Puerto Rico Status Causes DNC Rift

CHICAGO — Calling it a “vote for the next state of the United States,” 60 Puerto Rican Democratic delegates eagerly cast their vote for Kamala Harris to the tune of “Despacito” on Tuesday night.

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This is the #PuertoRico DNC delegation #dncrollcall

Earlier that same day, however, Democratic elected officials and their community leader allies held a press conference criticizing the party line because of its support for the current Puerto Rico Status Act (PRSA).

It cited an open letter to Kamala Harris and Tim Walz first published in The Latino Newsletter.

A Status Rift

So what is behind this Democratic Party rift on Puerto Rico? The same thing that’s driven the archipelago’s politics for nearly 75 years: its status.

There have been multiple non-binding status referendums over the last few decades. The last referendum, boycotted by some groups, saw statehood win by a five-point margin. Only Congress can admit a 51st state, though, and so far it has been unable or unwilling to do so.

In the same vein, there have been several bills aimed at addressing Puerto Rico’s status. None of them have made it to the President’s desk. The closest one to ever do so was a 2022 bill which passed the House but stalled in the Senate. 

The current Democratic 2024 party platform reads that Puerto Ricans have “earned and deserve” to resolve their political status.

The new version of the PRSA, also known as H.R. 2757, aims to create and fund a process for the archipelago to vote for three options: statehood, independence or sovereign free association. It does not include Puerto Rico’s current commonwealth structure, the cornerstone of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD).

Democratic Party supporters should “reject any undemocratic effort to exclude the commonwealth,” Jesús Manuel Ortiz, president of the PPD and their candidate for governor, told NBC News in a statement. (NBC News published a story about the rift on Thursday.)

The bill also has provisions for the Puerto Rico State Election Commission to lead a nonpartisan voter education campaign in both English and Spanish and for each option to have representation even if there is not a political party that represents it.

For Puerto Rican leaders and allies at the Tuesday press conference, the bill also does not adequately answer multiple questions that are still left on the table, like what language would Puerto Rico function in if it became a state and how its tax problems would be resolved. (The DNC platform says Democrats would work towards restructuring the archipelago’s debt and work to eliminate the Financial Oversight and Management Board, but does not explain how that would happen).

Lack of Details?

“Some people do not want Puerto Ricans to have full details about the status options for the Island and want to distract from that. That's shameful and anti-democratic behavior,” Power 4 Puerto Rico Executive Director Erica González told The Latino Newsletter over text message.

The Tuesday group, which counted Reps. Delia Ramírez (IL) and Cori Bush (MO), former Rep. Luis Gutiérrez. (IL) and Puerto Rico Senator Ana Irma Rivera Lassen, preferred something more akin to the Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act of 2021, which proposed a status convention before a binding plebiscite. 

“This community knows colonialism when it sees it,” Ramírez, who represents Humboldt Park, a Puerto Rican stronghold in Chicago, said at the press conference.

She ended her speech by calling for independence for Puerto Rico.

“Colonialism suffocates the people. It doesn’t allow them to self-realize,” Gutiérrez said during the press conference.

Statehood Critics

The pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP), currently in power and the frontrunner in the upcoming local elections, has characterized the PRSA as a “statehood bill” and has been an active proponent of the 2024 Democratic Party platform position on Puerto Rico’s status.

“There is simply no controversy here other than what special interests have tried to create out of nothing to get free press, because the convention happens to be in the city where a certain former member of congress with historical ties to the colonialist party still has influence,” Luis Dávila Pernas, executive director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, told The Latino Newsletter over text message. “Personally, I find it disgusting that Luis Gutierrez would outright lie about [Rep.] Nydia Velázquez, AOC, and [Rep.] Darren Soto’s intentions with the Puerto Rico Status Act.”

He called for people to be “mindful” about who they are getting their information from and be wary of their motivations.

“There are many well-meaning Boricuas in the states, even some elected officials, currently being misinformed on this issue by registered lobbyists and bad-faith actors pushing their own personal and self-interest economic agendas,” Dávila Pernas said.

This week in Chicago, Velázquez, an original sponsor of the PRSA, told the PNP to knock it off, according to El Nuevo Día. This is more than a “statehood bill,” according to her, the most senior member of Congress who is of Puerto Rican descent.

“Upholding the status quo simply continues Puerto Rico’s colonial status and perpetuates the problems the island has faced for over one hundred years. That’s why the bill only supports non-territorial and non-colonial options,” Velázquez told The Latino Newsletter in an emailed statement.

In other words, the current commonwealth structure is a status quo colonial structure.

Progressive Critics

As for Gutiérrez, criticism against him continued online, where a pro-Harris group tweeted “his economic interests have been historically tied to Puerto Rico’s colonialist party.”

The Latino Newsletter reached out to the person running the account and they acknowledged the request for comment but said it “won’t have the time to give your questions the attention they deserve” by the deadline given to them.

While Puerto Ricans’ votes do not count in presidential elections, they still send delegates to Democratic and Republican national conventions. Puerto Ricans also vote in the American primaries and will cast a symbolic U.S. presidential vote come November, along with another non-binding plebisicte vote.

Puerto Rico’s party politics are mostly arrayed along what status they're looking to achieve for the world’s oldest colony, meaning you will often have PNP members, like Dávila Pernas and Gov. Pedro Pierluisi, standing with PPD members at the DNC.

Likewise, you will often see Democrats and Republicans, like Resident Commissioner and PNP candidate for governor Jenniffer González Colón, on the same team if they want the same status for Puerto Rico.

For its part, the 2024 Republican Party platform excluded statehood for Puerto Rico, yet the 23 delegates still voted for former President Donald Trump to become the Republican nominee. 

“Republicans have so far been unwilling to take any action, even something as simple as holding hearings, to move the bill forward. The focus of all stakeholders on this issue should be on ensuring that Democrats win the majority in both chambers of Congress again, to elevate the issue once more and offer Puerto Ricans a fair and transparent decolonization process," Velázquez said.

About the Author

Carlos Berríos Polanco is a journalist from Puerto Rico covering climate, conflict, and the intersection of the two.

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