Word: commonwealther
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...protected Puerto Rico's right to establish a dignified political relationship with the United States, without territorial or colonial subjugation to the powers of Congress. The amendments further guaranteed that any future vote on the island's status include the three options of statehood, independence and "enhanced" commonwealth (status quo with more autonomy...
...STATEHOODERS pledged, if elected in 1992, to offer a referendum solely around the question of statehood--there-by disregarding the island's commonwealth tradition and pro-independence sentiment. The statehooders claim that commonwealth status can serve as a route to independence. But provisions in the law were offered to safeguard both our American citizenship and the permanency of our association with the United States...
...result of the vote would have been non-binding on Congress. In fact, Puerto Rico has no legal jurisdiction to grant permanency to the commonwealth status nor irrevocability to its American citizenship. No pretenses were made to such expansive authority...
...stakes for issuing it were very high on a personal as well as partisan level. He knew that losing would mean his political death and gravely weaken the Popular Democratic Party. But he had no reason to expect defeat and was pressured to assert the validity of the commonwealth option as an alternative to statehood...
...last moment. As election day neared, the vote was anybody's ballgame. In a "Schwarzeneggerian" feat, "Dr. No" came from a 30-point deficit in the polls and three "knockouts" on tripartite debates to emerge as the unquestionable leader of a snowballing statehood movement. Even the combined commonwealth and independence forces were unable to stymie the statehooders. It now seems as though no force can come in the way of statehood, except of course the discriminatory power of the United States Congress...