Puerto Rico to Determine Their Own Fate?

Picture Courtesy The Washington Post

The House Natural Resources Committee approved the Puerto Rico Democracy Act last July. This would create at least one plebiscite in the Caribbean territory to survey the population about what they want their status to be. The bill will come up to the floor for a vote this year.



Both the Democratic and Republican parties are trying to charm Hispanics in this election year.


"Every Republican president in the last 50 years has supported this process," Fortuno said in an interview. "President Reagan was a strong supporter of this process, and actually of statehood as well."


The pending legislation will not be finite. It will simply allow Congress to conduct an official suvey of Puerto Rico citizans to discover their desires for statehood or not. Congress would then proceed how it sees fit.

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51st State?

Picture courtesy of CIA World Factbook

The Caribbean island of Puerto Rico off the coast of the Dominican Republic has undergone many historic changes, especially in the last 100 years. Puerto Rico became a property of America in 1898 as a result of the Spanish-American War and is now an U.S. commonwealth. Plebiscites were held in 1967, 1993, and 1998 yet their political status as a commonwealth has remained the same. There is equal support for the pro-statehood party, Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP), and the pro-commonwealth party, Partido Popular Democrático (PPD) in Puerto Rico today. It has been a question of great debate whether or not Puerto Rico will some day become the 51st state of the United States of America.