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WASHINGTON - A White House task force asserted Friday
that the U.S. government's current position is
consistent with the one held at the United Nations in
1953 - that Puerto Rico remains a territory and a mutual
consent agreement on status has never existed between
San Juan and Washington.
The group, called the President's Task force on
Puerto Rico's Status, noted in its latest report that
the U.S. stance is no different now than it was when the
United Nations removed Puerto Rico from the list of non-self-governing
territories more than half a century ago.
Gov. Acevedo Vila, among other Popular Democratic
Party leaders, had accused the United States of changing
its position or lying to the United Nations. The
governor, in fact, wrote a letter to Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice making those charges.
The State Department's answer to the governor, dated
Dec. 10, also was publicly released Friday. The
governor's letter, addressed to Rice, was answered by
State Department official Portia Palmer, who only gave a
summary of the U.S. action at the United Nations in
1953, mentioning nothing one way or the other about any
mutual consent between the island and the United States
on status.
The letter suggested that the governor take up any
further -concerns about the issue with the task force
since "the matter of Puerto Rico's status is essentially
one of domestic policy."
The task force report, meanwhile, acknowledged that
just before the United States asked the United Nations
to remove Puerto Rico from the list of non-self-governing
territories, the U.S. representative "indicated orally
that common consent would be needed to make changes in
the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United
States”
However, the task force report said, when the U.S.
officially brought the matter to the United Nations, it
did not say that the island's consent was needed for
Congress to change Puerto Rico's status.
"In its official request to the United Nations, the
United States stated that Congress had given Puerto Rico
the freedom to conduct its own internal government,
subject only to compliance with federal law and the U.S.
Constitution”, said the task force report. "The official
request did not state that Congress could make no
changes in Puerto Rico's status without its consent?”
In a briefing to the press before the report was
released, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel,
who is the task force's co-chair, said that the U.S.
action at the United Nations to get Puerto Rico off the
list of non-governing territories in 1953 was "at the
request" of then-Gov. Luis Muñoz Marin.
He acknowledged that the "oral statements" by some
U.S. officials on mutual consent were "inconsistent"
with the official U.S. policy taken at the world body
and upheld since by Washington.
He added, "Certainly the relationship [between the
United States and Puerto Rico] is unique. The
commonwealth system provides for autonomy as in the
states. But we understand that under the Constitution,
Puerto Rico is a territory. Under the Constitution, you
can only be a state or a territory. There is no third
view:' –
Report backs 'two-stage plebiscite'
The report reiterated that the best way to resolve
island status is through a federally sanctioned "two-stage
plebiscite", the first vote on whether the island
should continue as a commonwealth and, if the majority
of voters say they want change, then a statehood vs.
independence ballot.
The working group thus gave its approval to the
original bill introduced by Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y.,
and Resident Commissioner Luis Fortuño, for the two
referenda.
But that legislation was changed when the House
Resources Committee approved a status measure
sanctioning -just one vote: whether the island should
remain in its current territorial relationship with the
United States or move toward a permanent relationship
that would include statehood or sovereignty.
Fortuño said Friday that he did not have second
thoughts about agreeing to the change in legislation
calling for just the first vote. "It's just not doable"
to have the legislation reflect the two-stage vote, he
said, indicating that Congress would not approve of one
bill authorizing two plebiscites.
The House committee, he said, approved "the first of
two steps”. The measure is expected to reach the House
floor in 2008. If and when the bill gets approval in
both chambers, that vote would be held most likely in
2009. If voters decide the current relationship should
end, then further legislation would be introduced for
the statehood vs. independence decision, Fortuño
indicated.
Engel said the task force believed the two-stage
plebiscite, while not perfect, was the best status
solution because past status votes have never given a
majority to anyone of the choices. "The rationale is
that the two-stage process will allow for a majority in
both votes”, he said.
The task force report basically reaffirmed the
group's first overall findings in 2005. It gives further
details on the choice of sovereignty, which could be
outright full independence, free association or, in a
first-time White House mention, a transition from
commonwealth to independence, as was achieved by the
Philippines.
In that arrangement, the report notes, the territory
of the Philippines was authorized to draft a
constitution for an interim commonwealth, and after a
10-year transition period, the U.S. president would
recognize the Philippines as a "separate and self-governing
nation”. In 1946, President Harry Truman proclaimed the
country's independence.
While noting that free association may come closest
to the proposal for a new commonwealth, the task force
report added: "But it would need to be made clear to the
people of Puerto Rico that freely associated status is a
form of independence from the United States and cannot
be made immune from the possibility of unilateral
termination by the United States”.
Mixed reactions
Puerto Rican Independence Party official Manuel
Rodriguez Orellana said that "as expected”, there were
no surprises in the second task force report.
The report reiterated, he said, that Puerto Rico
remains a colony subject to the full powers of Congress.
Nevertheless, he said, it kept open the door for a
constitutional assembly if voters turn down the current
relationship in a first plebiscite.
Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration Director
Eduardo Bhatia, who speaks for the governor in the
nation's capital, said that the commonwealth government
rejects the 2007 report for the same reasons it had
turned down the 2005 findings.
The Acevedo Vila administration found the previous
report misinformed, undemocratic and prejudiced against
the current commonwealth relationship.
Bhatia said Friday that the administration would
continue to go to the United Nations and other
international forums to denounce the task force's
findings.
Also critical of the report was Sen. Robert Menendez,
D-N.J., a close ally of the governor. He called the
latest report "disappointing" and said it “lacks the
legal analysis that the issue deserves”.
Menendez maintained that the report proposes a
process that "is slanted in favor of statehood" and "will
not generate a true process of self-determination". |
