A new bill cosponsored by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could finally give Puerto Ricans the chance to decide.
Last month, New York’s representatives, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Nidia Velazquez, accompanied by Bob Menendez of New Jersey in the Senate, introduced the Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act of 2021. If the legislation were passed, the legislation would create a process to determine the nature of their relationship with the United States, which has colonized the island for more than 120 years.
Self-determination happens when Puerto Ricans rise up against a board of fiscal oversight imposed by the federal government, government neglect in the wake of Hurricane Maria, gender and ethnic violence on the island, and business as usual in local government, making the status quo the colonial relationship unsustainable. The bill rightly recognizes that Puerto Ricans themselves, and not their colonial supervisors, have the right to decide their own futures.
This is how the law works. First, Puerto Rico’s legislature will pass a law to initiate a status agreement. The residents of Puerto Rico will elect delegates to the status agreement, who in turn will determine the list of options for political status and accompanying transition plans in consultation with a committee consisting of members of Congress and the presidential administration. Options for the political situation could include statehood, independence, free association, or any other option than the current colonial arrangement. The status options and transitional plans accompanying the vote will be put forward in a special referendum on the island. Finally, Congress will ratify the specific status option, entirely dependent on the choice of Puerto Rican voters, and the governments of the United States and Puerto Rico will begin implementing the new arrangement.
Puerto Ricans have voted in various referendums on the political situation over the years. Indeed, some advocates of statehood point to the recent referendum, an issue of statehood in November 2020, to say that Congress should immediately pass a bill that would put Puerto Rico on the path to statehood.
But Puerto Ricans have never had the opportunity to vote on their preferred political situation with the benefit of knowing the implications of each option and what the transition will look like. For example, if Puerto Rico is a state, can the Puerto Rican courts and legislature continue to operate in Spanish? Under the heading “Free Association,” can Puerto Rican residents retain their US citizenship? If the island became independent, would the United States offer any compensation to Puerto Rico for more than a century of exploitation and neglect? Many issues related to culture, language, taxation, debt and citizenship, among others, have become important.
With the requirement that each option for the political situation presented in the referendum be fully determined and include a transitional plan, the process defined by the Self-Determination Act will ultimately give the people of Puerto Rico a meaningful voice in their political future. In addition, the bill allows for preferred voting, which means that residents can express their true preferences without worrying that their vote will not be important if their main options do not have the support of the majority.
It should also be noted that previous referendums have been riddled with controversy, including concerns about how the questions are structured, boycotts and, in the case of recent referendums, the electoral irregularities that led to litigation. Puerto Rico’s Self-Determination Act will provide a clear and transparent process that puts all options on the table and ensures residents have a fair vote.
Bill timing is not accidental. In recent years, a series of events – the ongoing debt crisis and the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in particular – made it painfully clear that whatever language the United States chooses to use, Puerto Rico is a colony of this century.
By the time the then governor declared the island’s debt unpayable in 2015, Puerto Rico had already suffered years of economic contraction caused largely by federal policies imposed on Puerto Ricans. In the summer of 2016, the Supreme Court issued two decisions dealing a blow to any aspect of the island’s autonomy: revoking the Puerto Rican Bankruptcy Act even though it could not benefit from federal bankruptcy protections, and declaring that Congress would retain permanently. Control of Puerto Rico under the territorial provision of the United States Constitution.
Later that summer, Congress invoked its authority under the territorial provision to pass the Puerto Rico Economic Stability, Management, and Oversight Act (PROMESA). The act imposed an unelected and irresponsible Financial Management and Supervision Board (the islanders called it “the board”) and created a path of austerity to push Wall Street at the expense of Puerto Ricans. Still recovering from its debt crisis, the island was struck by Hurricane Maria and quickly abandoned by the federal government. Some experts estimate that the hurricane caused more than a thousand deaths, many of which could be prevented.
Puerto Ricans were not satisfied with these facts. Organizations such as Casa Pueblo and Comedores Sociales, which were active before Maria, played an important role in the aftermath. Organize pensioners by Let’s Build Another Agreement (“Build Another Agreement”) to demand that their pensions remain intact through the PROMESA bankruptcy process rather than cutting them off in favor of Wall Street creditors. (“Colectiva Feminista en Construcción”) highlighted issues of racial and gender-based violence. Perhaps most importantly, in the summer of 2019, hundreds of thousands of Puerto Rican residents took to the streets and successfully demanded the resignation of Governor Ricardo Rossello, chanting, “Ricky resigns and takes over the board” (“Ricky, resign and take over the board of directors, you”). In the aftermath of #RickyRenuncia, a progressive party not defined by preferences for the political situation, Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana (“Movimiento de Victoria Ciudadana”), has emerged as an important political force on the island.
It was in this context of colonial injustice and leftist organization that the Self-determination Act emerged in Puerto Rico, with broad support from progressive organizations and parties on the island and in the diaspora.
There is no easy solution to 123 years of American colonialism in Puerto Rico. The relationship has caused and continues to do a lot of damage to the island. While no bill alone will solve more than a century of injustice, any fair path forward will require a credible, inclusive, and democratic process. With an organized and committed Puerto Rican audience required to pass the bill and the success of the process it describes, it is time to permanently end American colonialism in Puerto Rico.
