Puerto Rico votes on US statehood

To become a true US state, to choose independence or to maintain the status quo: Puerto Ricans will on Sunday mull their political future in a non-binding referendum many have vowed to boycott.

The Spanish-speaking US territory’s referendum proposes “the immediate decolonisation of Puerto Rico” — just as the bankrupt island is drowning in $70 billion in debt. Its young governor, Ricardo Rossello, said that regardless of the crisis the referendum could not wait, repeating in interviews and on Twitter that “the moment to vote for the decolonisation has arrived!”

Rossello, 38, came to power in January on the promise that he would work to end a long “colonial” relationship with the US and make the island the 51st state.

The question of status is “fundamental” to breaking free from economic turmoil, said Christian Sobrino, chief economic advisor to the government. “It is because Puerto Rico is in an unequal relationship” with the US that the bankrupt island’s finances are now under a largely US-appointed control board, he said.

A former Spanish colony taken over by the US at the end of the 19th century, Puerto Rico has enjoyed broad political autonomy since 1952 as a commonwealth or “free associated state”.

As American citizens, often proudly so, Puerto Ricans can freely enter the US, but don’t have the right to vote for US presidents or elect representatives to Congress, though US lawmakers have the ultimate say over the territory’s affairs. AFP

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