18 July 2017

News Story: Guam eyes end to US colonial rule

HAGATNA (AFP) – As Guam prepares to celebrate Liberation Day this week, political leaders on the Pacific island say it’s time to decide whether to remain a US colony or become an independent nation.

Debate about independence has raged for decades but legal complications mean plans to take the issue to a vote have stalled several times.

Former senator Eddie Duenas said a self-rule plebiscite was long overdue and should be held alongside a gubernatorial election due next year.

“We have been driving but we don’t know where we’re driving to and how far  we will go,” he told a recent meeting of Guam’s decolonization commission in the capital Hagatna.

“We just keep driving and driving. It’s annoying.”

Guam has been an unincorporated territory of the United States since 1898, meaning its 160,000 inhabitants are US citizens but have limited rights.

Read the full story at PhilStar