The San Juan Star - LOCAL NEWS


MARI BRAS SAYS REVERSED RULING VIOLATES HIS CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS
He plans to present case to court of human rights

By ROBERT FRIEDMAN
STAR Washington Bureau

(06/07/98, Copyright © 1998 The San Juan Star)

WASHINGTON - Juan Mari Brás may take his citizenship complaint to Washington - but he won't make a federal case out of it.

The independence advocate said Friday he will decide next week with his attorneys whether to contact the Inter-American Commission o Human Rights in the U.S. capital as preparation to bringing his case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San José, Costa Rica.

His complaint will be that the United States, by reversing its earlier approval of his renunciation of U.S. citizenship, "has violated my right to my own nationality and citizenship", Mari Brás said.

He said be would not join a lawsuit in federal court here filed by Mayaguez attorney Antonio Lozada Colón, who has been refused a Certificate of Loss of Nationality for the same reason that Mari Brás had his certificate revoked.

Mari Brás said he would not bring his case to a federal court because he still does not consider himself a U.S. citizen, despite a U.S. Department of State ruling Thursday that he remains one.

"I don't recognize what a [State Department] bureaucrat says", the attorney said.

Despite his belief that the commonwealth relationship makes Puerto Rico a colony of the United States, Mari Brás maintained that the island has "some degree of autonomy that is non-reversible". Specifically, he said, the recognition by the United States of Puerto Rican nationality in the Foraker Act of 1900 has never been negated. While noting this, he added: "The identity of Puerto Ricans is the kernel of this debate".

In its latest decision, the U.S. Department of State appeared to say that Puerto Rican identity, as far as the legal questions of citizenship and nationality are concerned, should not be separated from U.S. identity.

In its reversal of Mari Brás' Certificate of Loss of Nationality, State said it considers him a U.S. citizen "by virtue of your birth in Puerto Rico".

More specifically, it maintained that he did not intend to fully renounce his U.S. citizenship because he did not follow the federal law requiring non-U.S. citizens living in Puerto Rico to register as aliens.

Mari Brás contends he has an "inalienable right" to remain in Puerto Rico without registering since he considers his Puerto Rican citizenship and nationality not related to the island's political ties with the United States.

"The identity of Puerto Ricans is the kernel of this debate"

Juan Mari Brás

Independence Advocate

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