Professor Henry Srebrnik

Professor Henry Srebrnik

Monday, October 21, 2013

The Anomalous Political Status of Puerto Rico

Henry Srebrnik, [Summerside, PEI] Journal Pioneer

Captured in the Spanish-American War of 1898, the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico has been an American possession ever since.

Spain possessed Puerto Rico for over 400 years, despite attempts at capture of the island by the French, Dutch, and British. Given the long history of Spanish rule, while Spanish and English are both official languages, Spanish is the island’s primary language.

In 1917, Puerto Ricans were granted American citizenship and since 1948 have elected their own governor. In 1952 a constitution was adopted and ratified by the electorate, turning the unincorporated territory into the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, with its own democratically elected legislative and executive branches and its own Supreme Court.

Puerto Ricans are American citizens and can come and go to the mainland as they please; they also need no permits to work. It is estimated that some two million Puerto Ricans have migrated to the United States, and there are more Puerto Ricans living in New York than in the capital, San Juan.

However, the 3.6 million residents of Puerto Rico pay no federal income tax, nor can they vote in American presidential elections. And the United States Congress still legislates over many aspects of Puerto Rican life, including the currency, the postal service, foreign affairs, military defence, communications, and commerce.

This anomalous situation has made the political future of the island a constant preoccupation. In 1950, Puerto Rican nationalists led a three-day revolt against U.S. domination, known as the Jayuya Uprising, in various cities and towns on the island, decrying the island’s colonial status. Two Puerto Rican nationalists attempted to assassinate President Harry Truman in Washington. But since the island achieved Commonwealth status as an autonomous polity, there has been little violence.

Still, politics continue to revolve around the question of Puerto Rico’s future and its three major political parties have been formed around the preferences of statehood, independence and the current commonwealth status. The Partido Popular Democratico (PPD) seeks to maintain or improve the current status, the Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP) wants to fully incorporate Puerto Rico as a U.S. state, and the Partido Independentista Puertorriqueno (PIP) calls for national independence.

Since 1998, Puerto Ricans have cast their ballots in three plebiscites regarding their relationship with the U.S., the most recent held in November of last year. Voters were asked first whether they agreed that Puerto Rico should continue to have its present form of territorial status. Regardless of how voters answered that question, they were asked secondly, to express their preference among three non-territorial alternatives: statehood, complete independence, or a form of sovereign nationhood in a “compact of free association” with the U.S. The Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau in the Pacific have such arrangements with Washington.

On the second ballot question, of the 1.3 million voters who made a choice, nearly 800,000 supported statehood, some 437,000 backed sovereign free association and 72,560 chose complete independence. But nearly 500,000 left that question blank, as the pro-Commonwealth PPD instructed its supporters not to answer it at all, since the Commonwealth option wasn’t listed. Puerto Rico’s Governor, Alejandro Garcia Padilla, a member of the PPD, also supports the current Commonwealth status.

However, the PNP organized pro-statehood marches in both Puerto Rico and on the U.S. mainland on March 2, demanding that the American government honor the results of the referendum. On May 15, the island’s non-voting Congressman, Pedro Pierluisi of the PNP, introduced the Puerto Rico Status Resolution Act in the House of Representatives, which if passed would ask Puerto Rican voters if they want Puerto Rico to be admitted as the 51st state of the Union.

Regardless of whether Pierluisi’s bill becomes law, yet another plebiscite may be in the island’s future. The budget President Barack Obama sent to Congress in April includes $2.5 million for a status plebiscite in Puerto Rico in 2014.

Meanwhile, Puerto Rico is in financial trouble. It has about $87 billion of debt, counting pensions, or $23,000 for every person on the island. Governor Padilla, has frozen the biggest of the island’s public pension funds, raised utility rates sharply, imposed new taxes and stepped up enforcement of existing taxes. The territory will postpone most long-term borrowing for the rest of 2013.

Should Puerto Ricans opt for statehood, would they even be admitted? Congress has ultimate authority over the admission of new states and is under no obligation to admit states even in those areas whose population expresses a desire for statehood. The Republican Party might not like the idea of millions more Hispanics, who would probably vote Democratic, added to the electorate. It therefore remains an unlikely prospect.

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