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 islands 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 reports 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 Menendezs doubts about the White House report.
However, the governors 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 Ricos colonial status is against the spirit of the U.S. constitution. The PNP strategy, devised by the partys 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 forces 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 islands 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 islands 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 PNPs 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 islands 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 PNPs 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 PNPs 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, McClintocks 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 islands 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 Ricos 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.
I didn't know about the half naked girl but I'll never forget the woman with two little children (about 5 and 9 years old) who sent them up in the elevator to their room while she stayed downstairs to do something. At the time I remember thinking they looked awfully young to go upstairs alone.
Five minutes later the fire broke out and it spread fast. She didn't know for hours if they were alive. It had to be agony for her. They had made it to their room and a kindly grandmother type got them up to the roof where they were finally rescued. I finally learned of their fate by reading the newspapers.
Hard to believe it was 20 years ago. I remember running through the pool area, I think I was the 2nd or 3rd person to get through that turnstyle so I didn't have to climb over the barbed wire that had been put up to keep union thugs from climbing in. As I ran down the beach I could feel what sounded and felt like explosions - although they said there were no explosions, it sure felt like there was. All I could think about was the probability of being in a terrorist attack. I figured it was easier to win the lottery than to be in one. You think of strange things in the middle of a crisis.
Clearly they didn't plan for the fire to get out of hand. They wanted to ruin the ballroom so the hotel wouldn't make any money on New Year's Eve. Unfortunately the fire got to the sterno cans and spread rapidly after that. Supposedly the plan was to have the fire as a distraction while the money was raided from the casino safe. The hotel manager, who died, was locked inside the casino and the 'freedom fighters' never got their hands on the money.
Belatedly, I must say that Alabama is my second home. Gravitating in and around Fort Rucker since 1989.
And thank you for your interest in the issue.
Uh, Clem buddy. I've been meaning to tease you with this tid bit of news. Just to cheer you up. The newest Ms. Puerto Rico, Zuleyka Rivera, lives in my neighborhood. She's quite a dish.
Okay, I just made a PC incorrect comment, flame away fems.
PICTURES PLEASE! Is she available? Would she mind relocating the mainland?
VERY nice. Would love to take her to Il Mulino or Milos if she like seafood. Then back to my place for eight hours of dessert. ;-)
"So that the Republicans would be big government/neo conservatives not small goverment fiscal conservatives?"
That's easy. We give the whole island an English test. According to the last Census in 2000 we could expect about 72% to fail.
Those 2,880,000 residents of Puerto Rico wouldn't even be given the option of choosing between keeping their American citizenship or accepting Puerto Rican citizenship.
Any resident of Puerto Rico that deliberately remains ignorant of the English language, in spite of the billions of U.S. taxpayer's dollars showered on them for the express purpose of teaching them English, isn't worth a damn to America.
Next we give the remaining 1,120,000 residents of Puerto Rico a citizenship test to see how much they know about America, its Constitution and its History.
Hell, they'd all fail, because the only thing they care to know about America is what we can spend to pay for all the failed Socialist experiments that have bankrupt the island.
So, there you have it. All that's left for us to do is burn their passports, like they burn our American Flags and the U.S. Taxpayer's property on the island, cut them off financially, and wish them a whole lot of luck with as much sincerity as we can muster, while laughing our asses off.
Aye bendito!
LOL!
Wrong! Fewer than 25 actual States receive more U.S. Taxpayer's dollars than Puerto Rico does every year.
The U.S. Taxpayers gift the ingrates in Puerto Rico $300 million dollars in EARNED INCOME TAX CREDIT CHECKS every year on top of all the other billions. The ingrates don't pay any federal income tax, so figure that one out.
Just another scam perpetrated on the U.S. Taxpayers by our pandering politicians and the crooks in Puerto Rico.
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