When the U.S. Wanted to Figure Out Puerto Rico?

{Los PPD están en negación, se unen para destruir. Pronto enfrentaran la realidad. USA no puede seguir con la Colonia porque le afecta su moral en el Mundo.}

Monday, August 26, 2013

      Remember When the U.S. Wanted to Figure Out Puerto Rico? That’s Still Happening

Puerto Rico may have voted in favor of statehood, but its future status remains unclear.

by Marina Koren

USA-Indivisible

New Progressive Party supporters at the party’s closing election campaign rally in San Juan, Puerto Rico last November. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)

As Hawaii marks the 54th anniversary of its statehood this month, we’re reminded that the future of one of the country’s territories remains in flux. Last November, Puerto Ricans voted in a plebiscite—the fourth of its kind since 1967—in favor of statehood for the first time ever.

Despite the results, conversations about the future of what some call America’s last colony have petered out. Congress held a hearing on Puerto Rico’s status at the beginning of this month, with senators calling for a change, any change.

«After 115 years, it is clearly time for Puerto Rico to determine what political path it will take,» Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said at the hearing, referring to 1898, the year Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the United States. «The current status undermines our nation’s moral standing around the world.»

What’s keeping Puerto Rico in political limbo?

While more voting is sure to come, lawmakers from the island and the mainland have yet to figure out what to ask Puerto Ricans on the ballot. The Senate committee leaders read last year’s results as Puerto Ricans rejecting the current status, but some question the validity of the voting outcome. The first question on the ballot asked voters if they favored U.S. territory status; 54 percent said they didn’t. The second asked voters to choose from three options: statehood, independence, or sovereign free association—a status that would give Puerto Rico more autonomy than it currently has.

Sixty-one percent chose statehood, but 26 percent of voters left the ballot blank. Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla believes this shrank support for statehood to 44 percent. He calls for something like the current commonwealth status, not full-fledged statehood, but at this month’s hearing he didn’t provide details on how that would work.

Meanwhile, Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi, the island’s nonvoting member of Congress and a statehood supporter, is pushing for a federally commissioned «yes» or «no» vote to decide Puerto Rico’s future once and for all, just like the one for Hawaii 54 years ago. Pierluisi’s party, the New Progressive Party, filed a lawsuit this summer against Padilla, claiming the governor was trying to dissuade lawmakers on the mainland from supporting statehood.

Wyden says an «enhanced commonwealth» such as the one Padilla is proposing is not an option. Padilla counters that neither is statehood, saying that last year’s vote was «an electoral process rigged in favor of statehood» because it didn’t include a range of different options, a process known as self-determination. While he hasn’t said as much, under Padilla’s standards, the ballot that helped determine Hawaii’s future in 1959 would be considered a fraud.

Although it doesn’t matter now, the Hawaiian plebiscite vote was once questioned too. «It pretended that Hawaii did not have to go through a self-determination,» says Jonathan Osorio, a Hawaiian studies professor at University of Hawaii (Manoa). «We were not given the full range of options.»

U.S. lawmakers are anxious to redefine Puerto Rico’s status. But the tug-of-war between its leaders, combined with uncertainty about past state-commissioned votes and fidgeting over potential federal ones, suggest that the island will have to keep waiting.

End second-class US citizenship in Puerto Rico

By Dennis O. Freytes – 08/26/13 04:00 PM ET

We must do right and get the federal government to end second-class U.S. citizenship and Puerto Rico’s un-democratic territorial status.

This complex equal rights quandary that affects millions is not only about a “group” vote on the status question but, more importantly, it’s about protecting individual civil rights in our representative democracy, where the U.S. citizen should be the epicenter of our republic. We must end political oppression with truth and fairness.

In 1898, the U.S. invaded Puerto Rico as part of the Spanish American War, forcefully took it as a spoil of wa and made it a U.S. territory (colony) that falls under the absolute un-democratic control of the federal government.

In 1917, Congress erred in imposing on Puerto Rico a statutory second-class U.S. citizenship — that is, without all rights, responsibilities and benefits — that doesn’t permit loyal U.S. citizens, including U.S. combat veterans, to vote in federal elections or have just representation in the Congress that determines their destiny.

This American Hispanic civil rights issue that strikes at the soul of our democracy — “consent of the governed” — has not received the national attention it merits. But, now we must be fair, soar above political rhetoric, demagoguery, lies, misinformation and excuses, and educate the gullible and all the rest on the truth. It is time to advance our democracy; ensure equality and break Puerto Rico’s un-democratic, territorial shackles.

The U.S. Territory of Puerto Rico held an internal plebiscite in November 2012, with about 78 percent of residents voting on two major questions. On the first question, 54 percent voted to end Puerto Rico’s curreent territorial status, and 46 percent to keep that status. The second question was to indicate the political status preferred from three possibilities: statehood, independence, or a sovereign nation in free association with the United States. Over 61 percent voted for statehood; only 5.55 percent voted for total Independence; and 33 voted for the third choice, which was not clearly defined. However, the political cover-up, the misinformation and misinterpretation of the results, has begun. Some are trying to discredit a democratic plebiscite where everyone had the opportunity and duty to vote. The results are clear: non-territorial status through statehood won!

After 115 years of non-action, the federal government must not obfuscate nor provide discriminatory excuses, but educate and promptly intervene to protect all individual civil rights, end an un-democratic status that goes against the grain of our American democracy, and start the transition process (which should not take more than 3-5 years) to admit Puerto Rico as the 51st state of our Union.

Puerto Ricans are born U.S. citizens and constitute the second-largest American Hispanic segment of our U.S. population, with five million residing in the states and four million in Puerto Rico. It is the oldest territory in U.S. history and its people have bravely defended the U.S. flag since 1898. This includes the U.S. 65th Infantry Regiment that suffered segregation, discrimination and un-equal citizenship, yet bravely fought for all of us.

Individual civil rights is essential to our democracy and must be protected against federal political oppression. Congress must promptly do right — admit tPuerto Rico as the 51st state of the Union or give Puerto Rico total or associated independence.

Congress should not be incongruent. The U.S. Constitution should equally apply to all U.S. citizens. If not, there is discrimination and no consent of the governed.

Freytes is a retired U.S. Army Lt. Colonel, served in the Special Forces; was on Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s transition team and is a trustee at Valencia College.

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/civil-rights/318789-end-second-class-us-citizenship-in-puerto-rico

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