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Vol. 3 No. 15
Para ver este documento en español, oprima aquí.
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The largest public-works project in the history of Puerto Rico, the Urban Train public-transportation system, is taking shape. Construction will be completed in the middle of next year. It is expected to cost $1.6 billion.
The train will initially link the bustling suburb of Bayamon with the Rio Piedras section of San Juan, the Hato Rey banking district and the Santurce commercial area of the capital.
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Voters may want Sila Calderon and no status for 2000. But... compare the following two statements, and learn:
"Since 1952, Puerto Rico has exercised local self-government under the sovereignty of the United States and subject to the provisions of the Constitution of the United States and other Federal laws applicable to Puerto Rico."
"The present commonwealth relationship was created in 1952... the unpopular colonial regime was replaced by a new form of government... that gave us sovereignty similar to that of a state, but with broader control over local affairs under the terms of a compact."
Which is true? Who is telling to whom?
The first statement was approved unanimously by the United States Senate in Senate Resolution 279 of the 105th Congress, 2nd Session, on Sept. 15, 1998.
The second statement was made by San Juan Mayor Sila Calderon on March 13, 1999.
It states that our female denizens are more concerned about "status of Caimito" (Caimito being one of our rural barrios that is doing ok) than about the colonial status of Puerto Rico, so precisely defined by the United States Senate in September, 1998.
Exit polls published after the plebiscite show only 29% of the voters want to "keep thing as they are". Those are the "happy colonials." Those are the Caimito lovers. Those are Sila's. The rest may be wary of status, but they do not have mentality of the "happy colonials."
However, Calderon has transformed 29 percent into a majority, by displacing party president Anibal Acevedo Vila in Washington.
Who is right? The United Sates Senate or the mayor of San Juan? How can any political party in Puerto Rico, with the millennium almost here, nominate such an anachronism for any position? JM Garcia Passalaqua, The San Juan Star
Puerto Rican Statehood is a Wrong-Headed Idea
For reasons largely political, the U.S. Senate will convene a hearing May 6 to study Puerto Rican statehood. It's an exercise to placate Puerto Rican "statehooders" who, in a referendum in last December, lost their quest to become America's 51st state. The December referendum was the second time in six years that Puerto Ricans have rejected statehood.
[F]or understandable reasons. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens but do not pay federal income tax. They also receive $10 billion annually in federal social benefits. It's not a bad package.
But "statehooders" insist it smacks of colonialism. They call themselves "second class citizens" because they cannot vote for the U.S. president or Congress.
Yet the island's 3.8 million people are perfectly free to declare independence.
But Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Rossello, a statehooder, refuses to accept defeat.
[I]f statehood is a bad idea, independence would be fine. Then, statehooders would have to stop braying they're second-class citizens. Greensboro News & Record, Editorial
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Puerto Rico's People Have Fought to Defend America
Being a Puerto Rican, I took interest in your April 5 editorial about statehood for Puerto Rico. Your editorial left many issues untouched.
You stated that Puerto Ricans rejected statehood in the last referendum, but you failed to mention that the island is about 50 percent pro-statehood. Independence has never been an option, as it is supported by only about 3 to 4 percent of the voting public.
Isn't it ironic that we cannot vote for president or have a full voting member in Congress, but our young men and women are an integral part of the U.S. Army? My father was one of the few survivors of the 65th infantry in the Korean War.
He did not fight for Puerto Rico. He fought as a U.S. army officer, as many Puerto Ricans did in the Vietnam and now in Kosovo.
A bad idea? Take a look at the whole picture. Language difference, yes. Cultural differences, yes. But then again, wasn't this true in Hawaii and Alaska? Raymond Natal, Greensboro, NC
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Statehood Proponents Make A New Run On Washington
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - When Puerto Ricans rejected a proposal last year
to become the 51st U.S. state - the second statehood setback in six years - it
looked like the century-long fight would stop for many years to come.
But Puerto Rico 's "statehooders" are still in the ring.
Through renewed lobbying, fund-raising and involvement in Vice President Al
Gore's presidential campaign, the movement led by Gov. Pedro Rossello is
raising the issue again.
"It's obvious that Rossello is trying to convince the leadership of the
Congress to hold another plebiscite ," said Anibal Acevedo Vila, head of
the rival Popular Democratic Party.
So far, the Senate has scheduled hearings for May 6 to examine the result of
December's nonbinding referendum , and President Clinton has met with Rossello
and issued a statement saying he is "strongly committed to enable the
people of the islands to choose Puerto Rico 's status . ... I recognize the
need to further clarify these options."
Rossello also met last month with Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, House
Speaker Dennis Hastert and other Congressional leaders to push statehood .
CHRIS HAWLEY, AP Online
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In 1918 President Woodrow Wilson used the term [self-determination] in
speeches to Congress. 'Self-determination' is not a mere phrase," Wilson
told Congress; "it is an imperative principle of action which statesmen
will henceforth ignore at their peril."
American beliefs in this respect are defined by history. In 1776 the colonies
asserted a right to independence from a government across the ocean in which
they did not participate. In the Civil War the Union denied the right to secede
to parts of the country that enjoyed the right of participation in the
government. In our time, through the United Nations, the U.S. has taken part in
the creation of a rule of public international law that gives colonies the
legal right to independence from overseas empires but seemingly extends no such
right in noncolonial situations.
After both world wars in our century, the U.S. proposed creating a peacekeeping
world organization on the basis that all existing states and boundaries be
respected. In the American theory, peoples within a country must learn to live
with one another, under a rule of law that protects them all.
[A]s a general rule we believe in the integrity of countries, not in the
independence of nations. David Fromkin, The Wall Street Journal
Making IRS Section 30A Permanent for U.S. Firms Operating in Puerto Rico is Not
the Best Way to Stimulate Sustainable Development on the Island
"Llama me Alberto," the U.S. vice president tells his Hispanic
audience at a Kennedy Center gala -- Call me Alberto. Then Al Gore shows he has
graduated from the Macarena to dancing salsa with Caribbean legend Celia Cruz.
Across the country in Austin, Texas, Gov. George W. Bush just this week told a
Mexico City newspaper to call him "Mexico's best friend across the
border." The governor, who likes to say, "My heart is Hispanic "
-- in Spanish -- also broke with the language of his Republican Party in that
interview to sympathize with Mexican immigrants here.
Such pitches to U.S. Spanish-speakers, from the two front-runners for their
parties' presidential nominations, speak to what's shaping up as one of the
biggest fights within the fight for political control in 2000: the battle for
the growing Hispanic vote.
That vote is concentrated in the U.S.'s four largest states: California, the
big enchilada, with 54 electoral votes, along with Texas, Florida and New York.
With the U.S.'s already-large Hispanic population growing at a steady clip,
"it's reached critical mass," said Antonio Gonzalez, president of the
William Velasquez Institute in Los Angeles and San Antonio. The Wall Street
Journal
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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Puerto Rico 's opposition Popular Democratic Party,
optimistic about wresting the governor's office and legislature from a
government touched by scandals, is caught up in a controversy of its own.
Jose Alfredo Hernandez Mayoral, son of former three-term governor Rafael
Hernandez Colon, has begun campaigning to be the party's candidate for resident
commissioner, the island's nonvoting representative in the U.S. Congress.
According to press reports, San Juan Mayor Sila Calderon, who everyone expects
will be the party's gubernatorial candidate, said that if Hernandez Mayoral is
the resident commissioner candidate, she will not run.
That touched off a firestorm within the party that favors commonwealth status
over statehood . The leadership has tried to fight off criticism that the
selection process is closed.
[S]ome think the controversy has less to do with party procedures than with
Hernandez Mayoral's father and what he represents. His father served as
governor from 1973 to 1977 and from 1985 to 1993, when the PDP party's
candidate Victoria "Melo" Munoz lost to Rossello when he ran for his
first term.
"Some may think that (with Hernandez Mayoral) we would be going back to a
time in 1992 when the people booted us out because they were not satisfied with
our work," said PDP Rep. Francisco Zayas Seijo. Ivan Roman, Orlando Sentinel
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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Following through on a promise in a Senate resolution
last year, Chairman Frank H. Murkowski announced he will hold a hearing on
Thursday, May 6, 1999, to review the results of the December 1998 plebiscite.
In September 1998, the Senate by voice vote passed S.Res. 279, which conveyed
the sense of the Senate that the chamber supports the right of Puerto Rico,
through referendum or other means, to communicate its desires on future
political status to the federal government, and that the federal government
will consider such communication.
"[W]e should provide a forum for our fellow citizens in the territories
when they have taken the initiative to express their views," said
Murkowski, who is Chairman of the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee.
"Recognizing the legitimacy of their aspirations and the validity of their
actions, this hearing will allow the Governor of Puerto Rico, in accordance
with local law, to formally present the result of the plebiscite."
Washington D.C. -- House Resources Committee Chairman Don Young, Alaska
Republican, is considering introducing a bill to force residents of Puerto Rico
-- now a "commonwealth" rather than a state or territory -- to pay
income taxes for the first time since the United States annexed the island in
1898. That might force islanders to choose between independence or statehood,
a choice they have consistently refused to make.
But even statehood advocates are not fond of Mr. Young's ideas.
"We are more than willing to comply with responsibilities such as [paying
income tax] as long as it comes hand in hand with all the benefits of
statehood," said Alcides Ortiz, the Washington representative of Puerto
Rico's pro-statehood governor, Pedro Rossello. Sean Scully, The Washington Times
White House: "None Of The Above" Win
Not A Clear Status Choice
Vote Said To Give Little Guidance
On Ultimate Outcome
By Jaime Pieras, Jr.
United States District Judge
Zappa v. Cruz
By Dick Thornburgh
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Write your Member of Congress in Support
of Puerto Rico Self-Determination!
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Under Statehood All Puerto Ricans
Would Have Been
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American Taxpayers
Have Forked Over
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Wealthier Today,
and
Commonwealth is Costing Them
$6,000.00 More Every Year!
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Subsidizing
Puerto Rico Commonwealth, and It's Costing Them $22,821,918.52
More Each and Every Day of the Year!
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PUERTO RICO SELF-DETERMINATION
Puerto Ricans Earning Their Own Way
Puerto Rico Paying Its Own Way
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