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.
sht or get off the pot.
i'm all in favor of statehood. I think that any place that want's to join, and can meet the criteria should petition for statehood.
Cut them loose, we don't need the additional handout seekers.
Puerto Rico ping.
Please FreepMail if you want on or off the list.
How exactly do you propose cutting loose four million Americans?
I agree. But it is up to Congress to give us that choice. Please contact your Congressman.
Including Mexico?
Ditto. Statehood if they want it. Independence if they want it. The current status shouldn't continue indefinitely.
1. Make English the official language of the U.S., via a constitutional amendment.
2. Allowing Puerto Rico statehood if they agree to the above, and prove that they can survive without extensive transfer payments.
You know where I stand. If I were an inhabitant of PR, I would vote to maintain Commonwealth status. Get the best of both worlds that way. Between independence or statehood,however, I would choose independence, whether as a Boricua or, as I am, a gringo from the mainland.
The PR independence movement is a significant political force in local politics. And after working in San Juan for a year I say we should give in to it. Let them go on their own.
They aren't Americans, they're Puerto Ricans, just ask them.
To answer your question however, by giving them their independance and letting them fend for themselves. Puerto Rico is a money pit and it's time to stop writing it blank checks.
It became worthless to us when they demanded we close the live fire training site for the Navy.
"they must agree to make English the official language of PR."
Language hasn't been a problem for the last 107 years. Heck, I'm in and from Puerto Rico and I am writing to you in English! In fact, English is ALREADY one of Puerto Rico's two official languages, the other being Spanish.
I would be interested in knowing which states have English as their official language. Official as in codified into law. I'll grant that English is one of the things that bond our nation together, but you just can't move the goal post just for us.
Less that 3% in the last general election is a "significant political force"?!
I think that the great people of Puerto Rico deserve to become the wealthiest and most prosperous Latin American nation. Becoming instead the poorest and most culturally isolated American state makes little sense.
Mexico is not a territory of the United States.
This is the essential difference.
Near as I can tell, no state has ever entered the Union without first being a territory of the United States.
Fellow Biker (I own a H-D Sporty 1200):
When you say "they" you are including me. My passport says I am an American. My retired military I.D. says I am an American. My dad buried at a National Cemetery says I am an American.
Another Freeper mentioned once in one of these PR threads that when Lee was talking about his "country" and his "countrymen" he was talking about Virginia and Virginians. Puerto Ricans follow the same traditions, where my country is the physical space where we live and our nation is the a federalist United States of America.
Please see my profile and read the preamble to the PR Constitution.
See you on the road,
cll
"It became worthless to us when they demanded we close the live fire training site for the Navy."
So, a tiny piece of land that was used as an impact area is worth more than over two hundred thousand veterans, dead and alive, for example?
PR has a legislature, doesn't it? Does it conduct business in English? What about the courts? Is English taught in the schools as the basic language or a second language?
I don't advocate treating PR any differently than other states, but what I don't want is another Quebec situation in our country.
Do most Puerto Ricans speak English. I must admit that all that I know speak English (most from the military).
Why don't PR people want statehood?
Nah, we're already here. That was decided 107 years ago. Now we just need to be put in equal footing with the rest of the states.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.