Military government After the ratification of the Treaty of Paris of 1898, Puerto Rico came under the colonial control of the United States of America. This brought about significant changes: the name of the island was changed to
Porto Rico (it was changed back to Puerto Rico in 1932) and the currency was changed from the
Puerto Rican peso to the
United States dollar. Freedom of assembly, speech, press, and religion were decreed and an
eight-hour day for government employees was established. A public school system was begun and the
U.S. Postal service was extended to the island. The highway system was enlarged, and bridges over the more important rivers were constructed. The government lottery was abolished,
cockfighting was forbidden (it was legalized again in 1933), Health conditions were poor at the time, with high rates of infant mortality and numerous endemic diseases. The beginning of the military government also marked the creation of new political groups. The and the
American Federal Party were created, led by José Celso Barbosa and Luis Muñoz Rivera, respectively. Both groups supported annexation by the United States as a solution to the colonial situation. The island's
Creole sugar planters, who had suffered from declining prices, hoped that U.S. rule would help them gain access to the North American market. Disaster struck in August 1899, when two hurricanes ravaged the island: the
1899 San Ciriaco hurricane on August 8, and an unnamed hurricane on August 22. Approximately 3,400 people died in the floods and thousands were left without shelter, food, or work. The effects on the economy were devastating: millions of dollars were lost due to the destruction of the majority of the sugar and coffee plantations. Afterwards, nearly 5000
Puerto Ricans migrated to Hawaii by 1910 to work in the sugar plantations of Hawaii.
Insular government The military government in Puerto Rico was short lived; it was disbanded on April 2, 1900, when the U.S. Congress enacted the
Foraker Act (also known as the Organic Act of 1900), sponsored by Senator
Joseph B. Foraker. This act established a civil government and free commerce between the island and the United States. The structure of the insular government included a governor appointed by the
President of the United States, an executive council (the equivalent of a senate), and a legislature with 35 members, though the executive veto required a two-thirds vote to override. The first appointed civil governor,
Charles Herbert Allen, was inaugurated on May 1, 1900. The act also established the creation of a judicial system headed by the
Supreme Court of Puerto Rico and allowed Puerto Rico to send a
Resident Commissioner as a representative to Congress. Sugar mill owners between the period of 1898 and 1945 turned their sugar mills into monocultural plantations in response to the economy of the 20th century. The sugar mills and tobacco, cigar, and cigarette factories gained the United States' attention due to their fast productions and large amount of produce. Women and children were the primary workers within these industries. Puerto Rican trades went to the United States 95% of the time. By 1914, the coffee production that once was steady failed. The sugar industry rose along with the economy. Puerto Rican mill owners and French and Spanish residents took the United States' corporate capital. Four United States operations were part of the United Sugar Refineries, which were owned by Cuba and the Dominican Republic. In 1870, Congress introduced tariffs to protect domestic sugar producers. Puerto Rico's sugar industry suffered as a result, but the acquisition of Puerto Rico by the United States brought free trade between the two. Capital flowed into Puerto Rico with the effect of modernizing its sugar processing mills due to the United States' influence. Puerto Rico's agricultural economy was transformed into a sugar monoculture economy, supplemented by gardens for local consumption. American sugar companies had an advantage over the local sugar plantation owners, who could only finance their operations at local banks, which offered high interest rates compared to the low rates that American companies received from the commercial banks in
Wall Street. This factor, plus the tariffs imposed, forced many of the local sugar plantation owners to go bankrupt or to sell their holdings to the more powerful sugar companies. Sugar was considered one of the few strategic commodities in which the United States was not fully self-sufficient. In 1950, Puerto Rico had a record sugar crop. While the sugar industry suffered in the late 1800s, the coffee industry flourished. By the end of the 19th century, the island was the world's seventh largest producer of coffee. This changed after 1898, when export production replaced farming. People lost their land and properties, the amount of land disposal shrank, and the people hoped that Europe would take part in the trade of coffee, but they did not. Coffee makers were not happy with them being controlled by the United States. In 1933, most of the people worked as families instead of individuals most likely due to 90 percent of them being poor. The United States had formed a Tobacco Trust that had basis rules for cigarettes, but Puerto Ricans had issues when it came to brand and local marketing. The Tobacco Trust controlled cigarettes and cigar production as well as the tobacco leaf. There was a fall of the industry due to the exports.
Social and educational changes Cockfighting was originally banned following the American takeover. However, in 1933, cockfighting was legalized again and became a booming industry. The American administrators put great emphasis on developing a modern school system. English-language instruction provoked fears of cultural genocide. This effort generated resistance from teachers, parents, politicians, intellectuals, and others. Resistance to the imposition of English was part of a larger effort to resist invasion and colonization. The schools became an arena for "cultural identity" as promoted by middle-class local teachers, who rejected the idea of creating students speaking only English, and instead sought to have a Puerto Rican culture that incorporated the best of modern pedagogy and learning with a tie for the island's Hispanic language and cultural traditions. U.S. officials underestimated the place of Spanish in Puerto Rican culture. By 1898 Spanish language was firmly rooted in the population. Spanish was also one of the leading international languages through which Puerto Ricans were in contact with the world. The level of opposition to the imposition of English was such that it led to the failure of U.S. language policies in Puerto Rico. One shock came in 1935, however, when a New York study found Puerto Rican schoolchildren in New York City to be seriously deficient in basic skills. After 39 years of the imposition of English at the University of Puerto Rico, Spanish became the preferred language of instruction in 1942, and in public schools the vernacular
Spanish became the language of teaching and learning in 1940–50.
Politics An economically evolving Puerto Rico called for a new advancement in political status. Powerful, innovative Puerto Rican leaders, including
Luis Muñoz Rivera,
José de Diego,
Rosendo Matienzo Cintrón,
Manuel Zeno Gandía,
Luis Lloréns Torres,
Eugenio Benítez Castaño, and
Pedro Franceschi, contributed to the rise of multiple successful political parties. However, the birth of multiple political groups led to a diversion of the island's interests: uniting as a statehood with the US, becoming a US territory/commonwealth, or declaring independence altogether. In 1900, the was formed during the US military rule of the island after the Spanish–American War. It was formed by
Luis Munoz Rivera and other members of the
Autonomist Party. The favored immediate transformation of Puerto Rico into an organized unincorporated territory and eventually US statehood. The were founded by
Santiago Iglesias Pantin. Over time the was also in favor of statehood with the US. The campaigned for assimilation into the United States and wanted to develop prosperously with their best interests under the new US administration. They wanted to fully integrate US law and government. Their plan was to become a territory and have representation through a delegate and eventually become a US state with no restrictions. The did not advocate for independence. Instead, party leader
Santiago Iglesias Pantin advocated for statehood and change in economic policies which were influenced by his practice in founding the Federación Regional de Trabajadores (
Regional Workers Federation) and labor newspaper
Ensayo Obrero. The party was based on the principles of the
Socialist Labor Party of America and received much support from American authorities. After the dissolution of the
Federal Party,
Luis Muñoz Rivera and
José de Diego founded the in 1904. The Unionist Party of Puerto Rico aimed to secure "the right of Puerto Rico to assert its own personality, either through statehood or independence." The beginning of the , the independence party, was in 1909.
Rosendo Matienzo Cintrón,
Manuel Zeno Gandía,
Luis Lloréns Torres,
Eugenio Benítez Castaño, and
Pedro Franceschi founded the party which was the first political party whose agenda was the independence of Puerto Rico. The Puerto Rican status quo was again altered in 1909 when the Foraker Act, which replaced military rule with a civilian government in Puerto Rico, was modified by the Olmsted Amendment. This amendment placed the supervision of Puerto Rican affairs in the jurisdiction of an executive department designated by the president of the United States.
[50] In 1914, the first Puerto Rican officers,
Martín Travieso (Secretary) and
Manuel V. Domenech (Commissioner of Interiors), were assigned to the Executive Cabinet. This allowed for native Puerto Ricans to hold a majority in the Council, which consisted of five members selected by the president, for the first time in history. A 1915 delegation from Puerto Rico, accompanied by the Governor
Arthur Yager, traveled to Washington, D.C. to ask Congress to grant the island more autonomy.
Luis Muñoz Rivera became one of the founders of the Union Party in Puerto Rico who was against the Foraker Act. This delegation and speeches made by Resident Commissioner Muñoz Rivera in Congress, coupled with political and economic interests, led to the drafting of the Jones–Shafroth Act of 1917 (Jones Act).
Organized U.S. territory Jones Act of 1917 The Jones Act was made to replace the Foraker Act, which allowed for the free entry of Puerto Rican goods into the U.S. market. The
Jones Act was approved by the U.S. Congress on December 5, 1916, and signed into law by President
Woodrow Wilson on March 2, 1917. In addition to veto power, the United States could prevent the enforcing of actions taken by the legislature. The Act stated that the President of the United States was to appoint members of the Puerto Rico's legislative branch, as well as the directors of the six major government departments: Agriculture and Labor, Health, Interior, and Treasury (with the advice of Congress) and the Attorney General and the Commissioner of Education. The epicenter was located northwest of Aguadilla in the Mona Passage (between Puerto Rico and the
Dominican Republic). Some politicians were in favor of Puerto Rico becoming an incorporated state of the U.S., while others wanted Puerto Rico to gain independence from the United States. Amid this debate, a nationalist group emerged that encouraged radical activism for Puerto Rico to become independent from the United States. As a consequence of the Jones Act and the establishment of elections, a new political party, the , was founded on September 17, 1922. This party used advocated massive demonstrations and protests against any political activity that was not going to result in Puerto Rico gaining independence. In 1930, Albizu was elected president, and instilled many of his political ideologies into the party, which were composed heavily of anticolonial politics and feelings of contempt against the United States. In the 1930s, the Nationalist Party, led by president Pedro Albizu Campos, failed to attract sufficient electoral support and withdrew from political participation. Increased conflict arose between their adherents and the authorities. On October 20, 1935, Albizu testified against the dean of the University of Puerto Rico, claiming that he wanted to Americanize the institution. Four days later a student assembly gathered and declared Albizu a
persona non grata, forbidding him to speak there. Albizu was later arrested for breaking the Smith Act of 1940, which declared that it was against the law for anyone to teach or be part of a group that encouraged the overthrow of the American government. On October 23, 1935, a student assembly was planned to be held at the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras campus. Its officials asked Governor
Blanton Winship to provide armed police officers for the campus to forestall possible violence. Colonel Elisha Francis Riggs, the U.S.-appointed Police Chief, commanded the forces. Several police officers spotted what they believed to be a suspicious-looking automobile and asked the driver Ramón S. Pagán for his license. Pagán was the Secretary of the Nationalist Party at this time. He was accompanied in the car by his friends and other Nationalist Party members Pedro Quiñones and Eduardo Rodríguez. The police officers asked Pagán to slowly drive to the police station on Calle Arzuaga, but while they were just a block away from the station, the police surrounded the vehicle and fired their guns into the car. Rosado and Beauchamp were declared heroes by the Nationalist Party president, Pedro Albizu-Campos. Shortly after, the San Juan Federal Court had Albizu arrested for his incitement of discontent. After initially being found innocent in a jury with seven Puerto Ricans and two North Americans, the judge ordered a new jury which had ten North Americans and two Puerto Ricans, who found him guilty. In 1936, the U.S. Senator Millard Tydings presented a legislative proposal to grant independence to Puerto Rico, but many people believed that it had unfavorable economic conditions. , March 21, 1937. On March 21, 1937, a peaceful march was organized by the Nationalist Party, under Pedro Alibizu Campos, to commemorate the ending of slavery in Puerto Rico in 1873 by the governing Spanish National Assembly. The police, under the orders of General
Blanton Winship, the US-appointed colonial Governor of Puerto Rico, opened fire at the peaceful Puerto Rican Nationalist Party parade, which is now known as the "
Ponce massacre": 20 unarmed people (including two policemen) were killed, with wounded persons ranging between 100 and 200. This occurred because the head of the police force in Juana Díaz, Guillermo Soldevila, raised a whip and struck the chest of Tomás Lopez de Victoria, the captain of the cadet corps, and told him to stop the march. As a result, a police officer, Armando Martinez, ran from the corner in front of the Nationalist council and fired once into the air. This prompted many others to fire their arms. On July 25, 1938, just over a year after the Ponce massacre, Governor Winship ordered a military parade to take place in the city of Ponce in celebration of the American invasion of Puerto Rico. Such celebrations customarily took place in San Juan, the capital of the colonial government. At the parade, an attempt was made to assassinate Winship, allegedly by members of the Nationalist Party. It was the first time in Puerto Rico's long history that an attempt had been made against a governor. Although Winship escaped unscathed, a total of 36 people were wounded, including a colonel in the National Guard and the Nationalist gunman.
Pre-WWII economy . Photograph by
Jack Delano, a photographer for the Farm Security Administration. Ca. 1941. Coffee was a major industry before the 1940s. Arabica beans were introduced to the island in 1736. Production soared in the central mountainous area after 1855 because of cheap land, a low-paid and plentiful workforce, good credit facilities, and a growing market in the U.S., Spain and Europe. Decline set in after 1897, and the end came with a major hurricane in 1928 and the 1930s depression. While coffee declined, sugar and tobacco grew in importance, thanks to the large mainland market. Land tenure did not become concentrated in fewer hands, but income increased as American agribusiness and capital investments arrived. The land tenure system was in the firm control of local farmers (small, medium, and large). After 1940 dairying became an industry second only to sugar, and had a higher dollar output than the better-known traditional crops – coffee and tobacco. In the 1920s, the economy of Puerto Rico boomed. A dramatic increase in the price of sugar, Puerto Rico's principal export, brought cash to the farmers. As a result, the island's infrastructure was steadily upgraded. New schools, roads and bridges were constructed. The increase in private wealth was reflected in the erection of many residences, while the development of commerce and agriculture stimulated the extension of banking and transport facilities. This period of prosperity came to an end in 1929 with the onset of the
Great Depression. At the time, agriculture was the main contributor to the economy. Industry and commerce slowed during the 1930s as well. The problems were aggravated when on September 27, 1932,
Hurricane San Ciprián struck the island. Exact figures of the destruction are not known but estimates say that 200–300 people were killed, more than a thousand were injured, and property damage escalated to $30–50 million ($ to $ as of ). The agricultural production, the principal economic driver for the island, came to a standstill. Under President
Franklin D. Roosevelt's
New Deal, a
Puerto Rican Reconstruction Administration was authorized. Funds were made available for construction of new housing, infrastructure, including transportation improvements and other capital investment to improve island conditions. In 1938, a new federal
minimum wage law was passed, establishing it at 25 cents an hour. As a consequence, two-thirds of the island's textile factories closed because they could not be profitable while paying workers at that level.
Establishment of the Commonwealth in public; the only flag permitted to be flown on the island was the
flag of the United States. In the years after World War II, social, political and economical changes began to take place that have continued to shape the island's character today. 1943 saw the Legislative Assembly pass by unanimous vote a
concurrent resolution calling for an end to the colonial system of government. The late 1940s brought the beginning of a
major migration to the continental United States, mainly to New York City. The main reasons for this were an undesirable economic situation brought by the
Great Depression, as well as strong recruiting by the U.S. armed forces for personnel and U.S. companies for workers. In 1946 President Truman appointed Resident Commissioner
Jesús T. Piñero to serve as island governor; he was the first
Puerto Rican appointed to that position. In May 1948, a bill was introduced before the
Puerto Rican Senate which would restrain the rights of the independence and nationalist movements on the
archipelago. The Senate, which at the time was controlled by the and presided by
Luis Muñoz Marín, approved the bill. This bill became known as the (
Gag Law, technically "Law 53 of 1948") when Piñero signed it into law on June 10, 1948. It made it illegal to sing a patriotic song, and reinforced the 1898 law that had made it illegal to display the
Flag of Puerto Rico, with anyone found guilty of disobeying the law in any way being subject to a sentence of up to ten years imprisonment, a fine of up to US$10,000 (), or both. The U.S. Congress passed an act allowing Puerto Ricans to elect their governor, and the first elections under this act were held on November 2, 1948. Muñoz Marín won the election, and was sworn in as the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico on January 2, 1949. On July 3, 1950, President
Harry S. Truman signed the
Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950, which allowed Puerto Ricans to draft their own constitution to establish their own internal government — while the island was still under a gag law. It also authorized the President to forward the new constitution to the Congress, if he found it conformed to the provisions of the Act. The Constitution, which took effect upon approval by the U.S. Congress, formally named the territory
"Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico" in Spanish, but since the English translation "Free Associated State of Puerto Rico" was unacceptable, as the U.S. had not granted statehood, the name "Commonwealth of Puerto Rico" is used in English. Four U.S. states – Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia – use "commonwealth" as part of their formal names; and the former
Territory of the Philippines was elevated to
Commonwealth Status in 1935 in preparation for independence, which was granted in 1946. Once in office, Muñoz Marin was directed to not pursue Puerto Rican Independence, which angered many of his constituents, and betrayed the wishes of his father,
Luis Muñoz Rivera, and dealt another blow to the independence movement. On October 30, 1950, a group of Puerto Rican nationalists, under the leadership of Pedro Albizu Campos, staged several attacks across the main island, known as the
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party revolts of the 1950s, the most successful of which is known as the
Jayuya Uprising. The revolts included an attack on the
governor's mansion,
La Fortaleza. Puerto Rican military forces were called in to put down the Jayuya Uprising. Two days later, two Nationalists from New York tried to storm in to
Blair House in Washington D.C., then the president's temporary residence, to
assassinate United States President Harry S. Truman. These acts led Muñoz to crack down on Puerto Rican nationalists and advocates of Puerto Rican independence. The actions by both Muñoz, under the Gag Law and the "Carpetas program", and the United States Government, through the "
COINTELPRO program", would later be determined as infringing on constitutional rights. In February 1952, the Constitution of Puerto Rico was approved by
voters in a referendum, and the US Congress gave its approval, subject Puerto Rico striking Sec. 20 of Article II and adding text to Sec. 3 of Article VII of the final draft, amendments that were finally ratified in November of that year. The territory organized under the name
Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Ricoadjusted, in English, to "Commonwealth of Puerto Rico", as the archipelago was not a full state (
Estado). That same year marked the first time that the
Flag of Puerto Rico could be publicly displayed, rather than being subject to the 10-year prison sentence that had been passed in the Gag Law of 1948. In March 1954, four Nationalists fired guns from the visitors gallery in the US House of Representatives at the Capitol, to protest the lack of Puerto Rican independence, wounding several persons. The Official Languages Act of 1902 declared English and Spanish co-official languages in all government departments, courts, and island administrations. In 1993, Puerto Rico adopted both languages as official languages of the Puerto Rican government.
Statehood issue during the 20th century Luis A. Ferré founded
Estadistas Unidos (United Statehooders), an organization to campaign for statehood in the
1967 plebiscite, after the Statehood Republican Party chose to boycott the vote. On July 23, 1967, the first plebiscite on the political status of Puerto Rico was held. Voters affirmed continuation of Commonwealth status (Commonwealth–60.4% Statehood–39%; Independence–0.6%). Other plebiscites have been held to determine the political status of Puerto Rico, in 1993 and in 1998. Both times, although by smaller margins, the status quo has been upheld. In 2012, a majority voted to reject the current status and voted to become a state. The referendum was controversial as opponents had tried to persuade people to abstain from voting altogether and argued the vote was invalid. As the U.S. Constitution empowers Congress to admit new states, the referendum could be taken only as a sign of popular opinion. Legally the island remains a territory of the United States, under congressional supervision. After the 1967 plebiscite, the was organized under Ferré's leadership. The party campaigned for Puerto Rico to become the
51st state of the Union. Luis A. Ferré was elected governor on November 5, 1968, with 43.6% of the vote, the first time a pro-statehood governor had received a plurality. The New Progressive Party, the Popular Democratic Party, the Independence Party, and the Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana (Citizen's Victory Movement) constitute the current political status-based registered political parties in the island.
Economy since 1945 After World War II, large numbers of young people migrated to the mainland's industrial cities for work and remitted dollars back to their families. In 1950 Washington introduced
Operation Bootstrap, which greatly stimulated economic growth from 1950 until the 1970s. Due to billions of dollars of corporate investments, the growth rate was 6% for the 1950s, 5% for the 1960s, and 4% for the 1970s. Puerto Rico became one of the most affluent economies in Latin America. However, it had to import 80% of its food. Operation Bootstrap was sponsored by governor Muñoz Marín. It was coupled with agrarian reform (land redistribution) that limited the area that could be held by large sugarcane interests. Operation Bootstrap enticed US mainland investors to transfer or create manufacturing plants by granting them local and federal tax concessions, but maintaining the access to mainland markets free of import duties. Another incentive was the lower wage scales in the densely populated island. The program accelerated the shift from an agricultural to an industrial society. The 1950s saw the development of labor-intensive light industries, such as textiles; later manufacturing gave way to heavy industry, such as petrochemicals and oil refining, in the 1960s and 1970s. Muñoz Marín's development programs brought some prosperity for an emergent middle class. The industrialization was in part fueled by generous local incentives and freedom from federal taxation, while providing access to continental US markets without import duties. As a result, a rural agricultural society was transformed into an industrial working class. Manufacturing activity, however, has been burdened by electricity rates two to three times the average in the United States. In 1976, the U.S. Congress exempted companies in Puerto Rico from paying
income tax on revenue generated there. This, along with cheap labor, generated an influx of
pharmaceutical companies. This tax exemption was phased out over ten years, from 1996 to 2006, resulting in a recession as companies moved production elsewhere. In 2006, Puerto Rico saw its credit rating downgraded to one notch above non-investment grade by the main credit rating agencies, with the possibility of more downgrades happening in the near future. This has led to fiscal measures to reduce government spending, increase revenues and balance the budget, and the implementation in 2006 and expansion in 2013 of a 7% sales tax. Present-day Puerto Rico has become a major tourist destination and a leading
pharmaceutical and manufacturing center, as well as a major financial center for the Caribbean. In early 2017, the
Puerto Rican government-debt crisis posed serious problems for the government which was saddled with outstanding bond debt that had climbed to $70 billion or $12,000 per capita at a time with a 45 percent poverty rate and 12.4% unemployment that is more than twice the mainland U.S. average. The declining economy and mismanagement at the
Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA, created in 1941) resulted in $9 billion of debt, and by 2015 the agency had run out of money to buy fuel. Permission for privatization was given in 2018, and electrical distribution was contracted to
LUMA Energy for 15 years, starting in June, 2021. The Commonwealth had been defaulting on many debts, including bonds, since 2015. "Without action before April, Puerto Rico's ability to execute contracts for Fiscal Year 2018 with its managed care organizations will be threatened, thereby putting at risk beginning July 1, 2017 the health care of up to 900,000 poor U.S. citizens living in Puerto Rico", according to a letter sent to Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Health and Human Services. They also said that "Congress must enact measures recommended by both Republicans and Democrats that fix Puerto Rico's inequitable health care financing structure and promote sustained economic growth." The Fiscal Control Board eventually approved a
fiscal austerity plan which cut government services in order to repay creditors. Between 2009 and 2019, over a million Puerto Ricans migrated to the United States.
21st century disasters While the eye of Category 5
Hurricane Irma passed north of the island on September 5, 2017, winds were sufficient to leave 1 million citizens without power. On September 20, 2017,
Hurricane Maria hit the island directly, destroying infrastructure – electricity, potable water supplies, transportation, and communication. Millions went without power for several months. The disaster and slow recovery caused an exodus of 130,000 people by December, depressing the island's economy for years and worsening the fiscal crisis. In May 2018, the
Natural Resources Defense Council rated Puerto Rico's potable water system was the worst in the country as measured by the
Safe Drinking Water Act, with 70% of the population living with water that violated U.S. law. In December 2019 and January 2020,
a series of earthquakes knocked out power island-wide and thousands of people were rendered homeless on the south side.
Statehood issue during the 21st century Puerto Rico continues to struggle to define its political status under US rule. Even though Puerto Rico was granted the right to draft its own constitution while under a gag law, approved with conditions by Congress on July 3, 1952, it remains an unincorporated organized
territory of the United States. With 13.3% co-sponsorship of the Puerto Rico Admissions Act in 2018, and only 5% in 2019, the US House of Representatives has demonstrated little interest in Puerto Rico being incorporated, let alone admitted as a state. A bill has never made it to the US Senate since the United States took possession of the islands in 1898. The
Puerto Rican status referendum, 2012 occurred on November 6, 2012. The result was a 54% majority of the ballots cast against the continuation of the island's territorial political status, and in favor of a new status. Of votes for new status, 61.1% (a majority) chose statehood. This was by far the most successful referendum for statehood advocates. In all earlier referendums, votes for statehood were matched almost equally by votes for remaining an American territory, with the remainder for independence. Support for U.S. statehood has risen in each successive popular referendum. Because there were almost 500,000 blank ballots in the 2012 referendum, creating confusion as to the voters' true desire, Congress decided to ignore the vote. The
Puerto Rican status referendum, 2017 occurred on June 11, 2017. While initially the referendum would only have the options of
statehood and independence/
free association, a letter from the Trump administration recommended to add the Commonwealth, the current status, in the plebiscite. The option had been removed from this plebiscite in response to the results of the plebiscite in 2012 which asked whether to remain in the current status and "No" had won. However, the Trump administration cited changes in demographics during the past five years to add the option once again. Amendments to the plebiscite bill were adopted, making ballot-wording changes requested by the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as adding a "current territorial status" option. Governor
Ricardo Rosselló is strongly in favor of statehood to help develop the economy and help to "solve our 500-year-old colonial dilemma ... Colonialism is not an option .... It's a civil rights issue ... 3.5 million citizens seeking an absolute democracy," he told the news media. Benefits of statehood include an additional $10 billion per year in federal funds, the right to vote in presidential elections, higher Social Security and Medicare benefits, and a right for its government agencies and municipalities to file for bankruptcy (which is currently prohibited). With 13.3% co-sponsorship of the Puerto Rico Admissions Act in 2018, and only 5% in 2019, the US House of Representatives has demonstrated little interest in Puerto Rico being incorporated, let alone admitted as a state. A bill has never made it to the US Senate since the United States took possession of the islands in 1898. On December 15, 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of the Puerto Rico Status Act. The act sought to resolve Puerto Rico's status and its relationship to the United States through a binding plebiscite. In September 2023, legislation providing for a two-round consultation process to decide the territorial status of Puerto Rico was reintroduced in the United States Congress by
Roger Wicker. The first vote was scheduled for August 4, 2024, giving Puerto Ricans the choice between four options: annexation to the United States, independence, sovereignty in free association, and a free state associated with the United States. In July 2024, Governor Pedro Pierluisi called a plebiscite on the status of Puerto Rico in November 2024, the first time the island's current status as a U.S. territory was not presented as an option during the plebiscite. The executive order follows the U.S. House of Representatives' 2022 approval of a bill to help Puerto Rico move toward a change in territorial status. Voters are given the choice of statehood, independence, or independence with free association, the terms of which would be negotiated regarding foreign affairs, U.S. citizenship, and use of the U.S. dollar. Puerto Rico has not yet become an independent nation nor a state of the Union. It remains a territory of the United States of America. The action of Congress in authorizing and approving, The Commonwealth Constitution is adopted pursuant to the constitutional power of Congress to make necessary rules and regulations concerning the territory of the United States of America. The foreign relations of Puerto Rico, like those of other territories and states, continue to be conducted by the United States of America. Internal government and administration, Puerto Rico occupies a unique position among the territories and states of the United States of America. in requesting Congress to authorize the drafting and adoption of a constitution. Congress has agreed that Puerto Rico shall, under this constitution, be free from any control or interference by Congress in matters relating to internal government and administration, subject only to compliance with the applicable provisions of the federal constitution of the United States of America. Laws that directed or authorized direct interference by the United States federal government in local government affairs, prior to 1952, have been repealed. On February 15, 2025, the Puerto Rico House of Representatives approved a resolution on the legal status of Puerto Rico, 'the resolution, requests that "the President and Congress of the United States of America respond promptly and act in accordance with the demands of the citizens of Puerto Rico. In June 2025, the United Nations adopted a resolution in favor of self-determination and independence for the state of Puerto Rico. == See also ==