Пуэрто-Рико проведет референдум о государственности США после борьбы за оказание помощи в случае пандемии и стихийных бедствий

(San Juan, Puerto Rico) — Gov. Wanda Vázquez announced on Saturday that she can place a nonbinding referendum in November to ponder whether Puerto Rico ought to quiet turn out to be a U.S. articulate, a go that comes amid rising disillusion with the island’s U.S. territorial field.

For the principle time within the island’s historic previous, the referendum will query a single, straightforward quiz: Would possibly maybe maybe well quiet Puerto Rico be straight admitted as a U.S. articulate?

It’s an reply that requires approval from U.S. Congress and a quiz that outraged the island’s shrimp team of independence supporters and participants of the principle opposition Fashioned Democratic Social gathering, which supports the sphere quo. However it’s a large gamble that participants of the governor’s legitimate-statehood birthday party are assured will repay given that Puerto Rico has struggled to manufacture federal funds for hurricanes Irma and Maria, a string of most up-to-the-minute solid earthquakes and the coronavirus pandemic amid rising complaints that the island doesn’t accumulate magnificent and equal medicine.

“All the pieces vital in existence carries some threat,” said used Puerto Rico governor Carlos Romero Barceló, a member of the Innovative Recent Social gathering.

Previous referendums admire supplied voters with more than one quiz or diversified alternatives, at the side of independence or upholding essentially the most up-to-the-minute territorial field, but none were so teach because the one scheduled to be held throughout the Nov. 3 fashioned elections.

“Our other folks will admire the alternative once and for all to account for our future,” Vázquez said. “It’s never too unimaginative to be handled as equals.”

Puerto Ricans are U.S. voters but can’t vote in U.S. presidential elections. And whereas the island is exempt from the U.S. federal profits tax, it quiet will pay Social Security and Medicare and native taxes and receives much less federal funding than U.S. states.

Many take into consideration the island’s territorial field has contributed to its battle to get neatly from the hurricanes and earthquakes, as neatly as worsened its economic crisis, largely triggered by a long time of heavy borrowing and the elimination of federal tax incentives.

U.S. Congress would deserve to honest gain the referendum outcomes for it to go ahead, and it has never acted on the island’s previous 5 referendums. The closing one, held in 2017, was hit by a boycott and a low turnout that raised questions about the vote’s legitimacy.

Bigger than half of 1,000,000 other folks appreciated statehood in that referendum, adopted by with reference to 7,800 votes totally free affiliation/independence and more than 6,800 votes for essentially the most up-to-the-minute territorial field. Voter turnout was magnificent 23 p.c. In the three referendums previous to 2017, no obvious majority emerged, with voters usually virtually evenly divided between statehood and the sphere quo.

Statehood would award Puerto Rico two senators and 5 representatives, but it’s unlikely a Republican-controlled Congress would acknowledge the referendum because Puerto Rico tends to prefer Democrats.

Roberto Prats, a used Puerto Rico senator and member of the Fashioned Democratic Social gathering, said in a phone interview that the upcoming referendum will be an say in futility worship the 5 previous ones.

“The finest element they’ve finished is place away credibility from the statehood motion,” he said, at the side of that Puerto Rico has eroded the federal govt’s belief with its a long time of corruption and mismanagement, and that any referendum ought to quiet first admire lend a hand from U.S. Congress. “If we’re going to manufacture a option referring to our relationship with the U.S., the U.S. have to be occupied with that dialogue.”

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