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I do not believe brute force worthy of admiration whether I see it in everyday history or it is presented to me adorned, adulated, and admired in past history; however, I do believe worthy of greater attention and concern the obvious fact that the North Americans sent to Puerto Rico and the North Americans of the government that sends them are proceeding in Puerto Rico like a brute force. In which direction is that brute force headed? In the direction of extermination. It is not nor can it be a confessed intention, but it is an unconfessed belief held by the barbarians who attempt to popularize conquest and imperialism from the Executive Branch of the United States, that to absorb Puerto Rico they must exterminate her; and naturally, they see hunger and envy exterminating Puerto Ricans as a fact that concurs with their design, and they cold-heartedly allow it to happen.
— EUGENIO MARÍA DE HOSTOS