In Puerto Rico and in Puerto Rican ghettos in the united states, military recruitment of boricua bodies is big bizness. While inferior inner-city schools mis-educate young people  (or don’t educate at all), social programs are cut, and decent job opportunities dwindle (or don’t even exist), “careers” in the military are promoted as the only way out of a life of poverty for Puerto Ricans.

There are no “Puerto Rican armed forces,” besides independentista ones like the Ejercito Popular Boricua, a.k.a. Los Macheteros, but they are classified as “illegal” by the u.s. government and therefore exist only in clandestinity.  So the only “legal” armed force in P.R. is the u.s. military, whose commander in chief, the president of the u.s., is elected without the input of the people of Puerto Rico who do not have the right to vote for u.s. presidents or u.s. congress. In spite of this fact, since 1917, when the u.s. imposed u.s. citizenship on the people of Puerto Rico, Puerto Ricans have fought and died in all u.s. wars in disproportionate numbers.

Until the “Korean War” in the 1950s, soldiers from the island of Puerto Rico were grouped in their own unit, the 65th Infantry Regiment. Used as cannon fodder by u.s. commanders in that war against Korea, the regiment argued against this treatment and was dissolved, and the Puerto Rican soldiers were dispersed into other units.

In the “Vietnam conflict”, Puerto Rican draft-aged men were conscripted into service with the u.s. military even though P.R. did not have a voting representative in Congress and most of the PR draftees did not speak English. More than 100 men were tried in Puerto Rico for refusing to comply with draft laws during the “Vietnam War”.  If they appealed, their appeals court was in Boston, where the appeal was heard in English. Puerto Ricans from the island and in the u.s. were also disproportionately represented in front-line combat units. They, like other poor people, also bore the brunt of casualties, during that war, as they continue to do today.

Besides the available use of expendable Puerto Rican bodies to fight and die for the united states, the u.s. has always considered P.R. a strategically important military position in the Caribbean, even before invading the island in 1898. Puerto Rico’s location gives the u.s. military access to North, Central, and South America, as well as a perfect location to train troops, test weapons and defend u.s. interests in Latin America.

\With the closure of u.s military bases in Panama after the canal was transferred to Panama in 1999, Puerto Rico now has the highest concentration of u.s. military forces in Latin America and has the 17th largest National Guard among the 50 states and other “u.s. territories”, and the percentage of reservists in P.R. exceeds the national (u.s.) average. Also, components of the u.s. Southern Command (USSouthcom), responsible for u.s. military activity in Latin America and the Caribbean, and United States Army South (USARSO), have relocated to Puerto Rico.

Currently there is no draft system, so the u.s. military is considered “all volunteer”. However, the ability to change this law resides with the u.s. government, which, of course Puerto Ricans have no control over. So, if the u.s. should need to reestablish obligatory military service, Puerto Ricans, who have no voice in diplomatic discussions, or in US foreign policy, would have to return to fight u.s. war(s) against their will, just as they did in the past.

Also, we see that although there is no “draft”, the u.s. still sends a disproportionate number of non-white troops and other poor people to fight (and die) in its wars. The Pentagon’s personnel records reveal that in East Harlem last year (2004), over 90% of the enlistees into the u.s. military (not including the marines who did not provide sufficient data) were Latino and the percentage of recruits from East Harlem was 15 times higher than that of the wealthy (and largely white) Upper East Side which is located right below East Harlem in Manhattan. In the South Bronx which has the largest population of Puerto Ricans in NYC, the number of recruits into the u.s. military last year was 38 times higher than that of the Upper East Side. Aggressive recruitment in ghetto schools, combined with advertising geared specifically towards the inner-city “hip hop generation” show clearly that the u.s. military continues to  target poor non-white youth to fight its war(s).

In the last century, the only nation that has ever threatened the Puerto Rican people or invaded P.R. is the u.s itself, so the u.s. military presence in the island, and the use of so many Puerto Ricans by the u.s. military is of no use to Puerto Rican people or the Puerto Rican nation.

An independent Puerto Rico would reclaim the land on which u.s. military bases sit and use it for P.R. economic development, and any Puerto Rican armed forces would be dedicated to protecting Puerto Rico’s freedom and sovereignty, not to invading countries in the Middle East or anywhere else.

for alternatives to the military:

http://www.objector.org/before-you-enlist.html

for alternatives to the shitstem:

www.ricanstruction.net