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+5 Yes, Puerto Rico is widely considered a colony—or often described as the world's oldest colony—due to its status as an unincorporated U.S. territory. While residents are U.S. citizens, they lack voting representation in Congress, cannot vote for president,
Puerto Ricans have been fighting for a long time for statehood. Taking a look at the US now, I suggest reversing course. Independance would be a better choice.
From what I've heard there isn't really a consensus among Puerto Ricans on what they want their status to be.
Correct. The last vote barely failed. Think it was 51/49 or something close to that.
People indigenous to the island are very split between moving to closer alignment with the US via statehood or to move toward independence and ending the colonial commonwealth system. The only true consensus is that the current status quo is unsustainable and something needs to change.
I don't spend a lot of time with Puerto Ricans, but the two I keep in semi-regular contact with have said that they don't want Puerto Rico to become a state (they wave vaguely at the rules for imports/exports to South American countries; apparently the island has relaxed rules on that compared to states?).
What's actually stopped them from.becoming a state in the past? Seems like ~2013 was the last time a movement for that had any real traction?
Puerto Rico is unable to import or export directly to any country without going through the mainland United States first. This is a result of the Jones Act of 1920, shortly after PR gained citizenship but not statehood.
The Jones Act has caused some very fucked up consequences for hurricane relief like after H. Maria wrecked the island in 2017 and relief could not be provided from neighbors without a long extra trip to Florida for processing.
From the first article you linked:
Don't get me wrong, I hate the Jones Act as much as any rational American would, but from what I hear, they get a grab bag of exemptions on taxes when moving goods to/from South America (I suppose via non-US ships and via aircraft).
I don't have the time for proper research at the moment to try to find what my dudes have talked about when it comes to laxer import/export controls, but may revisit later today if I get some down time.
Certainly they should wait three years but even if they were unanimously in support, it would take years to happen