In 2018 petitioners addressing the United Nations (UN) Special Committee on Decolonization described the United States’ relationship with Puerto Rico, according to a UN report, “as one of genocide and ‘economic terrorism,’ characterized by multinational corporations—facilitated by the United States—exploiting Puerto Rico’s resources even as that country’s Government implemented austerity measures that had forced schools to close and pensions to go unpaid.”
This searing indictment is, from the perspective of many Puerto Ricans, more than a hundred years of history condensed into one sentence. The relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico began in 1898, when the U.S. Army invaded the island—then under Spanish colonial rule—during the Spanish-American War. Puerto Rico was officially ceded to the victorious U.S. later that year by the Treaty of Paris. Later, Puerto Ricans watched as the U.S. recognized the independence of the Philippines and Cuba, island territories that had also been under American occupation during the war, and they believed that they would finally be granted the independence some Puerto Ricans had called for from Spain for centuries.
Instead the United States persisted in treating Puerto Rico as a colony.
Until 1917 Puerto Ricans weren’t considered U.S. citizens. Until 1952 the territory wasn’t allowed to have its own constitution. Today the island, now called the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is relatively self-governing. New laws are proposed and ratified without U.S. approval, and Puerto Rico’s governor—long a U.S. appointee—is voted in by Puerto Ricans.
But while Puerto Ricans are subject to U.S. federal laws, pay into Social Security and Medicare, and are deeply affected by federal policy—UN petitioners cited the lack of substantial federal aid in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria—Puerto Ricans can’t vote in U.S. federal elections and aren’t represented by voting members of Congress. (The one Puerto Rican congressional representative can serve on committees and introduce bills but is unable to vote.) Puerto Rico does, however, share at least one “privilege” with U.S. states: it cannot declare bankruptcy. And yet, as those UN petitioners pointed out, if Puerto Rico had been a state, the economic exploitation by American companies that it had endured for decades would likely have been curtailed by the U.S. government. (In 2017 Puerto Rico reached a “bankruptcy-like” settlement with the U.S. following a decade-long recession.)
It’s the centuries of colonization, then, that make Puerto Rico’s political status so complicated. Though we can never know what the island would look like if freed from that history, methods of disentangling Puerto Rico from colonial rule have been debated for decades, sometimes in the form of referenda that have usually presented the people of Puerto Rico with three options:
- Statehood: Puerto Rico would be admitted as the 51st state in the union. The island would receive increased financial help and social security from the U.S. government but lose its current constitution, which is distinct from the U.S. Constitution. In 2012, 61.2 percent of Puerto Rican voters favored statehood over remaining a commonwealth; in 2017, 97 percent (of a small voter turnout) chose statehood over independence or commonwealth status; and in 2020 about 53 percent voted for statehood.
- Independence: Puerto Rico would become an independent country. It would gain complete and total powers of self-governance, but it would likely struggle economically as it separated from the United States. Proponents of total independence were behind the 47 percent of voters who rejected statehood in 2020 as well as 2017’s small voter turnout. (Because nationalists boycotted the 2017 referendum, only 23 percent of registered voters turned out—a percentage far lower than for most elections, which had drawn more than 80 percent.)
- Retaining commonwealth status: Puerto Rico would remain a commonwealth of the United States. Some Puerto Ricans have proposed “enhanced commonwealth status,” which would increase the island’s powers of self-rule while retaining a relationship with the United States, or “Sovereign Free Associated State” status, under which Puerto Rico would function as an independent country with strong ties to the United States. However, these latter options have appeared on referenda infrequently.
In 2020 Puerto Rico’s sixth referendum presented a straightforward yes-or-no question: “Should Puerto Rico be immediately admitted into the Union as a state?” A majority (52.34 percent) of voters chose yes. Thus, in 2021 came H.R. 1522 (or the Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Act), a bill that may have lacked the referendum’s directness but still clearly made its point: “Puerto Ricans have contributed greatly to the nation and its culture and distinguished themselves in every field of endeavor. However, the denial of equal voting representation and equal treatment by the Federal Government stands in stark contrast to their contributions.”
H.R. 1522, however, was nothing new. It was about the 11th bill to propose statehood for Puerto Rico. And, as Puerto Rico’s referenda are nonbinding, the U.S. Congress has long declined to vote on a change in the island’s status.