Of the 2,458,036 registered voters in Puerto Rico, about 548,387, or 97 percent, of Puerto Ricans voted in a non-binding referendum for the territory to become America's 51st state, while approximately 16,960, or 3 percent, were opposed, according to the Wall Street Journal review of early returns. Statehood was prominent during Puerto Rico's election in November when two pro-statehood candidates won: Rossello, a Democrat, became governor and Jenniffer Gonzalez, a Republican, was elected resident commissioner - Puerto Rico's sole representative in U.S. Congress who can write and submit legislation, but doesn't have the authority to vote.
According to preliminary results, almost half a million votes were cast for statehood, more than 7,600 for free association/independence and almost 6,700 for retaining the current territorial status. "It would be highly contradictory for Washington to demand democracy in other parts of the world, and not respond to the legitimate right to self-determination that was exercised today in the American territory of Puerto Rico", he declared. After the filing, Breitbart News reported that Puerto Rico's public pension plans have only $1.8 billion in assets to pay $45 billion in liabilities.
One of the next steps to becoming a state after a vote from a territory is for its administrators to request statehood from Congress.
Congress will ultimately decide whether Puerto Rico will become the 51st state in the USA, but since statehood would give the Democratic-leaning territory seats in the House and Senate, it is unlikely Republicans will support the decision since it could affect the majority.
The Free Association option, according to the White House Task Force on Puerto Rico, would establish a bilateral agreement between the US and Puerto Rico that would create "close links" between both nations.
Statehood would allow Puerto Ricans to claim full welfare benefits available to USA citizens, but would compel residents to begin paying federal taxes on income obtained on the island.
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Protesters in favor of Puerto Rico's independence protest after a referendum was held on the island's status by marching through the financial district, known as the golden mile, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Sunday, June 11, 2017. One of the more poignant is the fact that Puerto Ricans can serve in the U.S. military and be sent into battle by a president whom they cannot elect.
"I think it is really rather unlikely that Puerto Rico will become the 51st state in a xenophobic administration like the one that we have in the USA at the moment".
Groups that back the current commonwealth status, like the Popular Democratic Party, PPD, have called for a boycott of the plebiscite. While 1.5% of the voters chose independence from the United States, 1.3% wanted the current status to be retained. Aren't "territories" remnants of a colonial past that we really shouldn't' have anymore?
Still the result is hardly as convincing as Rosselló claims. A majority of Puerto Ricans chose statehood for the first time in the last referendum in 2012 but Congress ignored the result because of voter confusion.
Gov. Ricardo Rossello, who campaigned on the promise of statehood, has positioned statehood as part of a process of economic rehabilitation that would bring the island investment in infrastructure and business. That will make it hard for the governor to get Congress to pay much attention to the vote. When he suggested that they take a one-third haircut on their investments, the commission said that was too generous, that it was letting them off the hook too easily.
But those who did vote were looking into the future.
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