Word: puerto
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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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...
...chanted approximately 650,000 voices in Puerto Rico last Sunday, drowning out the aphonic sounds of the "Si" supporters to close a sorry chapter of our island's history. By opposing amendments to the Puerto Rican constitution, statehooders and their supporters dealt a severe blow to advocates for Puerto Rico's political rights and national identity, defeating them by a seven percent margin...
These amendments, known as the Ley de Derechos Democraticos (Law on Democratic Rights), would have protected our island's culture, identity and Spanish language from any future change in political status. This constitutional amendment package also recognized Puerto Rico's right to international sports representation. Thirdly, it guaranteed the "permanent association" of the island with the United States under the present commonwealth status. A fourth condition assured the irrevocability of United States citizenship, which was granted to island residents through an act of Congress...
...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...
...objective was to force Congress to grapple with the constitutional implications on a concrete, tangible level. No longer would these qualifiers be bandied about in an abstract, questionable plane. If Congress later decided to negate these fundamental rights, for which the Puerto Rican people had expressed such strong feelings, then the U.S. alone would be responsible for discriminating against its own citizens and perpetuating colonialism...