Puerto Rico: United States colonialism causes emotional damage to the population, psychologists say

This year, the Decolonization Committee has focused its consideration of the situation of Puerto Rico with respect to the United States on the mental health of the Puerto Rican people. Dozens of petitioners and psychologists declared that the relationship between the two is one of colonialism and explained in detail the emotional damage it causes.

Among the more than 70 representatives of civil and political organizations in Puerto Rico was Dr. Oscar Ocasio Colón, who has been working as a psychologist in New York City for 20 years, especially studying the impact of poverty on the population. Ocasio Colón explained that colonialism is a crime against humanity and “every crime has emotional consequences.”

“In the case of colonialism, it is completely proven in scientific studies that colonial occupation undermines the collective capacity of the occupied people to cope with the most basic emotional difficulties, creating an acute and permanent traumatic situation. In the case of Puerto Rico, our population, whether those who live on the island or those who emigrate, are more prone to developing depressive disorders and anxieties than any other population that is not under colonial occupation,” he commented, citing several scientific studies. .

Ocasio Colón denounced that the United States Government “has taken over the resources (of Puerto Rico) and has exploited them” and “has wanted to impose English as a language and implement its hegemonic cultural system about the culture of Puerto Ricans.”

Stockholm syndrome

These policies, together with “the imposition of a Fiscal Control Board” and “prolonged occupation” develop “in the colonized a collective Stockholm syndrome that undermines their own process of developing their own identity.”

“Acculturation processes transform into assimilation and force us to live each of our days as a day of war for preserving the most basic aspects of our way of being as a people,” he added.

For this reason, the doctor asked the Decolonization Committee to:

• do everything possible so that the American colony of Puerto Rico has a decolonization process using the path suggested by resolution 1514
• compile studies on colonialism and the emotional damage it causes to establish that annexation is not a decolonizing alternative
• recognizes the obligation of reparations by the United States government to the Puerto Rican people

The requests and observations of Dr. Ocasio Colón were also presented by other renowned psychologists, such as Dr. Jaime Inclán McConnie, who said that “The eradication of colonialism in Puerto Rico is urgent for health”.

Inclán McConnie explained that psychology understands that abusive relationships are those that apply inappropriate and excessive influence on others.

Widespread psychological trauma

“Colonialism is an abusive system of domination and subordination that exercises structural, inappropriate, excessive, and abusive control,” he said, before recalling that psychological research on abuse shows that Chronic abusive relationships generate, at an individual and social level, deep levels of “psychological trauma.” which, if not healed, spreads to the population and is transmitted intergenerationally.”

Ángel R. Comas Nazario intervened on behalf of the Puerto Rico Psychology Association, who indicated that this organization bases its vision and mission on the recognition and affirmation of human rights.

“This recognition has meant that Let us assume the issue of colonialism as a central reality of our psychological work.” and explained that for this reason the Association has had to fight, from a psychological point of view, against “the economic exploitation” caused by the colonizers “to the detriment of the quality of life, social justice and human dignity” of the people of Puerto Rico.

Fiscal Oversight Board

As an example, he cited the position that the Association has taken against “the policies imposed by the misnamed Fiscal Supervision Board, an instrument that strategically imposes its powers to condition political decisions within the countryenabling an accelerated deterioration of living conditions.”

“We have denounced that, since 2017, the mandate of a Fiscal Oversight Board and its austerity measures have deteriorated access to essential services. We recognize that these policies have been a determining factor in social, economic and political damage. The Board’s policies increase poverty levels in the country and generate structural and systemic conditions of violence”.

Comas Nazario explained that the Association created an Ad Hoc Mental Health and Colonization Committee in 2020, with the purpose of educating about the impact of colonialism and its affront to the human rights of the island.

The most prominent issues that the Committee found are the high levels of violence, unemployment, underemployment, flight of professionals, inability to rebuild infrastructure, massive misinformation and government corruption.

“Above all, we have shown how the austerity policies of the Fiscal Oversight Board have pushed thousands of Puerto Rican families into uncertainty and restlessness”said Comas Nazario.

Courtesy Oscar Ocasio Colón.

Beach in Puerto Rico.

Without means to fight climate change

For her part, the representative of the environmental association Revolutionary Environmental Movement, Venecia Butler-Pérez, said that “the violent situation of being a colony of the United States of America makes Puerto Rican people vulnerable, leaving us without alternatives to survive the climate crisis.” .

“The colony, the economic and historical debt with our Caribbean people, the corruption of the rulers who feed on the colonial status, the intervention of the federal government through the Fiscal Control Board and the incessant natural phenomena place the population in a state of constant emotional and physical vulnerability. Example of this is that seven years after Hurricane María we have homeless people without decent conditions to face another natural event due to colonial bureaucracy,” he said.

For this association, the increase in the frequency and intensity of natural phenomena such as hurricanes, earthquakes, intense heat waves, among others, “generates uncertainty about the future, the economy and the security of people on the islands, which has led to the appearance and exacerbation of symptoms such as anxiety, depression, acute stress, and post-traumatic stressamong others”.

Butler-Pérez highlighted that “social inequalities are increased after an atmospheric event due to the political disaster, manifesting itself in the lack of access to health services, housing, employment and access to essential services. Furthermore, due to our colonial status, the country’s economic decisions are made by a Fiscal Control Board imposed by Congress, making the country unlivable for Puerto Ricans.”

inalienable right

Following the interventions, the Committee examined and approved the forty-second resolution on the issue in which reaffirms the inalienable right of the people of Puerto Rico to self-determination and independence in accordance with resolution 1514 (XV) of the general Assembly and that the people of Puerto Rico constitute a Latin American and Caribbean nation that has its own differentiated national identity.

He also made “a new call to the Government of the United States of America to assume its responsibility to promote a process that allows the Puerto Rican people to fully exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and independence.”

The Committee notes with concern that, by virtue of the decision of the United States Congress, under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Administration and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) that creates the Financial Oversight and Administration Board, The already weakened sphere in which the regime of political and economic subordination prevailing in Puerto Rico operates is further reduced..

Furthermore, the impact of austerity measures that are causing a serious deterioration in the social and economic conditions of the people of Puerto Rico and the privatization of essential services, such as electricity, which has caused the cost of living to rise in a already precarious economy.

The document, presented by Cuba and approved unanimouslyurges the Government of the United States to “complete the return to the people of Puerto Rico of all lands occupied by its military forces in Puerto Rican territory, in particular the facilities on the island of Vieques and in Ceiba.”