The nature of Puerto Rico's
political relationship with the U.S. is the subject of ongoing debate in Puerto
Rico, the United States Congress, and the United Nations.
Specifically, the basic question is whether Puerto Rico should remain a U.S. territory, become a
U.S. state,
or become an independent country.[74][75]
After several failed tries dating back to 1967, Puerto Ricans voted for the
first time to become a state in 2012. The plebiscite was nonbinding.
Estado
Libre Asociado
In 1950, the U.S. Congress granted
Puerto Ricans the right to organize a constitutional convention
via a referendum that gave them the option of voting their preference,
"yes" or "no", on a proposed U.S. law that would organize
Puerto Rico as a "commonwealth" that would continue United States
sovereignty over Puerto Rico and its people. Puerto Rico's electorate expressed
its support for this measure in 1951 with a second referendum to ratify the
constitution. The Constitution
of Puerto Rico was formally adopted on July 3,
1952. The Constitutional Convention specified the name by which the body politic
would be known.
On February 4, 1952, the convention
approved Resolution 22 which chose in English the word Commonwealth,
meaning a "politically organized community" or "state",
which is simultaneously connected by a compact or treaty to another political
system. Puerto Rico officially designates itself with the term
"Commonwealth of Puerto Rico" in its constitution, as a translation
into English of the term to "Estado Libre Asociado" (ELA). Literally
translated into English the phrase Estado Libre Asociado means
"Associated Free State." The preamble of the Commonwealth
constitution in part reads: "We, the people of Puerto Rico, in order to
organise ourselves politically on a fully democratic basis, ...do ordain and
establish this Constitution for the commonwealth which, in the exercise of our
natural rights, we now create within our union with the United States of America. In so doing, we declare: ... We consider as determining
factors in our life our citizenship of the United States of America and our
aspiration continually to enrich our democratic heritage in the individual and
collective enjoyment of its rights and privileges; our loyalty to the
principles of the Federal
Constitution;..."
While the approval of the Commonwealth
constitution by the people of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Congress and the U.S.
President, marked a historic change in the civil government of Puerto Rico,
neither it nor the public laws approved by Congress in 1950 and 1952 revoked
statutory provisions concerning the legal relationship of Puerto Rico to the
United States.[76]
This relationship is based on the Territorial Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The statutory provisions that set forth the conditions of
the relationship are commonly referred to as the Federal Relations Act (FRA).[77]
Inclusive by Resolution number 34, approved by the Constitutional Convention
and ratified in the Referendum held on November 4, 1952, the following new
sentence was added to section 3 of article VII of the commonwealth
constitution: "Any amendment or revision of this constitution shall be
consistent with the resolution enacted by the applicable provisions of the Constitution of the United States,
with the Puerto Rican Federal Relations Act and with Public Law 600, Eighty-first
Congress, adopted in the nature of a
compact".[78]
The provisions of the Federal Relations Act as codified on the U.S. Code Title
48, Chapter 4 shall apply to the island of Puerto Rico and to the adjacent
islands belonging to the United States and waters of those islands; and the
name Puerto Rico, as used in the chapter, shall be held to include not only the
island of that name, but all the adjacent islands as aforesaid.[79]
While specified subsections of the FRA were "adopted in the nature of a
compact", other provisions, by comparison, are excluded from the compact
reference. Matters still subject to congressional authority and established
pursuant to legislation include the citizenship status of residents, tax
provisions, civil rights, trade and commerce, public finance, the
administration of public lands controlled by the federal government, the
application of federal law over navigable waters, congressional representation,
and the judicial process, among others.[80][81]
In 1967, Puerto Rico's Legislative Assembly
polled the political preferences of the Puerto Rican electorate by passing a plebiscite act that provided for a vote on the status of
Puerto Rico. This constituted the first plebiscite by the Legislature for a
choice among three status options (commonwealth, statehood, and independence).
Claiming "foul play" and dubbing the process as illegitimate and
contrary to norms of international law regarding decolonization procedures, the
plebiscite was boycotted by the major pro-statehood and pro-independence
parties of the time, the Republican Party of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican Independence Party,
respectively. The Commonwealth option, represented by the PDP, won with a
majority of 60.4% of the votes. After the plebiscite, efforts in the 1970s,
1980s, 1990s and 2000s to enact legislation to address the status issue died in
U.S. Congressional committees. In subsequent plebiscites organized by Puerto
Rico held in 1993 and 1998 (without any formal commitment on the part of the
U.S. Government to honor the results), the current political status failed to
receive majority support. In 1993, Commonwealth status won by only a plurality
of votes (48.6% versus 46.3% for statehood), while the "none of the
above" option, which was the Popular Democratic Party-sponsored choice, won in 1998 with 50.3% of the
votes (versus 46.5% for statehood). Disputes arose as to the definition of each
of the ballot alternatives, and Commonwealth advocates, among others,
reportedly urged a vote for "none of the above".[82]
Commonwealth
In 1947, the U.S. granted Puerto
Ricans the right to elect democratically their own governor. In 1948, Luis Muñoz Marín became the first popularly elected governor of Puerto Rico.
A bill was introduced before the
Puerto Rican Senate which would restrain the rights of the independence and
nationalist movements in the island. The Senate at the time was controlled by
the PPD, and was presided over by Luis Muñoz Marín.[53]
The bill, also known as the Gag Law (Ley de la Mordaza in Spanish)
was approved by the legislature on May 21, 1948. It made it illegal to display
a Puerto Rican flag, to sing a patriotic tune, to talk of independence, or to fight
for the liberation of the island. The bill, which resembled the anti-communist Smith Law
passed in the United States, was signed and made into law on June 10, 1948, by
the U.S. appointed governor of Puerto Rico, Jesús T. Piñero, and became known as "Law 53" (Ley 53 in
Spanish).[54]
In accordance to the new law, it would be a crime to print, publish, sell,
exhibit, organize or help anyone organize any society, group or assembly of
people whose intentions are to paralyze or destroy the insular government.
Anyone accused and found guilty of disobeying the law could be sentenced to ten
years of prison, be fined $10,000 dollars (US), or both. According to Dr. Leopoldo Figueroa, a member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives, the
law was repressive, and was in violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution,
which guarantees Freedom of Speech. He pointed out that the law as such was a violation of the
civil rights of the people of Puerto Rico. The infamous law was repealed in
1957.[55]
In 1950, the U.S. Congress approved
Public Law 600 (P.L. 81-600), which allowed for a democratic referendum
in Puerto Rico to determine whether Puerto Ricans desired to draft their own
local constitution.[56]
This Act was meant to be adopted in the "nature of a compact". It
required congressional approval of the Puerto Rico Constitution before it could
go into effect, and repealed certain sections of the Organic Act of 1917. The
sections of this statute left in force were then entitled the Puerto Rican
Federal Relations Act.[57][58]
Then U.S. Secretary of the Interior Oscar L. Chapman, under whose Department resided responsibility of Puerto
Rican affairs, clarified the new commonwealth status in this manner, "The
bill (to permit Puerto Rico to write its own constitution) merely authorizes
the people of Puerto Rico to adopt their own constitution and to organize a
local government...The bill under consideration would not change Puerto Rico's
political, social, and economic relationship to the United States."[59][60]
On October 30, 1950, Pedro Albizu Campos and other nationalists led a 3-day revolt against the
United States in various cities and towns of Puerto Rico in what is known as
the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the
1950s. The most notable occurred in Jayuya and Utuado. In the Jayuya revolt, known as the
Jayuya Uprising, the United States declared martial law,
and attacked Jayuya with infantry, artillery and bombers. The Utuado Uprising
culminated in what is known as the Utuado massacre. On November 1, 1950, Puerto
Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo
attempted
to assassinate President Harry S Truman.
Torresola was killed during the attack, but Collazo was captured. Collazo
served 29 years in a federal prison, being released in 1979. Don Pedro Albizu
Campos also served many years in a federal prison in Atlanta, Georgia, for seditious conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government
in Puerto Rico.[61]
The Constitution
of Puerto Rico was approved by a Constitutional
Convention on February 6, 1952, and 82% of the voters in a March referendum. It
was modified and ratified by the U.S. Congress, approved by President Truman on
July 3 of that year, and proclaimed by Gov. Muñoz Marín on July 25, 1952, on
the anniversary of the July 25, 1898, landing of U.S. troops in the Puerto Rican Campaign of the Spanish-American War, until then an annual Puerto Rico holiday. Puerto Rico
adopted the name of Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico (literally
"Associated Free State of Puerto Rico"[62]),
officially translated into English as Commonwealth), for its
body politic.[note 4][63][64]
"The United States Congress legislates over many fundamental aspects of
Puerto Rican life, including citizenship, the currency, the postal service, foreign affairs,
military defense, communications, labor relations,
the environment, commerce, finance, health and welfare, and many others."[14]
During the 1950s, Puerto Rico
experienced rapid industrialization, due in large part to Operación Manos a
la Obra ("Operation Bootstrap"), an offshoot of FDR's New Deal, which aimed to
transform Puerto Rico's economy from agriculture-based to manufacturing-based.
Presently, Puerto Rico has become a major tourist destination, as well as a
global center for pharmaceutical manufacturing.[65]
Yet it still struggles to define its political status. Three plebiscites have
been held in recent decades to resolve the political status, but no changes
have been attained. Support for the pro-statehood party, Partido
Nuevo Progresista (PNP), and the pro-commonwealth
party, Partido
Popular Democrático (PPD), remains about equal. The
only registered pro-independence party, the Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño (PIP), usually receives 3–5% of the electoral votes.[citation needed]
No comments:
Post a Comment