The activity, organized by the Igualdad organization, was timed to coincide with the 520th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in Puerto Rico. After four centuries of Spanish rule, Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States in 1898. Residents were granted U.S. citizenship in 1917.

“ For 520 years, first under Spain and now under the United States, Puerto Rico has had a political status that is colonial in nature. Residents of Puerto Rico are citizens of the greatest democracy in history, but they do not have voting representation in the government that makes their national laws and they are often treated unequally under those laws,” Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi told the crowd.

“Moreover, Puerto Rico’s status is the principal reason why the territory has confronted severe economic challenges for decades and why thousands of our best and brightest residents relocate to the states every month in search of better opportunities,” he added.

The rally drew participation from a range of other groups such as the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, Puerto Rico Statehood Democrats, Puerto Rico Statehood Students Association, Misión Estadista and the Puerto Rico Statehood Council.

Members of Congress who spoke at the rally included Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho), Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida), Rep. José Serrano (D-New York) andSen. Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico).

Puerto Rico political figures taking part included Dr. Hernán Padilla, a former San Juan mayor and founder of Igualdad, and Kenneth McClintock, a former president of the Puerto Rico Senate who served as the island’s secretary of State during the Fortuño administration.

“We meet today in a city divided by partisanship. But the cause of statehood for Puerto Rico transcends party politics,” Pierluisi said.

“On the local level, the statehood party I lead, unique among the island’s political factions, draws support from all across the spectrum, from the most liberal to the most conservative, and every point in between,” he said. “Likewise, on the national level, statehood advocates come in every political stripe, as the attendance at today’s rally underscores. Statehood has never been—and it will never become—a Democratic movement or a Republican movement. It is about right versus wrong, justice versus injustice, and equality versus inequality.”

The rally was staged just over a year after the local election-day plebiscite in Puerto Rico. In the 2012 plebiscite’s two-question vote, 53.97 percent of voters said they were against continuing Puerto Rico’s current commonwealth territory status. A second question had voters choose among “nonterritorial” alternatives to the current status, with 61.13 percent voting for statehood, 33.34 percent voting for Puerto Rico becoming a nation in a free association with the U.S. and 5.49 percent voting for independence. Some 26 percent of ballots cast were left blank to protest that the status quo was left off the second ballot.

President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2014 budget seeks $2.5 million to hold the first federally sponsored vote on Puerto Rico’s status. The bill cleared key committees in both chambers of Congress but was sidetracked by the federal budget battle and partial government shutdown this fall. Budget negotiators are now working on a compromise spending package that could include the plebiscite finding.

Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro García Padilla maintains that the blank votes dropped support for statehood to just 44 percent. He and his commonwealth Popular Democratic Party argue the ballot was rigged against the current status and that the empty ballots represent a protest against commonwealth’s exclusion from the second question.

The NPP and Puerto Rican Independence Party maintain that the results of the two-step plebiscite represent a clear rejection of the continuation of the current territorial status. Those voting “no” included statehood supporters, as well as advocates of independence and free association.

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

“Now is the time for Congress to act and the administration will work with them on that effort so that the people of Puerto Rico can determine their own future,” reads a statement by the White House issued in early December

In August, the U.S. Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on the referendum. Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Rep. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the ranking Republican on the panel concurred that the vote made clear that the majority of Puerto Ricans do not favor the “current territorial status.”

Meanwhile, Pierluisi’s HR 2000 continues to lag in Congress despite garnering 125 bipartisan cosponsors, which represents more support than 98 percent of bills introduced this session. Efforts to obtain a Senate companion bill are ongoing.

No decision has been made on whether the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee, whuich has jurisdiction on Puerto Rico issues, will schedule hearings on HR 2000, but chairman Richard Norman “Doc” Hastings has said “there is strong interest among both Republicans and Democrats in Congress in listening to and considering all local views in determining Puerto Rico’s future.”

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the budgetary impacts of statehood is expected to factor into Hastings’ decision. The report has been delayed and is now tracking to come out in early 2014, according to CARIBBEAN BUSINESS sources.

HR 2000 is the first bill to formally attempt to win Puerto Rico’s admission as a state of the union in the more than century-long relationship between the U.S. and the island. The measure aims to commit Congress to the results of the future vote that would take place in Puerto Rico.

Voters would be asked, “Do you want Puerto Rico to be admitted as a state of the United States?” and if they support statehood, the bill directs the president to introduce legislation within 180 days of the vote that would “admit Puerto Rico as a state of the union on equal footing with the several states in all respects.”

“The U.S. government rightfully prides itself as a champion of democracy and self-determination around the world. Therefore, Democrats and Republicans in Washington should—indeed, they must—remain true to those principles with respect to their own citizens, by enacting legislation that will enable Puerto Rico to have a democratic and dignified status,” Pierluisi said Tuesday. “Five centuries is too long. The time to act is now.”