Posted on 02/01/2006 5:48:44 AM PST by cll
The status question, after years on the back burner, will dominate Puerto Rican politics this year. The event that signaled the launch of intense campaigning on the issue by all three of the island’s political parties was the publication in Washington last month of a report commissioned by President Bush.
The report, compiled by an interagency task force, recommended that there should be a federal plebiscite this year on whether Puerto Rico wants to maintain its current status as a territory or commonwealth (estado libre asociado, ELA) of the United States or choose a nonterritorial alternative.
In the latter case, the report suggested that the U.S. Congress, which has responsibility for Puerto Rican affairs through the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, should organize another plebiscite, offering voters a choice between statehood, on the one hand, and independence or free association with the United States, on the other.
These recommendations, predictably, have had a mixed reception. While the opposition Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP) and Partido Independentista Puertorriqueno (PIP) welcomed the report, the ruling Partido Popular Democratico (PPD) rejected it because the options put forward do not include an enhanced version of the present status.
With both sides lobbying Congress to get across their views, Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila claims to be confident that the U.S. legislature will not turn the report into law this year.
Acevedo Vila returned to San Juan on Jan. 19 from a meeting with his main ally in Congress, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), to proclaim that there was widespread opposition, or indifference, in Congress to the report’s recommendations and that the proposal to hold a federal plebiscite was doomed.
Menendez, a Cuban-American, is a member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and thus in a position to know. The minority leader in the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), seems to share Menendez’s doubts about the White House report.
However, the governor’s announcement is unlikely to put off the PNP, which also has some useful Washington contacts.
The party is convinced that statehood will become a reality this year and is preparing a campaign based on the argument that Puerto Rico’s “colonial” status is against the spirit of the U.S. constitution. The PNP strategy, devised by the party’s president, former Gov. Pedro Rossello, consists of pushing through the Puerto Rican legislature a resolution urging the U.S. Congress to turn into law the recommendations of the task force’s report, as the Puerto Rico Democracy Act, and then persuading Congress to act on the resolution.
As the PNP has a majority in both houses, and the island’s resident commissioner in Washington, who has a voice but not a vote in the House of Representatives, is also from the PNP, this process is already well under way. The island’s Senate passed the resolution Jan. 18, with the PPD minority voting against, and it now has to be approved by the lower house.
The resolution provides for the creation of an 18-member joint committee of the two houses to handle all aspects of the status issue. Rossello has his eye on the chairmanship of this committee.
The PNP is also planning direct action, in the form of a pro-statehood crusade to Congress early this month, led by the PNP vice president, Miriam Ramirez de Ferrer, bearing a 100,000-signature petition, and a 15-day march around the island in the second half of February.
The PIP, which represents the views of about 5 percent of Puerto Rican voters, is equally enthusiastic about the White House report, calling it a “mortal blow” to the ELA and a first step toward the end of colonialism. Like the PNP, it wants the federal plebiscite suggested in the report to take place this year. However, if the U.S. Congress fails to act, it is calling for a constitutional assembly to be elected in the island.
Acevedo Vila has also called for such an assembly in the past, without success. His argument is that what he calls a “true process of self-determination” should begin on the island, not in Washington, but the White House report “insults” Puerto Ricans by failing to provide for such a process.
The report takes the view that the 1952 ELA accord is a transitory arrangement (which is also the PNP’s position), rather than a pact that can be modified by agreement between the two sides (the PPD view). Acevedo Vila argues that voters should be offered the option of supporting a modified version of commonwealth status, giving the island’s government greater control over such areas as federal appointments, taxation and trade negotiations.
Rejecting calls from some PPD politicians to manufacture a “crisis” over the issue, Acevedo Vila appears reassured that Congress would not support legislation on Puerto Rican status that does not enjoy a consensus in the island itself and is not backed by the governor.
A continuing feud between Rossello and Resident Commissioner Luis Fortuño, and a long-running tussle for control of the Puerto Rican Senate between Rossello and a group of PNP senators led by the current president of the upper house, Kenneth McClintock, complicates the PNP’s campaign.
Fortuño refuses to return to the island to attend PNP executive meetings chaired by Rossello, arguing that his time is better spent cultivating Republican contacts in Washington.
Despite his reservations about Fortuño, Rossello felt obliged Jan. 18 to appoint him as the PNP’s official liaison with the Republican Party. (Former Gov. Carlos Romero Barcelo has been given the same role with the Democrats.)
Underlying the power struggle between Rossello and Fortuño is competition for advantage ahead of the 2008 elections. Rossello sees a successful statehood campaign as the best way of gearing up the party machine to back his candidacy. However, McClintock’s group could yet deny him chairmanship of the status committee.
Meanwhile, Acevedo Vila has been trying to recover the political initiative by submitting a long-awaited tax-reform proposal to the island’s legislature in mid-January. However, the PNP majority is determined to block it — not least because the measures would give the governor additional resources for high-profile public works ahead of the next election campaign.
The formal reason the PNP has given for rejecting the reforms is that they contain no provision for reducing public spending and would only benefit the wealthy at the expense of the middle classes. Acevedo Vila badly needs the tax reforms, as the credit-rating agencies have threatened to downgrade Puerto Rican government bonds if they are not forthcoming.
The focus will be on Washington for most of this year, as Puerto Rico’s fate lies in the hands of Congress. The most likely outcome is that the task-force report will not become law.
Oxford Analytica is an international consulting firm providing strategic analysis on world events for business and government leaders. See www.oxan.com.
Good points. I hope you both are right.
I have travelled in and out of PR for biz. Let the folks in PR make their own choice. But the status quo needs to be changed. Great place to visit BTW
>>If I had to guess, I would say that 20 years after Puerto Rico is admitted as a state it will have 1 Republican and 1 Democrat Senator and 3 Republican and 3 Democrat Representatives.
So about the same as the rest of the country, in terms of close to an even split. Sounds better than where I live in California ...
And two more dimo senators.
"still live three miles from where i was born."
Ditto here. Although I have close friends and family in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Virginia...and none in New York, I think. I got to check that.
you have to be kidding.....a guaranteed blue state just handed right over.
better yet....grant them independence.
Under the Commonwealth formula, residents of Puerto Rico lack voting representation in Congress and do not participate in presidential elections. As U.S. citizens, Puerto Ricans are subject to military service and most federal laws. Residents of the Commonwealth pay no federal income tax on locally generated earnings, but Puerto Rico government income-tax rates are set at a level that closely parallels federal-plus-state levies on the mainland.
Be easy on Cll though. He's a good guy who's just wrong on this issue.
Grant you guys independence.
Many individual states have adopted English as their official language:
Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming
Several states and territories are officially bilingual:
Louisiana (English and French),
New Mexico (English and Spanish),
Hawaii (Hawaiian English and Hawaiian),
Puerto Rico (Spanish and English),
Guam (Chamorro and English),
American Samoa (Samoan and English);
And one is officially trilingual:
Northern Mariana Islands (English, Chamorro, and Carolinian).
Give that another thought. A state where the overwhelming majority of the people are either Catholic or Evangelical Christians a blue state? I don't think so.
If you want another civil war, go ahead and propose that to your Congressman.
No, wait. You're in Jamaica so you wouldn't have a Congressman.
Most are fiercely proud Americans. Their blood has been spilled along side their mainland brothers in Afganistan, Iraq, Vietnam, Korea, the Pacific, Europe.....
Angelo Falcon, a senior policy analyst for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York, said the movement of Puerto Ricans, who tend to vote for Democrats, could "offset the Cuban vote," which almost uniformly has gone to conservatives who promise to continue isolating the communist government of Fidel Castro.
Most of my mom's cousins, born in PR or in NY, who moved here ("mainland") married non-Hispanics.
Three of my grandparents born in PR, one in Italy. Though my mom is totally bi-lingual, as are all her cousins in NY, none raised native spanish speaking kids :(
I had to study it in school to talk to my grandparents. So did my second cousins, the Hartleys, the Sullivans, the Riveras, the Anselmos....
And yes, Puerto Ricans are racially mixed; Spaniards, African slaves, natives, etc. I remember my grandmother talking about the rumors of HER grandfather's dalliances with his slaves and running into very dark-skinned puerto ricans in NY with the same last name and from the same towns. Doesn't sound a whole lot different than our southern heritage.
Same can be said for Filipinos (see their courageous service in WWII under MacArthur), Samoans, and other current and former Colonials who have served honorably in our armed forces. We should be honored to have such folks serving our country.
Nevertheless, Puerto Ricans (those born and raised on the island) are not CULTURALLY American. They speak Spanish as a first language, watch Univision or Telemundo, play dominoes instead of poker, and actually enjoy dancing. I could go on and on.
The Puerto Ricans from San Ignacio Prep that I went to college with did not consider themselves to be Americans/gringos. That's the way it is.
Let Congress pass the "PR accession act", specifying that statehood must win 75% of the votes before it will be granted.
My contacts with New Yoricans is nearly as long and covers the financial/class gamut from the projects in Alphabet City to upper-middle class entrepreneurs. I am happy to say that I number a few among my long-time friends.
That said, I offer my opinion, which is this.....Puerto Ricans (again, imo) are just like nearly every other American group that has been here since before the eighties. Their patriotism and willingness to fight for our Flag is beyond reproach. That however is not the issue.
The lower-income, urban segments are dems from cradle to grave. The middle to upper middle class are leaning our way. The movers and shakers are Conservative (with the exception of the self-described communists in the PR film biz). Since the larger percentage of the Island's population falls into the urban/poor category I agree with WD that all statehood would give us is two more socialist senators. For that reason I am against statehood.
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