 
island about the environmental emergency the ruling party has brought 
on to Puerto Rico. The government declared an energy emergency to avoid 
routine fact-finding and licensing procedures so that it could build a 
100-mile long, $500 million gas pipeline on a tropical island that is 
designed more to help wealthy insiders than the people of Puerto Rico.
  While actions in Wisconsin and Ohio and other States that threaten 
workers' rights are discussed routinely in the U.S., the fact that the 
Governor of Puerto Rico has fired tens of thousands of public employees 
and canceled labor agreements, all contrary to contract promises, is 
largely unknown.
  But Tea Partyers don't rejoice: he has also doubled the property 
taxes on everyone.
  Even the courts are under attack on the island. This Governor has 
packed the Puerto Rican Supreme Court with activists of the ruling 
party. He created two new positions on the supreme court in order to 
add two new judges to a court that already had a majority of the ruling 
party. He did this, of course, despite the fact of having denounced 
Hugo Chavez when he believed he was doing the same thing in Venezuela.
  Just 2 weeks ago, the ruling party yet again changed the law so they 
could fire the island's ombudswoman for the elderly, who had years left 
on her 10-year appointment, because of her independence and vocal 
disagreement with the ruling party.
  And because I have spoken out against the ruling party of Puerto 
Rico, I have earned a resolution of censure from the ruling party's 
legislature. I have earned a full-page ad in Roll Call condemning me 
for using my right to speech.
  Only the ruling party of Puerto Rico would respond to complaints 
about free speech and civil rights abuses by officially passing a 
resolution condemning someone for speaking. Should any of my colleagues 
not believe this absurdity, you just need to come to my office where I 
display proudly these documents. I invite you to come and see them.
  I ask my colleagues today: please pay attention to what is happening 
in Puerto Rico. If it were happening in Illinois, New York, Texas or 
Wyoming, or any of the States of our Union, this Congress would have 
great concerns.
  One meaningful first step would be to join me in urging the 
Department of Justice to complete the investigation that they have 
initiated and to police abuses in Puerto Rico that started in 2008 and 
promptly release the results. I would also ask my colleagues and their 
staffs to attend the congressional briefing organized by the ACLU next 
Tuesday, July 12, at 10 a.m.
  And, finally, I ask my friends and colleagues to do what we do 
whenever we see regimes that refuse to treat people fairly: please 
speak out for the values that define us as Americans. Please join me in 
standing for liberty and justice for all.

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