bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

As Guam prepares to celebrate Liberation Day this week, political leaders on the Pacific island say it is 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 during a gubernatorial election expected next year.
Sea drill intended to send message to China postponed after French craft runs aground on Guam
“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 decolonisation 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.
They cannot participate in US elections and Guam’s sole representative in the US Congress does not get to vote on legislation.
The United Nations lists Guam as one of only 17 remaining colonies worldwide, something Governor Eddie Calvo wants remedied.

Calvo has long campaigned for a referendum on self-determination that would give voters three options for the future – independence, becoming a US state, or remaining in “free association” with Washington.
All options have their advocates and Calvo says whatever the outcome, at least voters would have had a say in their future.
“Anything is better than the status quo,” he said earlier this month. “I would be happier if we became a state [but] if voters chose independence or free association I would be happier than I am right now.”

The independence question is complicated by Guam’s long and complex relationship with the US since becoming Washington’s colony in the wake of the Spanish-American War.
It endured brutal Japanese occupation during the second world war and was recaptured by US marines after a bloody month-long battle on July 21, 1944, a date celebrated as Liberation Day on the island.
It still hosts one of the largest US military contingents in the Asia-Pacific, often referred to as America’s “tip of the spear” in a region where tensions with China, North Korea and Russia are all too common.
In addition, many in Guam are heavily dependent on US welfare, with about 44,900 individuals and 15,650 households receiving food stamps and public health care benefits.

Federal grants and taxes on US service personnel in Guam also play a large role in meeting the island’s budget and infrastructure needs.
Marites Schwab, a resident of Agana Heights village, said she was concerned about whether Guam was politically mature enough to govern itself if it became a state.
Guam judge sentences Korean Air passenger to two-year prison sentence for fight with attendant
“What would they do in terms of continuing the services currently provided by the federal government?” she asked. “What are the concrete plans going forward? I need to see something practical and we can attain that by becoming a state.”
Adrian Cruz, an advocate for maintaining free association, said dependency on US funds made changing the status quo a difficult proposition.

“The US has got us into a Goldilocks zone where we don’t get too poor to revolt but we’re not too prosperous that we don’t need them any more,” he said.
The debate is academic anyhow, at least in the short-term, after the US Federal Court in March struck down plans to hold a self-rule plebiscite.
Guam priest says he was told to ‘say prayers’ after admitting to sexually abusing boys
It ruled that limiting the vote to the indigenous Chamorro population, which numbers about 65,000 in the multi-ethnic territory, was race-based and therefore unconstitutional.
The decision is under appeal and the government has asked the United Nations to take up its cause.
Michael Bevacqua, a Chamorro culture expert at the University of Guam, said indigenous people should have a vote on their future after being denied basic rights under generations of colonial rule.
“A process of decolonisation that must follow the rules of the coloniser is not decolonisation, it is an extension of colonisation,” he said.


Seized tanker to be taken to US port, as Venezuela war threats grow

Fill US Arctic affairs post to halt China and Russia’s rise, senior Democrat urges Rubio

Mexico slaps tariffs of up to 50 per cent on Chinese goods as US trade pact review looms

Ukraine’s Zelensky floats referendum on territory, as US pressure mounts

United States

‘Anything is better than the status quo’: Guam eyes end to American colonial rule

A beach on Guam. Photo: AFP

A beach in the Pacific island of Guam. Photo: SCMP

This photo taken on July 14, 2017 shows tourists on a beach in Guam's capital Hagatna. 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. / AFP PHOTO / Mar-Vic CAGURANGAN / TO GO WITH Guam-US-politics,FOCUS by Mar-Vic Cagurangan

epa06074772 A handout photo made available by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) via the US Department of Defense (DoD) on 08 July 2017 shows two US Air Force B-1B Lancers assigned to the ninth Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, deployed from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, USA, flying with a Koku Jieitai JASDF F-2 fighter jet over the East China Sea, 07 July 2017. The Lancers departed Andersen Air Force Base, Guam to conduct a sequenced bilateral mission with South Korean F-15 and Koku Jieitai F-2 fighter jets. The mission is in response to a series of increasingly escalatory action by North Korea, including a launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on 03 July. EPA/JASDF HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

News

Asia

Australasia