Interesting. But what’s more interesting to me is this:
Puerto Rico’s 4 million people are U.S. citizens and can be drafted into the military but cannot vote for president and have no voting representation in Congress. They also do not pay federal taxes.
I can’t believe I never knew this.
SudaneseThinker
SudaneseThinker
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yep .. they have a sort of commonwealth with the US .. every year they are shouting about having an independence referendum, but each time when the time of elections comes the US welfare benefits prove themselves to be irresistible ..
they cannot vote for president????
HUH????
that’s ridiculous. citizens and no voting rights? or what?
It’s a Commonwealth, much like the British Commonwealth. Puerto-Rico has its own government, but Puerto-Rico is technically also part of the US. It was simply never fully annexed.
So Puerto-Rico has its own government, and gets part of the US citizenship benefits along with part of its citizenship burdens.
apartheid !!! apartheid !!!
LOL!
The current political status of Puerto Rico is sort of an embarrassment for the US since many organizations, including the UN, consider Puerto Rico to be a colony. The US Congress has been considering forcing Puerto Rico to make a series of votes on this issue. The first plebiscite would be on whether Puerto Rico would remain in the current “associated state” status. If that vote was negative then a second plebiscite would be on selecting independence vs. US-statehood.
That is really really weird la. I never knew this either.
I guess a referendum IS the only way to solve something like that. But since they don’t pay taxes then it’s pretty reasonable to not have the power to vote. AND does US legislature affect them at all? I mean apart from drafting? Though there should be some sort of representation in congress………………..
there is nothing particularly wierd about puerto rico .. they have their own government and if they want they can leave this union with the united states …the thing is that economically and in terms of welfare system the two countries are one system which practically maens that the puerto ricans are subsidized above their necks by the US … technically speaking they can have their independence referendum tomorrow and probably many yankees too are tired of supporting them and facing additional problems (as far as i understand puerto ricans contribute more than their share to the criminal situation in many US cities) … maybe many puerto ricans would like to split with the US but realize that on their own they may quickly end up with in economic holocaust and they are not ready to take such a risk…
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico is a major hub of Caribbean commerce, finance, tourism, and communications. San Juan is one of the world’s busiest cruise-ship ports, and Puerto Rico’s standard of living continues to be among the highest in the Western Hemisphere.
The Nov. 2, 2004, gubernatorial elections led to a two-month recount and a court challenge. On Jan. 2, 2005, Aníbal Acevedo Vilá of the Popular Democratic Party was declared governor. He received 48.4% of the vote, and his main challenger, Pedro Rossello of the New Progressive Party, 48.2%. Acevedo supports the existing U.S. territorial status of the island; Rossello supports statehood for Puerto Rico.
In May 2006, a political standoff led to a two-week-long budget crisis resulting in the partial shutdown of the government, including all public schools. More than 100,000 workers went without pay.
Ricky Martin? ewww, yuck Why on earth would he have said something like this when he works with UNICEF?
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