US-POLITICS: Step Toward Self-Determination for Puerto Rico

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Mar 5 1998 (IPS) - Nearly 100 years after the United States snatched Puerto Rico from Spain, the citizens of the Caribbean island have been given the chance to vote on their island’s destiny.

The House of Representatives adopted the Puerto Rico self- determination bill by one vote Wednesday night, but the initiative faces heavy opposition in the Senate, and renewed debate on the issue could boomerang against Republicans by alienating Hispanic voters, according to political analysts.

Particularly damaging to Republicans, who have lost support in recent elections from the country’s fastest-growing ethnic minority, was a Republican-led effort to add an amendment making English the official language in all U.S. states, including Puerto Rico if it chose that option.

While ultimately unsuccessful, the ‘English-only’ effort added to the anger of the Hispanic community, whose political clout in Texas, California and other southwestern states may determine the fate of a number of close Congressional elections scheduled for November.

The bill, approved by a vote of 209-208 after 11 hours of debate, would require Puerto Ricans to vote by Dec. 31 on whether to join the United States. Voters would have three choices: statehood, independence or commonwealth status. It mandates a vote every 10 years until statehood , or independence, gets a simple majority.

Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States by Spain under the treaty which ended the Spanish-American War of 1898. Under the same treaty, Washington also gained possession of Cuba and the Philippines which later became independent. Congress approved citizenship for the residents of Puerto Rico, who now number almost four million in 1917. In 1952, the island became a U.S. commonwealth, a status which exempts Puerto Ricans from federal income tax, permits them to vote in U.S. primary elections, but bars them from casting ballots in general elections. Puerto Ricans also vote for state and local offices, as well as a non-voting delegate to represent them in the lower house of Congress.

In a non-binding referendum in 1993, 48 percent of voters on the island opted to retain their commonowealth status; 46 percent voted for statehood; and 4.4 percent for becoming an independent nation.

The bill approved Wednesday requires a new plebiscite in which voters would be offered the same three options. If a majority opt choose either statehood or independence, the president would be required to submit legislation within six months of the vote that would lay out a transition to the desired status within ten years. Puerto Ricans would then be asked to vote again on the transition plan.

If commonwealth gains a majority, on the other hand, nothing would change, although another referendum would have to be held within ten years.

Commonwealth advocates in both Puerto Rico and Congress generally opposed the bill which they charged was designed to elicit a pro-statehood result. In addition to requiring referanda every ten years, the bill also defined commonwealth in such a way that suggested Congress could strip Puerto Ricans of their U.S. citizenship in the future.

“This is not about self-determination,” argued New York Democratic Rep. Nydia Velazquez, a Puerto Rican native. “By voting on this legislation, we are imposing statehood on Puerto Rico.”

But she was in a minority in her party. Democrats voted by a five-to-one margin in favour of the bill, which was endorsed by President Bill Clinton.

Most of the opposition lay with right-wing Republicans who argued that making Puerto Rico the 51st state was too great a challenge that the country could ill afford. “This is a serious, serious decision,” noted one Mississippi Republican who added that “I don’t think the American people know the issue is out there.”

The most contentious debate took place around the “English- Only” amendment which was put forward by Republican Rep. Gerald Solomon who warned that permitting Spanish to prevail in a U.S. state would create a “Quebec situation.”

The House voted to approve a bill making English the official U.S. language by a 259-169 margin in 1996, but the measure died in the Senate.

Nonetheless, the 1996 effort, which was mounted entirely by Republicans, cost the party dear in local and Congressional elections in November that year. Already smarting from the passage of Proposition 187 – a measure aimed at depriving immigrants of welfare, education and other state benefits – in California in 1994, Hispanic voted in record numbers for Democrats in the 1996 elections.

Despite their losses, Republicans revived the English-only effort Wednesday. “Our common language is the tie that binds us all,” declared Louisiana Republican Robert Livingston during Wednesday’s debate. “The ability to communicate with a common tongue is the key to success.”

With Democratic support, Republican co-sponsors of the statehood bill moved to co-opt the effort by passing an alternative amendment that requires Puerto Rico, if it becomes a state, to follow the language policy that applies to the rest of the country. It also encourages the island to “promote the teach of English (to) enable students to achieve language proficiency by the age of 10.”

While the less-harsh measure prevailed, the debate proved embarassing to Republican leaders who have argued that the party must woo back Hispanic voters. House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt called Solomon a “slap in the face of the people of Puerto Rico” and predicted that the measure would enhance Democratic prospects for regaining control of the House in November’s Congressional elections.

In addition to the English-Only effort and Proposition 187, Hispanics have been angered by a prolonged battle by a former extreme right-wing California Republican, Robert Dornan, to challenge his defeat by a Hispanic woman, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, in 1996. Dornan has claimed that Sanchez’ victory was tainted by the votes of “illegal” immigrants.

In addition, Republican efforts last year to strip the rights of immigrants to receive federal welfare benefits have also hurt the party’s standing with Hispanic voters.

Meanwhile, Trent Lott, the Senate Majority Leader sought to dampen hopes that the House statehood measure would be acted on quickly by the upper chamber. He said Tuesday before the vote that he did not expect the Senate “to spend a lot of time” on it this year.