Q: NO: 2

ANSWER

1. Puerto Rico officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. In 1898, following the Spanish–

American War, the United States acquired Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricans have been U.S.
citizens since 1917, and can move freely between the island and the mainland. However, as
residents of an unincorporated territory, American citizens of Puerto Rico are disenfranchised at
the national level, do not vote for the president or vice president, and generally do not pay
federal income tax. As it is not a state, Puerto Rico does not have a vote in the U.S. Congress,
which governs it under the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950, and its recent difficulties
have raised a really old question, one that's been asked for years. What should the relationship
between Puerto Rico and the United States mainland be? How connected should they be?

2. A 2012 status referendum found that 61% supported statehood and in December 11 of that
year, the legislature in Puerto Rico requested that action be taken on the results, end their
current form of territorial status and start the process for admitting the country to the Union as
a state.
List of Advantages of Puerto Rico Becoming a State
a. Quality of life will be improved.
A lot of the citizens of Puerto Rico are living under the poverty line. When the country becomes
part of the US, a lot of job opportunities would present itself for the residents. Even though the
island nation is a territory of the United States, it enjoys limited benefits. Even the country’s
representative in Congress is a nonvoting delegate.

b. Debt can be solved.

Puerto Rico has suffered since the financial crisis of 2008, and they have been struggling since
then. Ryan Cooper, in a 2015 opinion piece in The Week, wrote “By proposing a referendum on
statehood and assisting with an orderly debt write-down, America can atone for its past sins and
put Puerto Rico back on an upward trajectory.”

c. Puerto Rico would have equal status with the other 50 states and would no longer be under
congressional authority.

d. Two senators and about seven congressional representatives would represent Puerto Rico in
Congress.

e. Federal financial benefits would increase, but Puerto Ricans would pay federal income taxes.

3. Puerto Rico is in a state of emergency. Its public debt, which recently declared unpayable, is $73
billion and counting. Unemployment is hovering at a dismal 14 percent and 46 percent of the
island’s inhabitants are living below the poverty line, a rate higher than that of any state on the
mainland.
Advantages of Independence for Puerto Rico
 a. As a U.S. colony, Puerto Rico’s insolvent municipalities and public corporations cannot
declare bankruptcy. And because Puerto Rico is not independent, it is prohibited from
seeking help from international financial institutions, leaving it with few options in the face
of what seems like inevitable default.
b. Puerto Rico’s economy is both limited by and dependent on Washington. Constrained by
U.S. federal laws and regulations, the island’s economy lacks the structural capacity to thrive
on its own. Puerto Rico has no control over its monetary policy and little control of its fiscal
policy. Issues related to immigration, foreign policy and trade are dictated by U.S. law and
U.S. regulatory agencies.
c. Puerto Rico has no actual representation in Congress, decisions are made with little to no
consideration for the needs and general welfare of the island’s residents. Indeed, Puerto
Ricans must adhere to laws passed by a government in which they do not participate.
Independence would grant Puerto Rico a platform to address the debt crisis on its own
terms and afford the island’s 3.5 million inhabitants the right to self-determination.

4. In the facts given below it seems that Puerto Rico fulfills the criteria for being an independent
and sovereign state. For too long, the people of Puerto Rico have been treated as second-class
U.S. citizens. Because of its ambiguous commonwealth status, Puerto Rico has remained an
unincorporated territory belonging to but not part of”279 the United States. Contrary to the
beliefs of some, Puerto Rico’s commonwealth status cannot afford the people of Puerto Rico the
“best of both worlds.” The disproportionally low level of federal aid that Puerto Rico receives is
egregious. Moreover, the staggering poverty rate in Puerto Rico compared to U.S. states goes
largely unnoticed. In short, Puerto Rico’s commonwealth status is unsatisfactory, and the people
of Puerto Rico should be given an opportunity to exercise their right of self-determination in a
way that will definitively resolve the status of Puerto Rico.
Criteria:
The process of creating new states is a mixture of fact and law, involving the establishment of
particular factual conditions and compliance with relevant rules. The accepted criteria of
statehood were laid down in the Montevideo Convention (1933), which provided that a state
must possess a permanent population, a defined territory, a government, and the capacity to
conduct international relations.

5. The preferred out of the Puerto Rico lies in resolving the status of Puerto Rico which will be
difficult, ignoring the issue will not make it go away. Accordingly, the U.S. Congress should stop
dragging its feet and pass legislation authorizing a binding plebiscite on Puerto Rico. Or in case
of international community, the U.N. Decolonization Committee might put more pressure on the
United States to facilitate the process of self-determination in Puerto Rico.