Puerto Ricans appear to share two major points of consensus amid recent chaos.

First, most people definitely want to live in their own country.

Second, the vast majority believe that the current Commonwealth (Estado Libre Asociado) regime can no longer meet our needs or defend the social progress of the Puerto Rican people. National plans by political parties have failed.

Yet, there is no strategy for truly escaping this deadlock.

Undoubtedly, public frustration will grow with the historic cuts to social spending imposed by President Trump in the “Big Beautiful Bill,” which is estimated to increase the federal budget deficit by $3.4 trillion over the next decade.

This type of social spending has historically been a crutch for electoral campaigns by both Puerto Rico’s annexationists and autonomists over the past 70 years. There will be no escape from the Commonwealth’s poverty, as social indicators continue to decline and access to social assistance diminishes across the 50 states.

Then there’s the Fiscal Oversight Board and its intent to “free Puerto Rico from federal funds,” validating a century-old demand of Puerto Rican independence advocates.

Trump’s geopolitical isolationism aims to protect only U.S. interests, abandoning the responsibility for international stability and peace — a role it assumed as a global leader in the 20th century. This is part of a larger effort to redefine what it means to be the United States.

The shift should not be underestimated.

This hemispheric and global outlook deepens the disconnect between the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), the New Progressive Party (PNP), and U.S. interests. Among other factors, the historical ineffectiveness of the Puerto Rican government and its isolation from the U.S. have manifested in the rise of split-ticket voting.

No matter, Puerto Rico is often viewed by Washington as an electoral nuisance, with statehood seen as a threat to the U.S. federation.

Faced with this reality, a world of opportunities exists. Among them, a new Grand Strategy that would usher the country into a new era of prosperity.

Puerto Rico has always had the option of a Grand Strategy available — one that the PPD and PNP deliberately ignore, sacrificing the well-being of Puerto Ricans. A Grand Strategy is a comprehensive national action plan to achieve general welfare through the long-term coordination of diplomatic, military, economic, and political tools. Puerto Rico has never possessed any of these tools, and the PPD and PNP have historically ignored the few it has had.

The Grand Strategy is the “return of the state,” where the Puerto Rican government becomes — for the first time — the primary regulator of interests solely focused on the social and political well-being of Puerto Ricans.

As in all cases, the absence of a Grand Strategy results in reactive and uncoordinated public and international policies, lacking a clear vision of long-term interests or defined priorities.

Partners are confused about our regional actions, and there is no vision to advance our interests in the region. Resources are always wasted on unimportant matters. Investments benefit private interests without strategic needs or goals, responses to crises and threats are improvised, and above all, citizens perceive the government as directionless and purposeless.

In a Grand Strategy, everything would answer to the well-being of Puerto Ricans — not to fleeting identities or ideologies, nor to monopolies haphazardly imposed by incompetent bureaucrats with divided loyalties.

The Grand Strategy aligns Puerto Rican interests with global challenges — at the U.S., regional, and local levels. From there, it builds goals to meet immediate needs, placing the Puerto Rican family at the center.

In this management framework, there can be no cartels or interests, friends or cousins, that obstruct service delivery and human security for Puerto Ricans. A Grand Strategy must offer the legal and institutional security that economic freedom requires. It must ensure institutional transparency that rejects handouts, preconceived ideas, or those sold by special interests.

The Grand Strategy of the new Puerto Rico will not impose a tax on an essential good just to avoid bothering the Fiscal Oversight Board with municipal matters. Nor will it wait for the lucky break of a global artist deciding to hold 30 concerts in Puerto Rico to jumpstart the economy.

Until a Grand Strategy is created and executed, Puerto Rico will remain trapped between “hunger and crumbs.”

Any future pro-Puerto Rican alliance that opposes the cultural assimilation promoted by the PNP and supports the Fiscal Oversight Board’s policy of “freeing Puerto Rico from federal funds” has the urgent responsibility to formulate, propose, and debate a Grand Strategy that embodies Puerto Rican values.

Julio Ortiz-Luquis is a Puerto Rican doctor in International Relations, a development practitioner, and research fellow in the Caribbean Institute for the Study of International Politics (ICEPI) based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He teaches at various undergraduate and graduate International Relations programs, having worked for United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations in Venezuela, Puerto Rico, New York, and New Jersey. 

Congrats to Dr. Lopez: We are taking a moment to congratulate The Latino Newsletter board member, Dr. William D. Lopez, on his new book, “Raiding the Heartland: An American Story of Deportation and Resistance.”

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