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The financially troubled island now says it is unable to pay an estimated $72 billion debt, casting a pall on bond markets and pension funds. On the surface, Puerto Rico’s debt crisis is one of run-away spending on public welfare, with a diminishing small tax and economic base to support it. However, the island’s troubles are also tied to its commonwealth status: Puerto Rico is part of the United States but it lacks the local autonomy afforded to other U.S. states and electoral representation in Congress.
It is finally time for Puerto Rico to break free. Independence would allow Puerto Ricans to directly address their economic woes, but, perhaps more important, it will grant the island’s 3.5 million inhabitants the right to determine their own destiny. On July 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston ruled that Puerto Rico couldn’t restructure its own debt. Puerto Rico’s status as a U.S. territory bars the island from requesting bailout funds from other development banks. Independence, nationalists argue, would allow the commonwealth to make these and other autonomous choices.
Nothing like an op-ed to get people thinking...this touches on economic, political and population geography.
Tags: Puerto Rico, political, migration, autonomy, economic.
Nothing like an op-ed to get people thinking...this touches on economic, political and population geography.
Tags: Puerto Rico, political, migration, autonomy, economic.
There is no question that Puerto Rico is suffering from its current status as a commonwealth of the United States. However, the answer to their issues is not independence, its statehood. An independent Puerto Rico would continue to face the same economic issues. It would be just one of many depressed small Caribbean nations. It is well past the time, that Puerto Rico be admitted as a state into our union. The most recent vote on the issue, favored the statehood political status. However, the vast amounts of controversy surrounding the election process have made those results rather worthless. Puerto Rico has been floundering in political no mans land since the United States acquired the island from Spain at the end of the Spanish American War. The current political status is untenable. Hopefully a fair election can be held and the status of Puerto Rico will finally be settled.