Nigeria, July 5 -- To be a citizen of the United States, the universal super power, largest economy, the world policeman and God's own country, is an opportunity millions across the earth would grab with both hands.

So, to find a man who, as a right, does not want to be an American and has been fighting this for over half a century, would sound strange to many across the world. It would sound stranger still, if such a man spent 16 and half years in US maximum jails for refusing to be an American citizen. It may seem even more bizarre if the US government insists that such a man, in violation of his fundamental human rights, must be its citizen.

All Edwin Cortes wants is to be a citizen of his native Puerto Rico, a small territory of 3,4...