29 Apr 2011

Support for public discourse on reunification of Guam and CNMI

3:16 pm on 29 April 2011

A Nation Chamorros activist on Guam says public discourse on possible reunification with the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas is long overdue.

Legislation is being proposed in both Guam and the CNMI to seek public opinion about reunification.

The two territories were separated in 1898 when Guam was ceded to the United States and the Northern Marianas were sold by Spain to Germany before later also coming under the jurisdiction of the US.

A 1969 plebiscite in Guam on the question of reunification with the CNMI was rejected.

But an indigenous Guam activist Antonio Sablan says he supports the proposal.

"It's long overdue. That discussion has been some sort of a conversation but nobody has really sat down to realy seriously discuss it. And our problem of course is that even if both parties say yes, we still have the super power that controls both of us and might say no - the United States of America."

Antonio Sablan