[News] Puerto Rico Bar Association Under Attack
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Mon Apr 13 12:30:27 EDT 2009
Sent: 4/13/2009 11:15:06 A.M. Central Daylight Time
Subj: Puerto Rico Bar Association Under Attack
Puerto Rico Bar Association Under Attack
The Puerto Rico Bar Association, founded in
1840, is the oldest professional organization in
Puerto Rico and the third oldest in the American
hemisphere. It is a mandatory organization,
similar to the majority of state bar associations
in the U.S., such as California and Florida,
where membership is required. In addition to
providing services to attorneys and improving the
legal profession, it is one of the foremost
organizations of civil society in Puerto Rico,
offering pro bono legal services to indigents and
weighing in on issues important to society as a
whole, such as opposing the use of the death
penalty (outlawed by the Constitution of Puerto
Rico) in the U.S. District Court; providing a
mechanism for grievances against attorneys,
personal support for attorneys, advocating to
protect the independence of the judiciary; and supporting the rights of women.
Puerto Rican society is defined by the colonial
relationship to the United States. The status
question is a subject of daily discussion and
debate among those who favor the status quo, or
commonwealth; those who support statehood; and
those who favor independence. Bar Association
members are free to support any political party
or status preference. For decades, however, the
Bar Association has presented a legal analysis of
the current status before the U.N. Special
Commission on Decolonization, acknowledging the
failure of the current status to comply with
international law. Most recently, organizational
commissions comprised of all tendencies have
studied the issue and proposed a Constitutional
Convention as the means for resolving the status.
Since November of 2008, when the pro statehood
New Progressive Party [NPP] won the gubernatorial
and many legislative and municipal elections,
those favoring annexation began implementing
drastic changes in Puerto Rican society. Not only
did the new governor convene business leaders to
come up with a plan to privatize many government
services, he defunded many longstanding community
organizations, announced the firing of 30,000
(mostly unionized) government workers, named an
FBI agent as superintendent of police, and
introduced legislation which would dismantle the Bar Association.
A bit of history may help to put in context
these latest developments. For decades, the Bar
Association has held elections at its annual
convention, generally electing lawyers who
support independence. The NPP made several bold
efforts to win the presidency, but has never
succeeded. The organization has long been a
target of right-wing hostility including
bombings during the volatile decade between 1976
and 1986 becauuse of the prominence of
pro-independence members and postures. While
independentistas were long criminalized by the
government and reviled by adherents to the other
status preferences, they have also tended to
be Puerto Ricoâs most respected attorneys and public spokespeople.
The FBIâs assassination of clandestine
independence leader Filiberto Ojeda RÃos, on
September 23, 2005 sparked the latest attempt to
undermine this venerable institution, because its
Board agreed to rent a space for his wake, as it
had previously done with other political and
cultural figures. Representatives of a broad
spectrum of Puerto Ricans attended, from the
current and past governors to the Catholic
Archbishop to the most humble citizens. The
country stood still for days, outraged by this
extra judicial execution. Now, the most
reactionary pro statehood forces conspire about
how to bring down the institution.
In March 2009, the Senate passed legislation
that would convert the Bar Association into one
of voluntary membership, threatening a bastion of
civil society. The House has passed a bill that
would eliminate the annual convention as the
forum for voting. Mandatory associations of
engineers, pharmacists and sixteen other
professions observe that if lawyers canât
protect their professional associations, they
wonât be able to either. Efforts to conduct a
reasoned debate on the pending legislation have
been frustrated, including when pro statehood
legislators convened hearings in a room too small
to accommodate the multiple witnesses scheduled
to testify against the bill. The Bar
Associationâs campaign to defeat the bill is
supported by the American Association of Jurists and much of civil society.
Jan Susler
April 10, 2009
Jan Susler
People's Law Office
1180 N. Milwaukee
Chicago, IL 60622
773/235-0070 x 118
jsusler at aol.com
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20090413/73c9883c/attachment.htm>
More information about the News
mailing list