ELA Soberano es Igual a la Independencia

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ELA Soberano es Igual a la Independencia

«Sovereign commonwealth [free association] is the same as independence,» asserted Popular Democratic Party (PDP) President and gubernatorial candidate Alejandro García Padilla during a wide-ranging interview with CARIBBEAN BUSINESS this week. 
> His remarks are a call to action that was set in motion four years ago in the aftermath of a crushing defeat to the pro-statehood New Progressive Party in the 2008 election. In a press conference immediately following the election, former three-term Governor and PDP patriarch Rafael Hernández Colón was asked by an international wire reporter whether the time had come to clarify that commonwealth and free association were two different status options. Hernández Colón replied, «Yes.»
> The former governor’s reply began an institutionalized process to make public a clear distinction that commonwealth takes place within the framework of permanent union with the U.S., and free association is possible only through independence.
> García Padilla’s recent remarks come in the face of status options in the Nov. 6 plebiscite that may be confusing.
> The referendum, which will be held on the same day as island elections, also asks voters whether they want to continue in the current status, «yes» or «no,» on a first question, and then asks voters to choose from among several status options-free association, statehood and independence- on a second question. Recent polls forecast the «yes» vote to keep the current commonwealth status obtaining 51% of the vote on the first question, running contrary to a second question favoring sovereign commonwealth, defined as free association, receiving 45% of the vote.
> The poll results forecasting 51% support for the «yes» option backing the current commonwealth option and 45% in favor of sovereign commonwealth (free association) option in the second round would produce a confusing message to Congress. The possibility of just such an outcome had been raised by several former governors, the pro-commonwealth Hernández Colón and the pro-statehood Carlos Romero Barceló among them.
> Others who criticize the process see a plebiscite that goes against the structure of H.R. 2499, which was approved in the U.S. House of Representatives but was shelved in the Senate when the Senate Energy & Natural Resource Committee failed to mark up the measure.
> «The House of Representatives contemplated two different votes on two different days, and they said it was unfair because the process didn’t include commonwealth in the second vote,» García Padilla said, referring to the bill’s amendment to include commonwealth in the second round. «The actual plebiscite has been criticized by former governors and it has been undermined by the White House Task Force Report.»
> The White House status report, which came out in March 2011, states a marginal preference for a two-plebiscite system that would allow the people of Puerto Rico first to vote on the question of whether they wish to be part of the U.S. or be independent, and then to choose between the available status options.
> The president’s task force in 2011 was consistent with the White House report in March 2006, which declared Puerto Rico’s status as territorial in nature. 
> García Padilla dismissed the White House stance with this: «I believe in the autonomous development of the commonwealth in the context of our relationship with the United States. I believe that the U.S. Supreme Court, which is the only one who can interpret the Constitution, said that commonwealth is a unique status and that the relationship with the United States changed in 1952.»
> The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico was established in 1952 through a congressional mandate-Law 600- to obtain consent of the governed via a constitutional convention ratified by Puerto Rico’s people and the U.S. Congress. Commonwealth supporters point to the approval of United Nations Resolution 748, the amendment officially removing Puerto Rico from the list of territories on which the U.S. had to report, as evidence that Puerto Rico’s colonial status had been resolved.

Message : Garcia Padilla: Sovereign Commonwealth the same as independence

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