www.us-puertoricans.org

May 29, 2010 by Howard Portnoy

As long as Barack Obama sits in the Oval Office, Puerto Ricans living in the island commonwealth and here, in the U.S., had been steel themselves to the idea that Obama is determined that Puerto Rico will become the fifty-first state. Whether Puerto Ricans want to change seems to be quite beside the point.

Earlier this month, the U.S. House passed H.R. 2499, a nonbinding resolution that will ask Puerto Ricans whether they want their homeland to remain a territorial commonwealth or prefer to change their status. The clear cynical intent behind the bill, to leave Puerto Rico with no palatable choice other than statehood, was to bolster the Democrat caucus in Congress by adding new Senate and House seats. As noted here, the political party system in Puerto Rico is complicated, suggesting that the prevailing assumption of a sure ally by Democrat congressional leaders was perhaps overly optimistic, if not downright myopic.

So, it is beginning to seem, is Obama’s revival of the Clinton-era President’s Task Force on Puerto Rico’s Status. In remarks at a meeting of the task force on Tuesday, its new head, Justice Department Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli, emphasized Obama’s “openness” to the idea of Puerto Rican statehood. “The president strongly believes,” Perrelli told those assembled, “that the status question is a significant one. He also believes that Puerto Rico’s status must be based on self-determination by the people of Puerto Rico. And we on the task force are here with open minds on this issue.”

The real question is whether Obama will proceed with an open mind or whether he will attempt to force his will on the people of Puerto Rico.