Jimmy Carter’s Involvement in Puerto Rican Politics

Jimmy Carter held the position of President of the United States from 1977 to 1981. While his humanitarian legacy is widely acknowledged, the achievements of his presidency are sometimes minimized or even disregarded. President Carter’s impact on Puerto Rico includes several significant milestones that deserve recognition.

Acknowledgment of Puerto Rico’s ambiguous status

El Nuevo Día, a news outlet from Puerto Rico, recently stated that Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. president to acknowledge that the 1952 revision of Puerto Rico’s name and the ratification of the territory’s constitution did not actually address the issue of Puerto Rico’s political status. “In 1978,” according to the 2011 report from the President’s Task Force on Puerto Rico’s Status, “the Carter Administration established an ‘alternative futures’ policy, which indicated that the executive branch would recognize all potential Island statuses as valid and would not promote a specific status option.”

In his 1978 address, Carter remarked, “My administration will honor the wishes of the people of Puerto Rico and their right to self-determination. Whatever choice the people of Puerto Rico decide upon – statehood, independence, Commonwealth status, or mutually agreed modifications to that status – will be yours, determined in accordance with your own customs, democratically and peacefully,”

Jeffrey Farrow, who was Carter’s Associate Director of the Domestic Public Policy Staff, highlighted that including statehood in the options represented a significant step forward. “That declaration, in itself, laid to rest the notion that the Commonwealth had resolved the status issue,” added Franklin Delano López, chair of the Democratic Party of the United States in Puerto Rico.

Recognition of Puerto Rico’s self-determination

During Carter’s presidency, the Democratic Party included this declaration in its 1980 political platform:

“The Democratic Party acknowledges and supports the aspiration of the people of Puerto Rico to choose, through their own freely expressed will in a peaceful and democratic manner, to permanently associate with the United States, either as a Commonwealth or as a state, or to become an independent nation. We are also dedicated to honoring the cultural heritage of the people of Puerto Rico and abolishing any discriminatory or unjust treatment of Puerto Ricans as U.S. citizens under federal programs.”

Carter also endorsed the Senate’s Concurrent Resolution 35, “A concurrent resolution reaffirming Congress’s dedication to the right of the people of Puerto Rico to define their own political destiny.” The equivalent measure in the House was Concurrent Resolution 165.

Carter may have been in favor of statehood for Puerto Rico; current accounts suggest that his advocacy for “self-determination” was aimed at appeasing fellow Democrats who were pro-“commonwealth.” However, it is Congress, not the president, that admits new states. Carter was among numerous presidents who have backed statehood for Puerto Rico.

Nevertheless, Congress has yet to take the necessary steps to admit the last remaining populous territory. In this light, Carter’s legacy may also include being the original benchmark in what has turned into ongoing lip service given to “self-determination” despite the high value Puerto Ricans place on U.S. citizenship (considered immensely valuable according to a 2011 report from the Obama Administration) and the outcomes of Puerto Rico’s referenda that have favored statehood.

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