Referendums within Puerto Rico?
What I'm saying is the Puerto Rico falls under the territorial clause of the U.S. Constitution, which mandates Congress to "make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory...of the U.S." The last time Congress moved in any significant way in regard to the status of Puerto Rico was in the early fifties when it approved a Constitution and a local government for Puerto Rico, and then submitted it to voters in PR for their approval, which they did.
Congress has not approved any referendum on Puerto Rico's status ever since. The three or four referenda that get batted around here and other forums have been locally produced, with no sanction from Congress. They have always included a poison pill option of different variants of the "Commonwealth" option, which severely dilute the pro-Statehood and the pro-independence vote. In reality, these referenda have been mere instruments to measure the political parties' strengths before major electoral events. Beauty contests, if you will.
You see, politics here are not divided along Democrat/Republican lines. They are divided along status options, with pro-statehood and pro-status quo forces about evenly dividing over 95% of the total vote, and the pro-independence sector getting the rest.
Our resident Puerto Rico hater, 4Freedom, is almost right in one regard. The "freeloaders" he frequently mentions consists almost exclusively of the pro-commonwealth Popular Democratic Party and their supporters (mostly Democrats). The only thing that keeps them from embracing full statehood can be defined by three words: Internal Revenue Service.