Organizations of the Puerto Rican diaspora affirmed today that it was important that a project to offer Puerto Rico only the alternative of statehood has been ruled out in the US Congress.
But, they indicated that the draft legislation that proposes a plebiscite between statehood, independence and free association, must be amended to ensure more detailed and transparent transition processes.
In a statement, the groups, led by Power4PuertoRico, demanded that the public hearing that is to be held in June in Puerto Rico be conducted in Spanish.
“With the sovereignty of Puerto Rico still in the hands of 535 members of the United States Congress, it is now also clearer than ever that the island must have the freedom to determine its own future,” said Power4PuertoRico, the Puerto Rican Cultural Center of Chicago. , Open Society Policy Center (OSPC), Puerto Ricans United in the Diaspora (BUDPR), Alliance for Progress and the former mayor of San Juan Carmen Yulín Cruz Soto.
The leader of the Democratic majority of the federal House of Representatives, Steny Hoyer (Maryland), today led the presentation of a draft of legislation that proposes for November 2023 a binding plebiscite for the federal government between statehood, independence and free association .
“The intention is to put an end to colonialism,” said Hoyer, at a press conference with the proponents of the two bills presented in this session of Congress on the political status of Puerto Rico.
Diaspora organizations reaffirmed that the ideal would have been to start the process with a Constitutional Status Assembly, an idea that has also been derailed. But they think federal lawmakers have time to fix the draft released Thursday.
When speaking of the transition processes, they indicated that the bill must specify how the federal tax laws will be applied, the official language of the courts, schools and general government operations, the international sports representation of Puerto Rico and clearly define “Future U.S. Citizenship Requirements.”
“Congress must accept that Spanish is the language of control of the electoral ballot and that the laws and courts of the island are the final arbiter of this vote,” they indicated.
They also mentioned the importance of specifying “any change in the current restrictions on maritime and air transport, including the Jones Act” of 1920, which includes federal cabotage regulations.
