Posted on 04/28/2008 11:00:35 AM PDT by Ebenezer
(English-language translation)
Puerto Rico is sending a message that it wants to break its relationship with the United States. That was the first reaction from Puerto Rican Congressman José Serrano following Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilás speech during the [pro-Commonwealth] Popular Democratic Party (PPD) general assembly he convened to announce his political future after being indicted by federal authorities on March 27, and whose [run for a second term] was ratified viva voce by 4,027 delegates, becoming the first candidate to the governorship to be indicted on criminal charges. As Serrano told Notiuno during his first interview, .he will be taken seriously in Washington. They will start to question if Puerto Rico wants to break its relationship with the United States. Serrano added that I thought this was the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) assembly and implied the Governor has two faces when stating that the Aníbal I saw yesterday was not the same one I saw in Congress. [Acevedo was Puerto Ricos Resident Commissioner in Washington from 2001 to 2005.]
For his part, [pro-statehood] New Progressive Party (PNP) Chairman Luis Fortuño questioned what moral authority [Acevedo] has to speak first about dignity when he is indicted by the federal authorities, second about [Puerto Ricos political] status when he has blocked every effort to address the status in Congress, and third about changes when he has left the island broke. Fortuño, who will challenge the Governor in the upcoming elections, told Notiuno in the Morning that any candidate the PPD chooses is all right with him.
Meanwhile, PIP gubernatorial candidate Edwin Irizarry Mora reacted during journalist Carmen Jovets radio show. It shames me above all that [Acevedo] uses figures of the Puerto Rican independence movement to portray himself as a Messiah before the people of Puerto Rico. To Irizarry, the decision by the PPD to keep Acevedo as its gubernatorial candidate was not unanimous. The faces I saw at the event were those of disgust, of frustration, he said.
During the assembly, the Governor wasted no time in criticizing the federal government and demanding a redefinition of the Commonwealth. His speech resembled that of a pro-independence leader, since he recalled that the federal authorities found no irregularities in the murder of two young pro-independence men in Cerro Maravilla [in 1978] and even the death of Machetero leader Filiberto Ojeda at the hands of federal agents. The first legislation the PPD Legislative Assembly will pass is to convene a Constitutional Assembly so that it may address this [status] problem once and for all. [Both houses of the Commonwealth Legislature are presently controlled by the PNP]. This party has to tell those who become delegates at the Constitutional Assembly that we want a Commonwealth based on the sovereignty of the people of Puerto Rico, he stated.
Acevedo, who is running for a second term, managed to neutralize that sector within the party which was calling for his withdrawal, including close to 30 mayors who ended up supporting him. During the assembly, the delegates cried several times rah-rah-rah, four more years, thus expressing their disapproval over statements from former Governor Rafael Hernández Colón, who described the assembly as a pep rally. The Governor joined in the criticism on several occasions. Listen closely to me, this is not a pep rally. I will not accept your being told that you were pressured, Acevedo said as he requested at the same time a vote by secret ballot, which the delegates rejected. [Caguas Mayor] William Miranda Marín was put in charge of the party platform, while [Consumer Affairs Secretary] Alejandro García Padilla was assigned to spread the message to vote by straight ballot.
[Acevedo] asked several times that the reasons that were expressed privately to him for not being the candidate be made public. In fact, he acknowledged for the first time that they have had their doubts about his being the ideal person. I have had my own doubts at times, he said. They are valid arguments from people who mean well for me and this party. Now, I want all of us to really discuss if that is the right decision.
The Governor and PPD Chairman was accompanied by former party chairs Victoria Muñoz, Miguel Hernández Agosto, and Héctor Luis Acevedo upon his arrival and dominated the 10,000-strong assembly. During the event, money was collected to pay for his defense, with a request for dollars and not cents.
If they could only decide...
Well, if you always offer Puerto Ricans Commonwealth status as a choice in a plebiscite, expect no mature decision (i.e., either statehood or independence).
Hey, that Google translator works pretty good!
No, sorry I still don’t agree with you. The Puerto Rican vote should be limited to people living in Puerto Rico.
Those are the people who will be effected. American’s of Puerto Rican background living in NY will not be effected, except for, as you say travel being harder or something. As a PR living in NY you already have both American and New York citizenship, that’s enough.
For the USA to institute weird racial voting categories (or birthright voting categories) is a huge step backwards. In fact the Supreme Court threw out just such an (existing) plan in Hawaii a few years ago.
To do anything else is simply bizarre. I was born in Michigan. Do I get to vote in Michigan elections, even very important ones? NO!! Why, because I changed my state citizenship to Michigan.
As far as the other states go, people in the entire USA will be effected by making PR a state. Therefore we should (and DO!) get a say in it. It’s not simply a case of rubber stamping PR as a state.
My suggestion is that we should all start getting to vote on this issue. Many of us feel that PR should not be a state. There are too many language, cultural and historical differences. I would certainly vote against PR statehood in a referendum. Of course usually such referendums are non-binding.
The last autonomous Island nation seeking statehood was Hawaii. It took them 110 years of trying to achieve it. The story is told here: “http://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/statehoodpetition1954.html".
Now, many disagree with the decision and there is a movement to undo it. I suspectd that the same would occur with PR given another 30 years.
The American Empire was always a bad idea. It is coming to an end. As a true small government conservative I’d favor letting go as many foreign possessions as possible, perhaps even including Hawaii it a large marjority there agree.
I certainly view divesting ourselves of Puerto Rico as a priority.
I believe many other Americans would actively lobby Congress to vote “no” on the bill to grant statehood. Such a bill is required by Article IV, section 3 of the US Constitution, and has taken place for all states joining since the original 13.
RE Hawaii: After some debate, the Senate bill passed on March 11 by a vote of 76 to 15. The House bill reached the floor on the same day and the House substituted the Senate version for it and passed it on March 12 by a vote of 323 to 89.
This was the fifth attempt in 50 years. Hopefully we can put the PR statehood off that long, too, at which point I think it will be a dead issue. Starting now to pass citizen resolutions in states calling for “NO STATEHOOD FOR PR” in the most promising states (Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and other core Red states that understand the language and culture issues involved in statehood) would also do a lot to cool of the desire for statehood by even strong PR Statehood proponents, I imagine.
So you want Hispanics kicked out of the United States? Even US citizens? Charming! I have friends in Texas and New Mexico, people whose families have lived inside the United States for 3 or 400 years, since long before the United States existed. You want them to go "home?" To where?
The American ownership or control or federation or whatever is a legacy of Theo. Roosevelt and his absurd Spanish American war. It was a real low point in American history and it is LONG PAST time that we undo it.
What about conquering South Texas, California, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada in 1846? BTW, William McKinley, not Roosevelt, was responsible for the Spanish Americna War.
Why do Puerto Rican's get to vote and the rest of us don't?
Actually, non-Puerto Ricans get a lot more say than Puerto Ricans do, since any status change has to be made by Congress and Puerto Rico has no vote in Congress.
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