PREXIT: Forjando el camino a la soberanía puertorriqueña

by Javier A. Hernández

En este libro, Javier A. Hernández explica muy sucintamente por qué Puerto Rico nunca se convertirá en un estado de los Estados Unidos y por qué la soberanía es lo mejor tanto para Puerto Rico como para los Estados Unidos.

"PREXIT: Forjando el camino a la soberanía puertorriqueña" tiene como objetivo educar a los puertorriqueños, estadounidenses y otros alrededor del mundo sobre el colosal error que sería anexar Puerto Rico como un estado de los EE. UU.; explica el funcionamiento interno y los legados del dominio colonial de los EE. UU. en Puerto Rico; y también propone la opción viable de la Soberanía Nacional para Puerto Rico.

En estas páginas, descubrirás:
1. Por qué la estadidad nunca sucederá;
2. Las muchas razones políticas, culturales y económicas por las que puertorriqueños y estadounidenses deberían apoyar la soberanía;
3. Las estrategias PREXIT para comenzar la descolonización de Puerto Rico y la transición a la soberanía;
4. Diversas propuestas, planes y políticas de desarrollo político, democrático, de seguridad, de defensa, diplomático, marítimo y económico que harían la transición de Puerto Rico de una colonia corrupta y en bancarrota a una república democrática y una potencia económica en el Caribe y América Latina.

Este libro espera generar debate e intentará esbozar y detallar un plan viable para apoyar el camino de Puerto Rico hacia la soberanía, particularmente después de los tumultuosos eventos que llevaron a la Revolución Puertorriqueña del Verano de 2019 que derrocó al corrupto gobernador pro-estadidad y amenazó la legitimidad y fundación del régimen colonial, sin mencionar las recientes protestas de 2020.

Este libro está dividido en siete secciones:
1. Preguntas frecuentes sobre la Soberanía y Libre Asociación de Puerto Rico;
2. Las diez razones principales por las que Puerto Rico nunca se convertirá en un estado de los Estados Unidos;
3. Lista de Atrocidades Coloniales, Represión y Políticas Cometidas en Puerto Rico por el Gobierno Colonial de los Estados Unidos;
4. Invalidación de las narrativas de los estadistas y los colonialistas;
5. Por qué los estadounidenses deben oponerse a la estadidad y apoyar la soberanía;
6. El desarrollo de una estrategia PREXIT y por qué la soberanía nacional es la única opción viable;
7. Una Exhortación para Liberar a Puerto Rico de los Bárbaros

El autor afirma: "El gobierno colonial estadounidense en Puerto Rico ha sido un flagrante fracaso y sólo la soberanía, la libertad y la democracia pueden ayudar a Puerto Rico no sólo a proteger su cultura nacional, su identidad y su idioma español, sino también a apoyar su propio desarrollo económico en una economía mundial globalizada. Alguna forma de soberanía puertorriqueña es inevitable. Ya sea que se trate de independencia total o de una modalidad de libre asociación soberana a través de un pacto o tratado, Puerto Rico será libre, y los puertorriqueños finalmente podrán gobernarse a sí mismos y promover sus intereses políticos y económicos en la comunidad internacional y en la economía global".

Genres: Politics

492 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 13, 2020

Reviews

[Migdalia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great ideas for Puerto Rico's sovereignty

First some context, I'm one of those bilingual, college educated Puerto Ricans who believe the best decolonization option for PR is free association with the US. I live in the island, and so have a local's perspective of this situation.

While I can say that a lot of Puerto Ricans are still fighting assimilation tactics (I've actually been on the receiving end of criticism and ridicule for speaking English with my son), I don't think PR is so eager to support sovereignty. Colonialism has surely done a number on a lot of people. Whenever the political status comes up on social media (mostly on the local newspapers' social media accounts), I see SO MANY statehooders (who don't seem very educated because their writing is TERRIBLE) ridicule people who support independence or free association. I also have friends from university who support statehood (but didn't major in political science, like I did). While the 2012 local status referendum did show a growing support for this option, statehood won by 61%. I did not participate in the 2017 referendum because I had become increasingly disappointed in the Puerto Ricans who support statehood. That one got a whopping 97% support for statehood because of the boycott and the extremely low turnout. So, as this shows, the vast majority of Puerto Rican VOTERS support statehood even though I really wish otherwise.

Another issue I have with this book is that it doesn't clearly show where all the money needed for all the new government agencies is going to come from. While it does state that with taxes and the end of the Jones Act, we could come up with Puerto Rico's current budget, there are so many new government agencies and services that would need funding that I'm not very confident that we would be able to pull all that off. This book would be much better with a detailed budget analysis. However, I believe Puerto Rico can definitely be a prosperous country if it where liberated from the shackles of colonialism.

Other than that, I found a few typos but they were less than 10, so I didn't factor it into my rating. I give it 4.5 stars but I've rounded it up because I really enjoyed reading this book and actually learned quite a lot from it. I highly recommend this book to anybody wanting to learn about free association as a viable option for Puerto Rico.

[Julian G · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the proposals regarding what a sovereign Puerto Rico would look like were very salient and easily digestible, however, I felt like this book was trying to do too much. It just felt like the crash course regarding the atrocities Puerto Rico endured seemed watered down given the page limits or whatever other constraints were in place. I was especially frustrated in the way Hernandez would say “In my experience…” or would give anecdotal evidence regarding something that could potentially be a trend or fact in Puerto Rico. If you’re going to make broad claims, you should be able to point to something concrete like a study or even news clippings as evidence. Lastly, I was really frustrated with the way Hernandez would write about something and he’d say something along the lines of “You don’t believe me? Follow this hyperlink to this website to see” or “Check out YouTube to learn more.” I’m reading your book to educate myself and making me go on a scavenger hunt is annoying.

I believe in a sovereign, independent Puerto Rico and I applaud this book for attempting to discuss and solve this issue. This book left much to be desired but nevertheless, free Puerto Rico