In a blog post titled “Time to settle Puerto Rico’s status,” the University of Puerto Rico professor argues that the factual results of the election day plebiscite on the island give Congress clear grounds to act on the issue. He says U.S. lawmakers can comfortably move on the votes cast without paying too much attention to the spin put on the plebiscite by political parties in Puerto Rico.

Rosselló, the youngest son of former two-term New Progressive Party Gov. Pedro Rosselló, points to Ockham’s razor, a principle of logic attributed to medieval philosopher and friar William of Ockham, which states that one should not make more assumptions than the minimum needed; that amongst competing hypothesis, the simplest one tends to be the correct one.

“In the case of the November 6, 2012 plebiscite held in Puerto Rico, this postulate is evident. Exercising their democratic right, the U.S. citizens living in Puerto Rico voted on two fundamental questions to determine the future of their political status,” Rosselló wrote in The Hill. “The first question asked if the islanders wanted to maintain their current status. The second asked if, given a change of status, which alternative they would favor.”

When asked if they “agree that Puerto Rico should continue to have its present form of territorial status?” some 54 percent voted no, “thus rejecting the current territorial/colonial status,” Rosselló said.

With more than 78 percent of the registered voters casting a ballot, the “no” option won by a margin of 140,000 votes, receiving thousands of votes more than any elected official. It won in all eight senatorial districts and 39 out of the 40 representative districts.

In the second question, statehood was favored by 61.11 percent of the voters, whereas free association received 33.34 percent of the votes, and independence 5.55 percent.

“For the first time ever, the citizens of Puerto Rico have agreed on the status issue above party lines, and have made a definite statement to move away from the current territorial status. The questions were clear, and the answers were clear,” according to Rosselló.

Gov. Alejandro García Padilla and his commonwealth Popular Democratic Party argue the ballot was rigged against the current status because it was not included as an option on the second part of the ballot. They point to the nearly 500,000 voters who left this question blank as a protest against that exclusion and have pledged to hold a constituent assembly on the status issue in 2014.

Rosselló, in his blog for The Hill, takes the PDP to task for its interpretation of the vote.

“Proponents of the current status are using an alternative hypothesis, centering the conversation on the second question of the plebiscite, in hopes that the results of the first question will be ignored. With blatant disregard for the people’s expressed will, they try to argue that statehood did not actually win 61 percent of the vote because if you consider the ballots left empty and the ballots cast for other options, the sum of these ‘defeated’ statehood,” Rosselló wrote. “Pardon me? Counting empty ballots? Ockham’s razor has run amuck here. Instead of the simplest explanation or hypothesis being the correct one, they go for a justification dripping with assumptions, fuzzy math and misdirection.”

For Rosselló, the meat is in the first half of the plebiscite ballot.

“Regardless of these questionable efforts by proponents of the current status, it is really the first question of the Puerto Rico plebiscite that merits most serious consideration. It aims at the key principles that are sewed into the fabric of the United States: democracy, liberty, and freedom. It also strikes at the notion that Puerto Ricans could not ‘get their act together’ on the status question, or that they have never ‘rejected the current colonial status.’”

Rosselló, 33, has ruled out a bid for the NPP presidency this year, but has been mentioned as a potential gubernatorial candidate as early as 2016. The MIT and University of Michigan trained bioengineer and neurobiologist is currently heading Boricua ¡Ahora Es!, a nonprofit movement that sponsors a final non-colonial, non-territorial solution to the political status of Puerto Rico. The San Juan-based group’s efforts include sending “citizen lobbyists” to Congress to deliver the certified results of the plebiscite, the sample ballot, and a call to action to all 542 offices on Capitol Hill

“It is noteworthy that, far from being a homogeneous group, the delegation is composed of people that favor different status options, but have all come together to make the will of the people not only be heard, but also acted upon. This fact alone is unprecedented,” Rosselló wrote in The Hill.

The White House has said the results of the status vote “were clear, the people of Puerto Rico want the issue of status resolved, and a majority chose statehood in the second question.”

Any statehood petition, however, would need the approval of Congress. Congress has not considered a statehood petition in more than half a century, since Hawaii and Alaska were added as states in 1959. Rosselló acknowledges that movement on the issue must come through Capitol Hill.

“So, what should Congress do?,” he asks. “Here we invoke Ockham’s razor again, as well as the Declaration of Independence, which states that “Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.’”

Congress can choose to “ignore the will of the people in Puerto Rico by elaborating some as-of-yet hypothesis, or by borrowing arguments from the proponents of the status quo,” Rosselló wrote. “Alternatively, they can abide by the simple and elegant way in which the people of Puerto Rico have come together, have chosen to move away from the current status, and are therefore primed to accept a Congress-implemented self determination process with valid non-territorial options.”

Rosselló signals that the stakes of inaction are high in terms of U.S. standing.

“It is time to act and show the world why the U.S. is the standard-bearer for democracy in the world. It is time to respond immediately to the will of the citizens of Puerto Rico, having Congress lead the way with viable status options for this American territory,” he wrote. “The world is watching… the power is in your hands.”

Reagan and Statehood  ( The Wall Street Journal, Feb 11, 198)

I.                   When I formally announced my intention to seek the

Republican nomination in1980, not only included a commitment to support

statehood forPuerto Rico if the people of the island desired statehood. It also

included a commitment that, as President, I would initiate  statehood

legislation, which really means that that I would take the lead in persuading

the people of Puerto Rico—the mainland United States- all American Citizens-

that statehood would de good for all of us.

II.                Fidel Castro hardly  let’s a speech go by without denouncing

“Yankee imperialism” in Puerto Rico and calling for total independence from the

United States. (Now they are Chavez, Raul Castro, Noriega, Evo Morales, etc)

III.             As Commonwealth, Puerto Rico is now neither a state nor

independent, and thereby has an historically unnatural status………. Its unnatural

status creating tensions around the idea of American “colonialism” Yankee

Imperialism”

IV.             In cementing itself to us as the 51st State, with unbreakable

bonds, Puerto Rico would represent a positive bridgehead into the Caribbean

Latin America and the developing world.

V.                The geopolitical concept of Puerto Rico’s exposed position on

the frontlines of  geoplitics isn’t new… It is understood by Gov, Carlos Romero

Barcelo and San Juan Mayor Hernan Padilla, the two dynamic advocates of

statehood, and profoundly understood by Luis Ferre. To these men, statehood is

an historic imperative.

VI.             About US: If we  en the United States cannot design a model for

a political economy that is sufficiently attractive, I f we can’t win over our

fellow citizens in Puerto Rico to the nuptial that statehood involves, how can

our model succeed as an instrument of foreign policy  anywhere in the world?

VII.          Puerto Ricans already face higher Tax Rates and they have shed a

disproportionate share of blood, relative to mainland citizens, in our wars.

VIII.       We must once again make economic policy an essential ingredient of

foreign policy. This is behind my idea of Statehood for Puerto Rico.

IX.             We should pick a peaceful battleground of competition between

economic systems, and…. a positive foreign policy. We can build from a

bridgehead in Puerto Rico.

X.                To show the world that the American idea can work in Puerto

Rico is to show that our idea can work everywhere!

 Gerald R. Ford: «Statement on Proposed Statehood for Puerto Rico,» December 31,1976. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=5538.

IN OCTOBER 1975 the Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Puerto Rico, appointed jointly by the President of the United States and the Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, recommended a new Compact of Permanent Union between Puerto Rico and the United States, to provide maximum self-government and self-determination for Puerto Rico.

The proposed Compact would institute fundamental and far-reaching changes in the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States, and its provisions would affect a wide array of Federal programs and interests.

Members of my Cabinet have thoroughly analyzed the proposed Compact and made recommendations to me. After studying their comments and recommendations and giving deep thought to this important proposal, I have concluded that the proposed Compact, significant and important though it is, does not advance as rapidly as it might freedom and opportunity for the American citizens of Puerto Rico.

I believe that the appropriate status for Puerto Rico is statehood. I propose, therefore, that the people of Puerto Rico and the Congress of the United States begin now to take those steps which will result in statehood for Puerto Rico. I will recommend to the 95th Congress the enactment of legislation providing for the admission of Puerto Rico as a State of theUnion.

The common bonds of friendship, tradition, dignity, and individual freedomhave joined the people of the United States and the people of Puerto Rico.
It is now time to make these bonds permanent through statehood in accordance with the concept of mutual acceptance which has historically governed the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States.

Of course, I would not make reference to a «relationship» or «friendship»
because Puerto Ricans are Americans.