From: Bryon Daly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
"Jose J. Ortiz-Carlo" wrote:
> Well, P.R. has been a proud colony/commonwealth of the United States for > more than a century, sooooo.... :)
This reminds me of a question that came up in a discussion I was just having
with a co-worker. Just what exactly is Puerto Rico's status with the US?
That depends on who you ask. The official status of the island is "commonwealth of the USA".
Is PR an (semi-)independent nation under US protection, or is it more like a
region the US controls that isn't a state (say like Washington DC)? If PR is
US controlled (ie: not an independent nation), do Puerto Ricans have US
citizenship, get to vote in US elections and pay US taxes?
I'm glad you asked. I'll try to answer to the best of my abilities. This is a very, very controversial topic for Puertorican politics.
First of all, let me state for the record that our national pastime is just that: politics. We eat/breathe politics 24/7. The nature of the ongoing discussions is for the most part at dialogue level, since we are not, or will ever be, into violent political changes like our brothers from Central or South America. That has *never* been the case with us.
PR is not semi-independent. It's not independent at all, and it can never be either. Our current status is sort of a limbo, really. It is a commonwealth, like Hawaii used to be before it became a state of the Union.
We have under the umbrella of both our constitution and the US constitution. We have our local government, but we respond to the Feds 100%. We have no Free Trade Agreement, and all trade has to be done through US Customs. We pay taxes but we have no Senate representation; just a Resident Commissioner in Washington who in the case of the current appointed political sweet-potato, acts more like a paperweight or a doormat. We have US currency, as well.
We have US citizenship, which for us is a blessing, as controversial as that sounds. However, we still can't vote for the Presidency. We have the power to elect our own governor and officials, and the island is under a local democratic system of Senate/House of Representatives. The higher authority, as far as legal matters go, is the Federal Court.
There is an extremely strong pro-statehood movement in the island. Independence from the Union isn't even an option. The local Independence party never fails to gather more than 2% of registered voters. However, recently some members of the media tend to favor the Independence movement in what seems to be a political agenda of sorts. All to no avail. This has spurged the creation of both government and US aligned-media as well.
What about the Virgin Islands - is that the same deal for the US portion? How does it work for the UK portion?
-bryon
Now you made me feel slightly ignorant.. because I am slightly ignorant regarding the politics of the USVI, so I'll do a little research and come back to that topic later. :)
JJ
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