text: In 2006 and in representation of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, Jose Castillo spoke before the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization and said that the Nationalist Party "had appeared in the past to denounce colonialism in Puerto Rico and hoped the Special Committee would show its commitment to the island's struggle for self-determination, so that it could join the United Nations in its own right ... The Special Committee and its resolutions on Puerto Rico were indispensable instruments." Castillo "called upon the United States Government to assure the Puerto Rican people of their right to self-determination and human rights and immediately cease the persecution, arrests, and murders perpetrated against independence fighters.  Vieques peace activists must be freed immediately, and the FBI's electronic surveillance and continued harassment of independence fighters must be stopped.  The United States must also end its actions against basic human rights while fully implementing the United Nations resolution calling for a constituent assembly to begin decolonization." Castillo added that "Puerto Rico had its own national identity ... Since its 1898 invasion, the United States had tried to destroy the nationality of Puerto Rican people.  It kept Puerto Rico in isolation, maintaining it as private corporation from which it earned billions a year ... exploitation had made foreigners richer and the Puerto Rican people poorer.  The fact that Puerto Rico was the last territory in the world could not be hidden.  Violation of rights there would cease only once it was a free and independent nation.  The United States must provide compensation for what it had done to Puerto Rico's land and people."
  In 2013 the Puerto Rico Nationalist Party made a public demonstration of their pro-Independence commitment by protesting a speech from the Governor of Puerto Rico, Alejandro García Padilla.
  Its last president was Antonio "Toñito" Cruz Colón until his death in October 2014.