Puerto Rico: We can stand on our own feet

Translation by Hans Perl-Matanzo

A great deal of people desire Puerto Rico to be a free and sovereign country, but, they have serious doubts about our countrys capacity to sustain Puerto Ricos current economic situation. We understand that these concerns constitute legitimate questions. That is why the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) recognizes its responsibility to answer such queries. Independence will be accomplished by the people of Puerto Rico, with our iron will, hard work and desire to achieve what so many other nations have conquered: national independence. We hope that what follows will answer your questions about how Puerto Rico would manage as a sovereign nation.

ONLY AS AN INDEPENDENT COUNTRY SHALL WE ACHIEVE GREATER ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND PROSPERITY

Economic Development

Only as an independent country will Puerto Rico obtain the powers necessary to augment our economic production and create more employment:

    • The power to create economic incentive for our industry, commerce and agriculture sector, thus increasing our productivity and reduce our trade deficit.
    • The power to regulate immigration.
    • The power to legislate in order to derogate the U.S. Coastal Shipping Law’s constrains over Puerto Rico in order to approve our own laws.
    • The power to sign international treaties so as to attract investment from Japan, the United States and members of the European Union by using the mecanism of tax exemptions and fiscal reciprocity that could not be achieved under our current colonial relationship with the United States, nor as a state of the United States of America.
    • The power to expand our export markets and to purchase from the least expensive markets.

Only through independence will we be able to insert ourselves in the new global economy. Independence will grant us the power to join regional and international organizations as a full-fledged voting member.

Social Development

As stated above, independence will encourage the expansion of the job market and economic production, which in turn will lead to a reduction and eventual dissapearance of our economic dependence, our idle worforce and isolation which is fundamentally responsible for a great deal of our social problems. Moreover, by becoming the owners of our own destiny, we will strengthen our national pride and self-esteem.

With independence we will have the prerogative to take the reins of developing our national enviromental policy, created in response to our particular conditions and needs, and directed to protect our national patrimony, improve our quality of life and limit the great costs which occur as a result of environmental damage.

Can small countries such as Puerto Rico attain economic prosperity?

A country’s territorial extension, population density and size are not factors which determine wether a country will attain sound economic development. There are plenty of examples which go to show that a small country can become an economic power. Close to one-fourth of the world is composed of countries which have less population than Puerto Rico. Among them, there are some which are poorer than Puerto Rico, but many others such as Luxemburg, Brunei and Singapur are prosperous and wealthy when compared to Puerto Rico.

What is important to a country’s economic development is wether that country has the capacity to take advantage of its national assests – natural, human, political and cultural resources; geograhic location and infrastructure – in a creative manner, so as to maximize their potential. What is determinant in an independent nation’s quest for economic prosperity is wether that nation can use its sovereign powers to exploit its resources and agree to beneficial treaties with other countries with the purpose of stimulating its economy.

Various countries of similar size or smaller than Puerto Rico population wise, which some decades ago were poorer than Puerto Rico, currently have a greater income per capita than our country. Countries such as Bahamas, Cyprus, Malta and Singapur, which have a smaller territorial area than Puerto Rico, after achieving independence were able surpass Puerto Rico’s per capita income. 

COMPARATIVE TABLE: PUERTO RICO AND OTHER COUNTRIES
COUNTRY Area (kmē) Population 1990
(x1000)		 PNB Per Capita
1970		 PNB Per Capita
1980		 PNB Per Capita
1995
(PPP$**)
Argentina 2,766,889 33,533 3,533 3,996 8,498
Barbados 430 259 4,252 5,453 11,306
Chile 756,945 14,065 1,397 1,580 9,930
Cyprus 9,252 726 *** 4,164 13,316
South Korea 98,484 44,500 967 1,953 11,594
Ireland 70,284 3,710 5,656 7,791 17,590
Malta 320 368 760 3,713 13,316
St. Kitts/Nevis 261 40 *** 1,767 10,150
Singapur 618 3,300 950 5,907 22,604
Trinidad/Tobago 300 1,300 3,185 5,218 9,437
Venezuela 912,050 22,000 3,298 3,067 8,090
PUERTO RICO 9,000 3,719 3,900 5,362 7,685
Source: Report on Human Development,United Nations (UN)

**Real gross per-capita domestic product (purchasing power parity)

***No data reported for that year

Different from past circumstances, Puerto Rico can not boast having the highest per-capita income in Latin America and the Caribbean. Argentina has surpassed Puerto Rico in absolute numbers since 1996, with the highest per-capita income. Argentina’s yearly per-capita income is $8,380 versus Puerto Rico’s $8,119 (1996). If we cite data from the World Bank or the United Nations (UN), which measure the per-capita product, in terms of purchasing power rather than absolute terms, Puerto Rico’s economic stagnation is evidenced even more dramatically. That specific manner of measuring economic conditions, known as "purchasing power parity", shows that after 1995 Puerto Rico had fallen behind Venezuela, St. Kitts & Nevis, Trinidad–Tobago, Chile and Argentina. Even more dramatic is the fact that Barbados and Ireland’s per-capita gross national product (GNP) has surpassed Puerto Rico’s per-capita GNP since 1970.

Why have other nations not been able to develop and prosper despite being independent countries?

Independence paves the way for Puerto Rico’s economic progress. Nevertheless, many other countries in Latin America and the rest of the world – for example, Haiti, Dominican Republic- achieved independence before going through a period of political and economic modernization. These countries’ colonial experience did not provide the means for a transitional period where its citizens would ease into political, organizational and entrepenuerial power, as the empire’s hegemony decreased, as was the case of the Thirteen Colonies which eventually formed the independent country known as the United States of America. On the other hand, it is notable that countries such as Costa Rica and Uruguay – which achieved independence around the same time as Haiti and the Dominican Republic – have certainly attained comparable or better economic conditions and quality of life when compared to those currently present in Puerto Rico.

The same way as the Thirteen Colonies (later known as the United States of America <USA>), benefited from independence, Puerto Rico should not doubt that political sovereignty will give us the opportunity to tap on resources that have already been developed and nurtured under colonial rule. Afterall, those resources were developed once Puerto Rico was given a limited degree of self-government, after five decades of devastating dictatorial U.S. governors, hand-picked by the President of the United States.

To think that independence would turn the clock of history and bring back the levels of illiteracy which plagued our country at the turn of the Century; to think that by an act of magic our modern infrastructure will dissapear; to beleive that our universities will cease to exist, is an irrational underestimation of Puerto Rico’s capacity to, at the very least, maintain our present day achievements.

Office of Political Education, Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP)
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