IBSI NEWS & EVENTS

WILL U.S. GOV'T FINALLY DO SOMETHING ABOUT PUERTO RICO?

INTRODUCTION
Puerto Rico, officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a self-governing unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean Sea, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands.

Puerto Rico is composed of an archipelago that includes the main island of Puerto Rico and a number of smaller islands, the largest of which are Vieques, Culebra, and Mona. The main island of Puerto Rico is the smallest by land area and second smallest by population among the four Greater Antilles, which also include Cuba, Hispaniola, and Jamaica.

United States citizens residing in the U.S. commonwealth of Puerto Rico do not hold the right to vote in U.S. presidential elections. Although Puerto Rico residents elect a Resident Commissioner to the United States House of Representatives, that official may not participate in votes determining the final passage of legislation. Furthermore, Puerto Rico holds no representation of any kind in the United States Senate.

Puerto Rico is represented in the United States Congress by a nonvoting delegate (a Resident Commissioner). Current legislation has returned the Commissioner's power to vote in the Committee of the Whole, but not on matters where the vote would represent a decisive participation. Puerto Rican elections are governed by the Federal Elections Commission and the State Elections Commission of Puerto Rico.

Even when no American citizen living in Puerto Rico can vote in the U.S. presidential elections regardless of the state in which they were born, they can at least vote in the US presidential primaries. Both, the Democrat Party and the Republican Party, hold primaries in Puerto Rico every four years.

PUERTO RICANS IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
In 1779, Puerto Ricans fought in the American Revolutionary War* under the command of Bernardo de Gálvaez, was named Field Marshal of the Spanish Colonial army in North America. Puerto Rico participated in the capture of Pensacola, the capital of the British colony of West Florida and the cities of Baton Rouge, St. Louis and Mobile. The Puerto Rican troops under the leadership of General Ramón de Castro, helped defeat the British and Indian army of 2,500 soldiers and British warships in Pensacola.

*This is a fact not taught in Puerto Rico's public schools, and it is ironic that a Puerto Rican Independentist Party leader in San Juan had to tell me about it (because, leaders from other political parties and I, didn't know it either). I wish I had known that this information was available on Wikipedia before I started my research.

AND THE ISSUES BEGIN!!!
Believe it or not, many Americans in the U.S. mainland stilld doesn't know that Puerto Rico is a Territory of the United States and that everyone born in Puerto Rico is an U.S. citizen. This ignorance often causes many Puerto Ricans to feel discriminated, or at least made feel as foreigners, especially when seeking employment, because they are frequently asked to show their "green cards" before they can be hired.

In order to understand Puerto Rico's political issues and why the United States is partially responsible for many of those issues, we must first take a quick look at Puerto Rico's history.

PUERTO RICO UNDER SPANISH COLONIAL RULE
Puerto Rico was discovered by Christopher Columbus on November 19, 1493, and for the following 404 years, 8 months and 6 days, it was a Spanish colony. For many years, in the latter part of the XIX century, Puerto Ricans were asking for political changes to the Spanish crown. Some groups favored full integration to the Spanish political life, while others were asking for nothing but full independence from Spanish rule. Spain used many different methods of torture, including murder, to discourage independence.

In 1809, in the midst of the Peninsular War, the Supreme Central Junta based in Cádiz recognized Puerto Rico as an overseas province of Spain with the right to send representatives to the recently convened Spanish parliament. These parliamentary and constitutional reforms, which were in force from 1810 to 1814 and again from 1820 to 1823, were reversed twice afterward when the traditional monarchy was restored by King Ferdinand VII.  After the rapid gaining of independence by the South and Central American colonies in the first part of the XIX century, Puerto Rico and Cuba became the only Spanish colonies found in the Americas. The Spanish Crown revived the Royal Decree of Graces of 1815. This time the decree was printed in three languages - Spanish, English andFrench - intending to attract Europeans of non-Spanish origin, with the hope that the independence movements would lose their popularity and strength with the arrival of new settlers. Free land was offered to thos who wanted to populate the islands on the condition that they swear their loyalty to the Spanish Crown and allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church.

PUERTO RICO UNDER U.S. COLONIAL RULE
Toward the end of the 19th century, poverty and political estrangement with Spain led to a small but significant uprising in 1868 known as "Grito de Lares". In 1897, Luis Muñoz Rivera and others persuaded the liberal Spanish government to agree to Charters of Autonomy for Cuba and Puerto Rico. In 1898, Puerto Rico's first, but short-lived, autonomous government was organized as an 'overseas province' of Spain. The charter maintained a governor appointed by Spain, which held the power to annul any legislative decision, and a partially elected parliamentary structure. In February, Governor-General Manuel Macías inaugurated the new government under the Autonomous Charter. General elections were held in March and the autonomous government began to function on July 17, 1898.

On July 25, 1898, during the Spanish-American war, Puerto Rico was invaded by the United States with a landing at Guánica. As an outcome of the war, Spain ceded Puerto Rico, along with Cuba, the Phillipines, and Guam to the United States under the Treaty of Paris.

The United States and Puerto Rico thus began a long-standing relationship. Puerto Rico began the 20th century under the military rule of the U.S. with officials, including the governor, appointed by the President of the United States. The Foraker Act of 1900 gave Puerto Rico a certain amount of civilian popular government, including a popularly elected House of Representatives, also a judicial system following the American legal system that includes both state courts and federal courts establishing a Puerto Rico Supreme Court and an United State District Court; and a non-voting member of Congress, by the title of "Resident Commissioner". In 1917, Puerto Ricans were collectively made U.S. Citizens by virtue of the Jones Act. The same Act also provided for a popularly elected Senate to complete a bicameral Legislative Assembly, a bill of rights and authorized the election of a Resident Commissioner to a four year term. As a result of their new U.S. citizenship, many Puerto Ricans were drafted into World War I and all subsequent wars with U.S. participation in which a national military draft was in effect.

PUERTO RICO'S POLITICAL PARTIES
From 1952 to 2007, Puerto Rico had three political parties which stood for three distinct future political scenarios: 

Popular Democratic Party (PPD): 
The PPD political platform calls for a sovereign, autonomous, Puerto Rico that maintains a voluntary relationship with the United States in areas of mutual benefit, such as national defense. Two notable areas of discontent with the current political arrangement are the taxation system and the enpowerment of the courts. Currently, custom duties and the authority to enter into treaties with foreign nations remain within the control of the federal government of the United States. In the legal realm, decisions of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court can be overruled by higher courts in the United States. PDP supporters charge that this is unsatisfactory arrangement given that Puerto Ricans are not allowed to exercise their democratic right to vote for the person that appoints those judges - the President of the United States. Puerto Ricans are also not allowed to exercise their democratic right to elect Senatorial representation into the US Senate, the authority within the US of government that is enpowered to approving appointees into the federal court system. Furthermore, Puerto Rican court decisions must be made consistent with the laws of the United States and in alignment with the Constitution of the United States.

The PPD objectives have trended towards gaining further autonomy and greater local control over the foreign relations of the Commonwealth. The PPD philosophy and goal is for Puerto Rico to take on more of the character and personality of a sovereign nation and less of the attributes and characteristics of a state of the American Union. Puerto Ricans, for example, pride themselves in having their own olympics representation, have an identity with Spanish as their mother tongue, and share an appreciation for their own unique and independent cultural identity.

At their 2007 convention, the PPD approved a new philosophy and set of ideals for the party. The new philosophy, as approved, commits the party to defending a political status for the island that is based in the irrevocable of the people of Puerto Rico to form a sovereignty country. This shift in philosophy from the party's previously-held philosophy -- which was more accommodating of the demands of the Americans -- caused a stir amongst party detractors since the party was not known for being that liberal before. It had been known to have a more conservative platform best characterized by its unshakable defense of the commonwealth status quo.

In January 2010, the "government board"of the PPD approved a resolution presented by the current party president Hector Ferrer, among others, rejecting the free association concept to develop the commonwealth status based on the current free association compacts of the United States with the pacific jurisdictions; the resolution indicate that this free associations compacts does not recognize the indissoluble link between the U.S. and Puerto Rico of the United States Citizenship. Other members of the party reject the resolution indicating that is not in agreement with the official position adopted by the party "general assembly" on the 2007 convention. They indicated that the "government board" could not revoke the decisions of the party "general assembly" and just the "general assembly" itself as the party’s top organ could revoke the 2007 decisions.

New Progressive Party (PNP): 
This party advocates for Puerto Rico's admission to the United States of America as the 51st state of the Union. It currently holds supermajorities in the Commonwealth's House of Representatives and Senate. The NPP also won the Puerto Rico's sole delegate to Congress seat (Resident Commissioner) and the Governor's office at La Fortaleza. Forty-eight of Puerto Rico's 78 mayoral seats are now also occupied by NPP.

The majority of the PNP leaders are also members of the US Republican Party, with only two PNP former governors, Carlos Romero-Barceló, and Dr. Pedro Rosselló-González, being registered as US Democrats. The current Governor, Luis G. Fortuño, caucused with the Republicans when he was in Congress and serves as Puerto Rico's Republican National Committeeman. The current House Speaker Jennifer González and the Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz are Republicans.

Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP):
This party's ideology is rather simple, they advocate for nothing else but the full independence of Puerto Rico from the United States. For many years, members of the Puerto Rico Independence Party were deemed as "subversives" by the FBI and the Puerto Rico State Police. In the year 1984, the Puerto Rico Senate conducted their first televised public hearing regarding the murder of two pro-independence members lured to commit sabotage acts (terrorism) by an undercover police officer at Cerro Maravilla. 

It was during these public hearings that high ranking officers of the Puerto Rico State Police exposed the fact that the institution had been spying on all PIP members, and that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) had similar files on all known independence followers, dating as back as the early 1950's.

Puerto Ricans for Puerto Rico Party (PPR): In 2007, the Puerto Ricans for Puerto Rico Party (PPR), was ratified. The PPR claims that it seeks to address the islands' problems from a status-neutral platform. 

There are a few other political parties with small number of supporters, all of which are pro-independence. These include the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, the Socialist Workers Movement, the Hostosian National Independence Movement, and others.

PUERTO RICO'S POLITICAL STATUS DILEMMA
The main reason for Puerto Ricans to have such difficulty in deciding their political future with the United States is mostly because of "reverse campaigning". Reverse campaigning is nothing but when a political party campaigns mostly about the negative effects of all other political ideologies, instead of campaigning about what they believe. The idea of reverse campaigning is to induce fear of the future if the oppossers win the elections. All major political parties (with the exception of PPR) have engaged in reverse campaigning during each general elections.

Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The new Commonwealth of Puerto Rico will be an independent country to which the United States will have permanent obligations, while the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico will have no obligations to the United States, and will be able to opt-out of any and all agreements, especially whenever an issue results unfavorable to it. This is what I must call a state of convenience, for Commonwealth US citizens will enjoy all the benefits awarded and paid by American taxpayers, without having any financial obligation towards the United States. 

I cannot imagine having my neighbors coming to my house any time they want, living of my income, causing me all sorts of expenses, and then not helping me out financially . But that's exactly what the new commonwealth is offering. A friend of mine from the Puerto Rico Independentist Party called this the "leach" status. 

State of Puerto Rico: The State of Puerto will have the same benefits and responsibilities awarded to every state of the union, including equal representation (voice and vote) in all the domestic and international affairs of the United States. Since Puerto Rico already receives equal treatment in many federally funded programs, and enjoy the protection granted by the U.S. Constitution, statehood will most certainly bring a major improvement on Puerto Rico's future as a State.

Contrary to what Statehood detractors have said for many years, the State of Puerto Rico will not be forced to change its official language to English because that would be unconstitutional. Puerto Rico's elected officials before both, US Senate and US House of Representatives will definitely have to be fluent in English. However, this is nothing new to Puerto Ricans, because all Puerto Rico Resident Commissioners have been fully bilingüal. 

Republic of Puerto Rico: That name (Republic of Puerto Rico) sounds beautiful. My father was an "independentista", and he taught me well the virtues and ills of indepence. An independent Puerto Rico will face many new challenges, but independence is a beautiful ideology and nobody can deny it An independent Puerto Rico will be able to have its own currency, enter into treaties with other countries, make its own friends (and enemies), etc. 

Detractors of independence claim that the first thing the Republic of Puerto Rico will suffer will be a bloody civil war. I must agree with that assessment. Right now is not only common to see people shooting each other over political differences, but history have taught us that all political leaders of the top two political parties (PPD and PNP) have behaved as if Puerto Rico were their personal "kingdom".

But despite of the high possibility of civil war, independence is a beautiful and valid ideology, worthy of pursuing. 

HOW TO SOLVE THE STATUS DILEMMA
First, Puerto Ricans must finally understand that during their general elections, they only are electing their leaders, not their political status. Puerto Rican political leaders must cease using the Puerto Rico's political status as part of their campaign to get elected or reelected. Instead, they should campaign on how to solve the problems currently affecting the lives of the People of Puerto Rico, such as crime, unemployment health, and high cost of living. 

Second, the US Congress must deal the issue of Puerto Rico's colonial status once and for all, and should play a major role in educating the people regarding the pros and cons of all available political status options. It's important to ensure that the People of Puerto Rico overcomes their fears about Independence and Statehood. Otherwise, it will be pointless to hold new plesbicites.

Third, a compromise must be reached between all political parties and the US Congress. Regardless of which ideology wins, the losing parties and the US Congress must agree to accept the will of the People of Puerto Rico. Definite steps towards the new political status should begin immediately and conclude within five (5) years of the plesbicite with the formal enactment of Puerto Rico as an Improved Commonwealth, as the 51st State, or as a Republic.

AN UNUSUAL PROPOSAL RECEIVED
During my research on the issue of Puerto Rico's status, a man told me he was tired of plesbicites that only cost money and solve nothing because the status remains unchanged. I asked him what he though would be a likely solution in the event that none of the status formulas obtain the required 50% +1 votes. I was expecting him to say that one of the formulas should be removed or something like that. But the man surprised me with his solution. He told me that the best thing to do was to do like King Salomon and cut the island in three equal parts, and award each part a different status.

According to the man, the North and East of Puerto Rico should be incorporated as a state of the union. The Southshould be given Improved Commonwealth status or the same Territorial Status held by the US Virgin Islands. Meanwhile, the West of Puerto Rico should be granted independence. 

I asked the man how his solution would go about the borders between the side that becomes the Republic of Puerto Rico and the Common and the State of Puerto Rico. He said, [sic] "I would be something like Saint Martin, which is a smaller island than Puerto Rico and yet, part of it is Dutch and the other is French. People travel and work freely. In Saint Martin the people may live in the Dutch side, and go to work to the French side. I'm sure that my solution will not make independentistas happy, but it will be better for everyone, including for the US Government."

The man's solution made me to think: Is this man for real? Is the man's proposed solution a valid alternative? After some time, I realized that - though I don't like the idea - it is a valid option that should be considered by all political parties in Puerto Rico.