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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 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.