Puerto Ricos Independence movement

Here is also a very interesting article about the UN and Puerto Rico self determination question.
https://nacla.org/article/puerto-rico-united-nations

Another more recent UN Article "Special Committee on Decolonization Approves Text Supporting Puerto Rico's ‘Inalienable Right to Self-Determination'"
http://www.un.org/press/en/2014/gacol3269.doc.htm

I agree, PR needs to go either for Independence or become a state. The current system does not work.

One proposed solution to the sovereign debt crisis is to make Puerto Rico eligible to file a Chapter 9 bankruptcy petition. Chapter 9 of the US Bankruptcy Code covers municipalities, so in effect, PR would need to be defined as a municipality in order to be eligible for Chapter 9. States, on the other hand, are not eligible for Chapter 9 because they are sovereign units. They cannot file for bankruptcy any more than the US government can file for bankruptcy. In almost all federal statutes, PR is included along with states in the definitions, which is why minimum wage laws and so many other federal laws apply equally to PR as they do to the states.

Would reclassifying PR as a municipality under Chapter 9 undermine the PR statehood movement by weakening its legal footing? It certainly won't help.

As to the UN, PR has excersized its right to self-determination on a number of occasions. That's what the statehood v. independence plebiscites are, in essence.

When the de-colonization movement was at its peak post WWII, France simply avoided the requirements of setting many of its colonies free (or at least, allowing them to self-determine their status) by simply declaring these jurisdictions "departments" of France, which means that in theory French Guyana is just as much a part of France as Cher or Hautes-Alpes.

To anyone interested in the history of PR's independence movement, you must visit Lares, the center of the independence movement first from Spain and later from the US. There is an ice cream shop in Lares that has historical photographs of the independence movement, including quite a few of fascist independentistas holding marches and rallies during the buildup to WWII.

Fascism's cousin, socialism, is a major influence of the post-WWII PR independence movement. A display of this influence can be seen at the Fuerte de Vieques museum (on Vieques, naturally). This museum is run in part by a hardcore leftist gringo and the place is festooned with hagiography of Castro.

Then on the other side of the spectrum, you will find independentistas who are neither national socialists or socialists but are free market libertarians. Some of them write for the English-language Caribbean News and the Spanish-language papers as well.

Regardless of the ideological underpinnings of those who support independence, I don't see their numbers rising beyond a vocal fringe. Conversely, the federal government hasn't expressed any enthusiasm for bailing PR out of its current fiscal crisis. Josh Earnest, White House Press Secretary, just said that the Obama administration was not considering a bailout of PR.

As PR does not have its own currency, it cannot devalue its way out of its debts (the same with Greece). This is one reason that the US dollar is a poor fit for PR (along with the fact that tourism is such a large part of the economy and tourists like to go where they can get more for their dollar than 1-for-1).

So where does that leave PR? I have no easy solutions to offer. Looking at what Greece is going through now, with its capital controls, teetering banks and probable raids on deposits, shows you what it would be like in PR if the independence movement ever came to power. That doesn't mean independence isn't the right long-term solution for Greece or PR. It just shows you how painful it would be.

We in Canada went through this same "separation" question decades ago, in fact there were two failed referenda. The separatists lost the second by a major margin, which was the definitive try to break away from the country and they've not tried again.

What nobody could explain then, and appears nobody advocating the independence of Puerto Rico is the following:

1.  How do they think for one moment that they could leave the United States of America without taking with them, their fare share of the National Debt, which the federal government incurred on their behalf? Do they plan on just walking away from that debt, ignoring it completely?

2.  How could Puerto Rico function as an independent nation? What is their economy, who are their trading partners, if they default on current debts, who in their right minds is going to want to trade with them?

3.  If they ever were to vote for independence, what guarantees that the United States of America would allow them to continue to use the US dollar as their official currency? Would the concoct their own currency, which would essentially be worthless?

As it stands, like it or not Puerto Rico reaps many benefits from being a US Territory. Certainly they would be much better off as the 51st state than they would be trying to go it on their own. Sounds like an exact parallel of what happened in Canada, where the vast majority sat back and let militant young radicals who were in the minority do all the talking. When push came to shove, the silent majority finally woke up and put them in their rightful place with a definitive NO!!!

Just one opinion.

While the discontent with the current political system is growing by leaps and bounds, the current independence movement remains as always fairly small.

There are many pro-independence organizations in PR, but they don't seem to agree with each other. They also have not explain how the system would change if PR became independent and how they are going to prevent the max exodus of jobs to the people.

I think if they were to get their heads together and put a well explained proposal to the people, the movement would grow some, but not sure percentage wise what that growth will be.

There is also the fear of communism and the fact that a lot of Latin American countries and their governments are a mess and full of corruption.

The people are confused and not hearing a clear advantage of independence or Statehood.

I think next US mainland elections are going to be interesting. There are 4 million Puerto Ricans and their mainland born descendants that are not going to like that Cuba is getting more attention than PR. How is that going to turn out is anybody's guess.

At the moment the Independent party is 5% of the population or less so it does not even qualify as a party. Didn't some African Americans leave the United States to form Liberia? Where is Liberia today?  I find some very interesting books in our Ponce Salvation Army. One is a hard bound book about the Soviet Unions interest in taking over the Third World. It is written by an ex Soviet Agent. This could give an interesting insight into the Cuban mind. The great aspects of our country is the range of freedom that we have and how we can express ourselves. Here in Western North Carolina there is one of the oldest intentional communities in the United States. It is called 'Earth Haven'. They have their own monetary system that is used only within the communities parameters. I have not visited this community or know much of how one earns the currency needed for trade but the concept is intriguing as a subsystem operating within a larger system legally. Just fodder for thought