"Apartheid system"?
Cut the melodramatics. The choice for the Puerto Rican voter has been clear in several elections and the majority of Puerto Rican voters have spoken:
Prefieren que Puerto Rico sea un estado libre asociado SIN impuestos en vez de que Puerto Rico sea un estado de los EEUU CON impuestos o que sea un estado independiente. Tambien entra el tema de la perdida de la cultura (como paso en Hawaii) si Puerto Rico es nada mas que otro estado de los EEUU o la perdida de los beneficios de ser estado libre asocido si Puerto Rico es una republica independiente.
No le heches la culpa a los americanos por las deciciones que han hecho la mayoria de los puertoriqueños por su propia voluntad.
Yes. Apartheid system. This is not about race, though. It's a geographical apartheid. Ann Coulter herself could move to Puerto Rico tomorrow and would instantly become a second class citizen. It's the separate and unequal doctrine of the Insular Cases that created this system. Please see post # 1.
Since according to the insular cases Puerto Rico is subject to the territorial clause of the U.S. Constitution only Congress can solve this inequity. This problem has not been solved and will not be solved by beauty contests manufactured in Puerto Rico. The three or four votes on status, all locally produced and entirely not binding to the U.S., have been mere shows of force among the three factions that share local power. That's it.
I love my island but living under a Tammany Hall-like system, which counts with the consent of Congress, is not right for the people of the island or the people and taxpayers of the United States at large.