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The [History and Politics of Puerto Rico], America's Paradise in the Caribbean
Chimera
Monster girl with a snek tail and five eyesBad puns, that's how eye roll. Registered User regular
Monster girl with a snek tail and five eyesBad puns, that's how eye roll. Registered User regular
Hey everyone! It's that annoying monster here who has an affinity for being at ground zero of natural disasters! Most of you know me from my posts in SE++ or on the Natural Disaster thread on here. Well with all the talk going on about Puerto Rico, and with the discussion in the natural disaster thread becoming largely political, I have chosen to make a thread about the politics and history of Puerto Rico to steer some of that discussion into this thread.
Welcome to Puerto Rico the thread!
Sorry I didn't have time to change out of my lab coat before class.
Now then, Puerto Rico is, by population and physical size, the largest of the US Territories. With a population larger than 22 of the 50 states, Puerto Rico is no small place! While not the largest in terms of physical size, it is considered one of the "Greater Antilles" and is located between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic. It is the smallest of the Greater Antilles and yet it is the most densely populated island in the Caribbean, even beating out nations like Cuba.
Geographically Puerto Rico is between the islands of Hispaniola and the US Virgin Islands. To it's east is the islands of Saint Croix, Saint Thomas, and Saint John (all part of the United States Virgin Islands or USVI) and to it's west on the east side of Hispaniola is the Dominican Republic. To its south is the open Caribbean Sea and to the north is the open Atlantic which means aside for the islands to it's east and west it does not have much else around it!
RECAP OF ISLAND HISTORY UNDER SPANISH RULE TO THE 1950's UNDER US RULE
Skipping over the island's history of primitive tribes inhabiting it, I am going to skip straight to it's history under the rule of the Spanish Empire which started in 1493 when Columbus first ventured to the islands on his second voyage. From that moment on the Spanish kept their eye on the island but it wasn't until the 1500's that they began to colonize the island. While there were laws set in place to protect the native people, they were largely ignored or unenforced and the local tribes became forced labor for the early Spanish settlers. Thanks to the other new inhabitants that the Spanish brought with them called "infectious diseases" it didn't take long before the native population quickly started to plummet. So in 1520 the King of Spain per royal decree to emancipating the islands as under his direct rule and thus they formally became a Spanish colony.
During the time since then not much changed. The Spaniards ruled the nation and despite for little tit-for-tats between their Caribbean Rivals, the Dutch, not much came about to challenge the rule of the Spanish over the island. San Juan, the capitol of the island, grew to become an important port of call for both Spanish trade with the Americas, and the Spanish Navy. As this importance grew the island finally was able to elevate its self from colony to a providence of Spain and even earned the right to elect its own official to the Spanish Parliament. Complexities of the Spanish Monarchy and Parliament's wrestling for power, this status did not change much and even with a representative in parliament the Spanish authorities still ruled the island with an iron fist and continued the practice of slavery.
Dissent for this system rose until in the early 1800's when the Puerto Rican people began to grow restless and create formal independence movements. At this point, Spain had already lost, or given away vast portions of it's colonies in the Caribbean basin with many now existing as independent countries save for Cuba and Puerto Rico. Both Cuba and Puerto Rico had ambitions of joining the former colonies in a union of states similar to what the US had done with their revolution but the Spanish control proved to be too great to break. Spain had realized that, with Cuba and Puerto Rico being their last strong holds in the region they could not let them go at any cost.
To help hold onto the islands the Spanish Crown revived past policies and caused a massive influx of Spanish settlers to flow in by the hundreds of thousands. These people, who had a greater love for and connection with the crown would, in theory, help quell any decent and give needed votes to retain Spanish rule of the islands. Free land was even given to the settlers if they would in turn swear their loyalty to the crown and Roman Catholic Church. Despite this there was still unrest and even a failed revolution lead by a small uprising in 1868 which resulted a few years later in members of the rebellion's leadership to move to New York City where they would continue to push for Puerto Rican independence. They even had some minor success with this, and in 1897 they negotiated with the Spanish government terms that allowed them to a degree of limited self-governance. This semi-autonomous government operated much like an American state does today in relation to the federal government and was referred to as an "overseas-providence of Spain." General elections were held the following year and that July their new government began to function.
Meanwhile in the United States plans were on the board to grow our nation even durring the lead up to, and after the civil war. So much so that Johnson's Secretary of The State tried pushing forward the annexation of the Dominican Republic and purchase of the Dutch Colonies but failed to get the idea pushed past congress where a treaty was drafted but never ratified (Side note: those Dutch islands would eventually be bought in 1916 and became the US Virgin Islands). Despite these failures the idea of growing the US into the Caribbean never faded and a new idea as to why we should began to grow. It was to make our Navy into a power not unlike the historical British Fleet, and to do so we needed bases in the Caribbean that wold allow us to support such a fleet in that region. The only problem is that is we lacked said colonies to support such an endeavor. In an 1890 book written by Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan titled The Influence of Sea Power upon History, the member of the US Navy War Board (and leading US strategist) wrote of the idea of holding multiple colonies in the Caribbean to act as supportive bases for a powerful navy and even called upon the idea of a canal through Panama to be a gateway for said Navy to the world at large with access to both primary oceans. The idea stuck and an attempt was made to purchase Puerto Rico and Cuba moved forward yet when an offer was made to Spain for the islands for 160 million US Dollars the Spanish Crown denied the offer.
The above cartoon being from Spain showing the United States reaching out for their territories.
Dating back to the late 1800's the United States Military had seen Spain to be a possible rival and even an enemy in future conflicts. As a result of this contingency plans were made and constantly updated just in case the need to use them arose. US interests were by this time set on growing their influence in the Caribbean and this meant Spanish influence would need to decrease and so we saw a war as inevitable in the future at some point. Those plans, if ever carried out, called for the invasion and annexation of the Spanish colonies of Cuba and Puerto Rico, further showing our desire to have those lands under our control. At this same time Cuba, fed up with the status quo of Spanish rule, was beginning to heat up with talks of a rebellion, giving the US the perfect opportunity to destabilize Spain's reach into the Caribbean and build our own.
An American political cartoon showing Columbia, representing the American People, reaching out to help the Cubans while Uncle Sam, the US Government, sits by with his hands tied and blindfolded to the conditions in Spain.
As demonstrations built in Cuba, the Spanish authorities doubled down on both the protesters and their US supporters. Up to this point in Cuba the American public was largely sympathetic of the plight of the Cubans and had been traveling to the island as well as rallying at home for support of the Independence movement. Weary of another war in the wake of the Civil War, the US Government decided to wait and let the struggle play out until the time was right and they felt a victory could be had. Finally when it looked like war was inevitable on the Island the US Navy sent the USS Maine to Havana as a show of support to the Cubans and to protect the US Citizens on the Island. At the same time they made demands that the Cubans be allowed to peacefully break from colonial rule or they would respond to force with force and sent a full fleet into position to attack.
While in Havana the USS Maine was torn apart by an explosion which sank her. While there is a debate about whether this was a false flag attack or not, it still riled the public enough that war was declared and with it the plans for invading Cuba and Puerto Rico and so only 8 days after their new semi-autonomous government took power, the United States had taken complete control of the island. There after with Spain losing the war they secede the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico to the United States in the Treaty of Paris. Cuba went on to quickly get its Independence since that was what started the war, but the rest remained under the control of the US, and while Cuba was its own nation it was effectively a protectorate of the US until the 1958 Revolution.
The USS Maine after having been destroyed in the Havana Harbor
From that point to the 1900 the island was ruled by the US Military and it's Governor was appointed by the sitting United States President. Then in 1900 the Foraker Act was passed allowing a level of self rule to be achieved by the Puerto Ricans as well excluding them from the laws of the IRS. Exactly how they could organize their government is as follows.
The act empowered the territory to legislate over all laws in Puerto Rico that were of the local level, and to the ability to create new ones and repeal existing ones. It did not yet give citizenship to the people from there but in a speech given by Teddy Roosevelt in 1906 he did say that right should be granted to the inhabitants of Puerto Rico. The act also removed their ability to self determine their independence from the US as it had been determined by the outcome of the Civil War that no portion of the United States under rule of the Federal Government had the right to secede. This was because they were now formally subject to the US Constitution and federal laws, a fact that was backed up when in 1914 Puerto Rico voted for independence but was denied the ability to become so.
Still despite the fact they could not secede from the US and were subject to US Federal laws they were not citizens of the US until 1917 when the Jones-Shafroth Act (popularly called the Jones Act and often confused with the other Jones Act of 1920) stated that all Puerto Ricans born after April 25th, 1898 would be granted fill US Citizenship. Surprisingly this was against the will of those in Puerto Rico who saw it as a ploy buy the US Government to be able to draft their citizens into US Military service against their will ahead of WWI as it appeared more and more likely the US would be joining the war. The act was not all bad for the island and even granted them control over their territorial senate, making it one where the seats were filled by popular election instead of federal appointment. It also allowed them to vote for their own Resident Commissioner instead of that seat in the US House of Representatives also being appointed by the federal government.
Damage caused by the 1918 earthquake in Puerto Rico.
Life in Puerto Rico was relatively comfortable during this time until 1918 when a major M 7.1 earthquake and resulting tsunami ravaged the island. That followed by several powerful hurricanes and then the onset of the Great Depression left the island severely impoverished for the first several decades under US rule. This led to tensions between Puerto Rico and the the US Mainland as renewed calls for independence arose including one protest in 1935 in which police killed four people. Finally in the following year a bill was introduced into the US Senate for the independence of the island at the same time of a similar bill was introduced for the Philippians (in that case they would under go a 10 year transitional period). This bill was supported by all but the Liberal Party in Puerto Rico yet failed to pass but in the years that followed tensions would grow further until on Palm Sunday in 1937 a peaceful civilian march to mark the end of slavery by the Spanish, and in support for support of the jail leader of the Nationalist party who had called for independence, turned bloody at the hands of the Island's Insular Police. The Insular Police, the Territory's then equivalent to the National Guard, unarmed nationalist cadets and bystanders and killing 19 of them and wounding another 200. The shooting came as a result of the Island's governor canceling the permit to the parade and ordering the Insular Police to stop the march with any means necessary. At one point the gravely injured flag bearer of the nationalist movement drug himself to a wall and with his own blood wrote the following quote:
The outbreak of the Ponce Massacre.
In direct response to this Senator Tydings introduced another bill in 1943 to call for Puerto Rico's independence but this too was defeated. Durring the years after this changes were made to how the Puerto Ricans could govern themselves with compromises being made by FDR's administration through negotiations with Luis Muñoz Marin including the appointment of Puerto Rico's first ever Puerto Rican born governor. Finally, in 1948 Puerto Ricans finally earned the right to vote for and elect their own Governor and so they elected Luis Muñoz Marin who had been the head of the Puerto Rican Liberal Party and who opposed the bill in the US Senate that would have granted their Independence.
One in power a bill was placed before the Puerto Rican Senate which would restrain the rights of the independence and nationalist movements in the island. The Senate at the time was controlled by the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), and was presided over by Luis Muñoz Marín. The bill, also known as the Gag Law, passed easily and it made it illegal to fly a Puerto Rican Flag, talk of independence, campaign for independence, and even sing a song to the tune of a pro-independence one even with new lyrics. This bill, a flagrant violation of the First Amendment, was not repealed until 1958 and in the meantime it could penalize a person $10,000 dollars or up to ten years in prison. It was similar to the also unconstitutional Smith Act which meant to make illegal pro-communist speech in the states.
Finally in 1950 the Puerto Ricans were given the right to make their own constitution, much like each state has, and after a draft was put to a vote it passed with an 82% majority and was ratified in 1958. It also has strict protections for the freedom of speech in vast contrast to the Gag Law.
MODERN ECONOMICS OF PUERTO RICO
Now lets move onto the modern economics of the island. In short, they are a total mess. The island is extremely in debt and despite legislation by congress last year allowing it to renegotiate some of its debt it still does not have enough money to operate and is at threat of default still. Historically the Island has not been very prosperous under US control Since the 1918 earthquake and tsunami the territory has been under extreme financial hardship. This largely started to ease post World War II but no real progress was made until Operation Bootstrap came into effect which rapidly modernized the tiny island and led to an economic boom primarily through the manufacture of pharmaceutical goods. Before then, the island's economy was largely reliant on agriculture through the farming of sugar cane.
In fact despite being part of the United States it was routinely listed as one of the poorest islands in the Caribbean through much of the 20th century. In 1947 Puerto Rico's first governor and the US Government began the operation which invested millions into the island's industry and infrastructure similarly to the New Deal did with the states during the Great Depression. In fact the operation was largely based directly on the New Deal with the intention of moving the the economy out of a 3rd world status and making it into a modern industrialized community. They did this through massive infrastructure projects and by offering US manufacturers access to a domestic labor force that was cheaper than ones stateside, and allowing goods to be brought to the US from Puerto Rico free of import tax. Think of it like getting the benefit of outsourcing to China AND the benefits of not then having to import those good back into the US and paying any import duties on them! You could also transfer any of those profits from the island to the mainland without having to pay federal taxes on them, just like you were transferring them between states. To further sweeten the deal, Puerto Rico and the Federal government would offer large tax exemptions and special rental rates for facilities and land to put factories on which helped assure that the factories that did arrive were capitol-intensive ones like chemicals, pharmaceuticals, machinery, and electronics. The plan was so successful that it started what is known as an economic miracle that changed the island overnight from an agriculture economy that was largely out of date to a modern one based on industry and tourism. The plan backfired a little as it proved to be too good at boosting the economy and raising the standard of living too fast which caused pay rates to rise until the benefit of cheap labor left. By the 1960's unemployment was back on the rise but conditions on the island were still significantly better than before.
In comes Congress once more to try and fix things with the enactment of Section 936 to the US Federal Tax Code. Seeing that unemployment in Puerto Rico was stuck hovering between 14% and 24%, and those employed saw minor wage growth but were still often below the poverty line, they decided to further push high quality manufacturing jobs into the island with substantial tax incentives. To some degree this worked and while quality of life has improved and the island was financially better off than before, it came at a cost of making statehood harder to achieve as well as independence.
While the total sum of employment in fishing, agriculture, and manufacturing did experience a net loss, it should be noted that the industrialization process created jobs in other sectors. The net loss portrayed in this table only takes into account direct jobs associated within these industries without taking into account the indirect jobs associated with them such as those in the service industry and government. The financial sector grew from 10% of GNP in 1950 to 14.4% in 1980, and the governmental sector grew from 10% in 1950 to 17.1% in 1980.[5] Regardless of all this, Puerto Rico did experience an overall net loss due to Bootstrap. The data show that the new economic model generated growth but no employment. New jobs created in manufacturing did not fully compensate for jobs lost in agriculture.
In comes NAFTA in 1994 which began the death spiral of Section 936. First it was the competition coming from a nation connected by land. Mexico boarders the US and products can be brought by train and truck which is cheaper than by boat. In addition to this, thanks to the 1920 Jones Act only American ships can bring cargo too and from Puerto Rico which is much more expensive than using non-American shipping companies. By 2006 the tax cuts were removed by congress making almost all of the businesses that had moved to the island to close shop since it now became more expensive to do business on the island than it did in the mainland or in Asia. This basically ended their ability to court any off-island company to come to their island without offering their own massive subsidies that would, in turn, prevent them from gaining funding that would allow a stream of revenue to prevent the island from going into debt, as well as jobs for those on the island to work at, the loss of section 936 being pushed by a Congress they have no vote or real representation in.
Welcome to Puerto Rico the thread!
Sorry I didn't have time to change out of my lab coat before class.
Now then, Puerto Rico is, by population and physical size, the largest of the US Territories. With a population larger than 22 of the 50 states, Puerto Rico is no small place! While not the largest in terms of physical size, it is considered one of the "Greater Antilles" and is located between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic. It is the smallest of the Greater Antilles and yet it is the most densely populated island in the Caribbean, even beating out nations like Cuba.
Geographically Puerto Rico is between the islands of Hispaniola and the US Virgin Islands. To it's east is the islands of Saint Croix, Saint Thomas, and Saint John (all part of the United States Virgin Islands or USVI) and to it's west on the east side of Hispaniola is the Dominican Republic. To its south is the open Caribbean Sea and to the north is the open Atlantic which means aside for the islands to it's east and west it does not have much else around it!
RECAP OF ISLAND HISTORY UNDER SPANISH RULE TO THE 1950's UNDER US RULE
Skipping over the island's history of primitive tribes inhabiting it, I am going to skip straight to it's history under the rule of the Spanish Empire which started in 1493 when Columbus first ventured to the islands on his second voyage. From that moment on the Spanish kept their eye on the island but it wasn't until the 1500's that they began to colonize the island. While there were laws set in place to protect the native people, they were largely ignored or unenforced and the local tribes became forced labor for the early Spanish settlers. Thanks to the other new inhabitants that the Spanish brought with them called "infectious diseases" it didn't take long before the native population quickly started to plummet. So in 1520 the King of Spain per royal decree to emancipating the islands as under his direct rule and thus they formally became a Spanish colony.
During the time since then not much changed. The Spaniards ruled the nation and despite for little tit-for-tats between their Caribbean Rivals, the Dutch, not much came about to challenge the rule of the Spanish over the island. San Juan, the capitol of the island, grew to become an important port of call for both Spanish trade with the Americas, and the Spanish Navy. As this importance grew the island finally was able to elevate its self from colony to a providence of Spain and even earned the right to elect its own official to the Spanish Parliament. Complexities of the Spanish Monarchy and Parliament's wrestling for power, this status did not change much and even with a representative in parliament the Spanish authorities still ruled the island with an iron fist and continued the practice of slavery.
Dissent for this system rose until in the early 1800's when the Puerto Rican people began to grow restless and create formal independence movements. At this point, Spain had already lost, or given away vast portions of it's colonies in the Caribbean basin with many now existing as independent countries save for Cuba and Puerto Rico. Both Cuba and Puerto Rico had ambitions of joining the former colonies in a union of states similar to what the US had done with their revolution but the Spanish control proved to be too great to break. Spain had realized that, with Cuba and Puerto Rico being their last strong holds in the region they could not let them go at any cost.
To help hold onto the islands the Spanish Crown revived past policies and caused a massive influx of Spanish settlers to flow in by the hundreds of thousands. These people, who had a greater love for and connection with the crown would, in theory, help quell any decent and give needed votes to retain Spanish rule of the islands. Free land was even given to the settlers if they would in turn swear their loyalty to the crown and Roman Catholic Church. Despite this there was still unrest and even a failed revolution lead by a small uprising in 1868 which resulted a few years later in members of the rebellion's leadership to move to New York City where they would continue to push for Puerto Rican independence. They even had some minor success with this, and in 1897 they negotiated with the Spanish government terms that allowed them to a degree of limited self-governance. This semi-autonomous government operated much like an American state does today in relation to the federal government and was referred to as an "overseas-providence of Spain." General elections were held the following year and that July their new government began to function.
Meanwhile in the United States plans were on the board to grow our nation even durring the lead up to, and after the civil war. So much so that Johnson's Secretary of The State tried pushing forward the annexation of the Dominican Republic and purchase of the Dutch Colonies but failed to get the idea pushed past congress where a treaty was drafted but never ratified (Side note: those Dutch islands would eventually be bought in 1916 and became the US Virgin Islands). Despite these failures the idea of growing the US into the Caribbean never faded and a new idea as to why we should began to grow. It was to make our Navy into a power not unlike the historical British Fleet, and to do so we needed bases in the Caribbean that wold allow us to support such a fleet in that region. The only problem is that is we lacked said colonies to support such an endeavor. In an 1890 book written by Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan titled The Influence of Sea Power upon History, the member of the US Navy War Board (and leading US strategist) wrote of the idea of holding multiple colonies in the Caribbean to act as supportive bases for a powerful navy and even called upon the idea of a canal through Panama to be a gateway for said Navy to the world at large with access to both primary oceans. The idea stuck and an attempt was made to purchase Puerto Rico and Cuba moved forward yet when an offer was made to Spain for the islands for 160 million US Dollars the Spanish Crown denied the offer.
The above cartoon being from Spain showing the United States reaching out for their territories.
Dating back to the late 1800's the United States Military had seen Spain to be a possible rival and even an enemy in future conflicts. As a result of this contingency plans were made and constantly updated just in case the need to use them arose. US interests were by this time set on growing their influence in the Caribbean and this meant Spanish influence would need to decrease and so we saw a war as inevitable in the future at some point. Those plans, if ever carried out, called for the invasion and annexation of the Spanish colonies of Cuba and Puerto Rico, further showing our desire to have those lands under our control. At this same time Cuba, fed up with the status quo of Spanish rule, was beginning to heat up with talks of a rebellion, giving the US the perfect opportunity to destabilize Spain's reach into the Caribbean and build our own.
An American political cartoon showing Columbia, representing the American People, reaching out to help the Cubans while Uncle Sam, the US Government, sits by with his hands tied and blindfolded to the conditions in Spain.
As demonstrations built in Cuba, the Spanish authorities doubled down on both the protesters and their US supporters. Up to this point in Cuba the American public was largely sympathetic of the plight of the Cubans and had been traveling to the island as well as rallying at home for support of the Independence movement. Weary of another war in the wake of the Civil War, the US Government decided to wait and let the struggle play out until the time was right and they felt a victory could be had. Finally when it looked like war was inevitable on the Island the US Navy sent the USS Maine to Havana as a show of support to the Cubans and to protect the US Citizens on the Island. At the same time they made demands that the Cubans be allowed to peacefully break from colonial rule or they would respond to force with force and sent a full fleet into position to attack.
While in Havana the USS Maine was torn apart by an explosion which sank her. While there is a debate about whether this was a false flag attack or not, it still riled the public enough that war was declared and with it the plans for invading Cuba and Puerto Rico and so only 8 days after their new semi-autonomous government took power, the United States had taken complete control of the island. There after with Spain losing the war they secede the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico to the United States in the Treaty of Paris. Cuba went on to quickly get its Independence since that was what started the war, but the rest remained under the control of the US, and while Cuba was its own nation it was effectively a protectorate of the US until the 1958 Revolution.
The USS Maine after having been destroyed in the Havana Harbor
From that point to the 1900 the island was ruled by the US Military and it's Governor was appointed by the sitting United States President. Then in 1900 the Foraker Act was passed allowing a level of self rule to be achieved by the Puerto Ricans as well excluding them from the laws of the IRS. Exactly how they could organize their government is as follows.
- They could form local civilian run governments for their towns.
- A popularly elected House of Representatives could be formed but the Territory's Senate would be formed and seats in it would be appointed by the Federal Government.
- The Judicial System would function like that of one in the US with the Island able to form its own Supreme Court and lower courts. A United State Federal Court and court district for federal matters would be formed by the US in Puerto Rico.
- The Governor would still be appointed by the US Federal Government.
- A non-voting member of the US Congress could be appointed and would be called the "Resident Commissioner."
- All U.S. laws "not locally inapplicable" to Puerto Rico, specifying, in particular, exemption from U.S. Internal Revenue laws.
The act empowered the territory to legislate over all laws in Puerto Rico that were of the local level, and to the ability to create new ones and repeal existing ones. It did not yet give citizenship to the people from there but in a speech given by Teddy Roosevelt in 1906 he did say that right should be granted to the inhabitants of Puerto Rico. The act also removed their ability to self determine their independence from the US as it had been determined by the outcome of the Civil War that no portion of the United States under rule of the Federal Government had the right to secede. This was because they were now formally subject to the US Constitution and federal laws, a fact that was backed up when in 1914 Puerto Rico voted for independence but was denied the ability to become so.
Still despite the fact they could not secede from the US and were subject to US Federal laws they were not citizens of the US until 1917 when the Jones-Shafroth Act (popularly called the Jones Act and often confused with the other Jones Act of 1920) stated that all Puerto Ricans born after April 25th, 1898 would be granted fill US Citizenship. Surprisingly this was against the will of those in Puerto Rico who saw it as a ploy buy the US Government to be able to draft their citizens into US Military service against their will ahead of WWI as it appeared more and more likely the US would be joining the war. The act was not all bad for the island and even granted them control over their territorial senate, making it one where the seats were filled by popular election instead of federal appointment. It also allowed them to vote for their own Resident Commissioner instead of that seat in the US House of Representatives also being appointed by the federal government.
Damage caused by the 1918 earthquake in Puerto Rico.
Life in Puerto Rico was relatively comfortable during this time until 1918 when a major M 7.1 earthquake and resulting tsunami ravaged the island. That followed by several powerful hurricanes and then the onset of the Great Depression left the island severely impoverished for the first several decades under US rule. This led to tensions between Puerto Rico and the the US Mainland as renewed calls for independence arose including one protest in 1935 in which police killed four people. Finally in the following year a bill was introduced into the US Senate for the independence of the island at the same time of a similar bill was introduced for the Philippians (in that case they would under go a 10 year transitional period). This bill was supported by all but the Liberal Party in Puerto Rico yet failed to pass but in the years that followed tensions would grow further until on Palm Sunday in 1937 a peaceful civilian march to mark the end of slavery by the Spanish, and in support for support of the jail leader of the Nationalist party who had called for independence, turned bloody at the hands of the Island's Insular Police. The Insular Police, the Territory's then equivalent to the National Guard, unarmed nationalist cadets and bystanders and killing 19 of them and wounding another 200. The shooting came as a result of the Island's governor canceling the permit to the parade and ordering the Insular Police to stop the march with any means necessary. At one point the gravely injured flag bearer of the nationalist movement drug himself to a wall and with his own blood wrote the following quote:
"¡Viva la República, Abajo los asesinos!"
("Long live the Republic, Down with the Murderers!")
The outbreak of the Ponce Massacre.
In direct response to this Senator Tydings introduced another bill in 1943 to call for Puerto Rico's independence but this too was defeated. Durring the years after this changes were made to how the Puerto Ricans could govern themselves with compromises being made by FDR's administration through negotiations with Luis Muñoz Marin including the appointment of Puerto Rico's first ever Puerto Rican born governor. Finally, in 1948 Puerto Ricans finally earned the right to vote for and elect their own Governor and so they elected Luis Muñoz Marin who had been the head of the Puerto Rican Liberal Party and who opposed the bill in the US Senate that would have granted their Independence.
One in power a bill was placed before the Puerto Rican Senate which would restrain the rights of the independence and nationalist movements in the island. The Senate at the time was controlled by the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), and was presided over by Luis Muñoz Marín. The bill, also known as the Gag Law, passed easily and it made it illegal to fly a Puerto Rican Flag, talk of independence, campaign for independence, and even sing a song to the tune of a pro-independence one even with new lyrics. This bill, a flagrant violation of the First Amendment, was not repealed until 1958 and in the meantime it could penalize a person $10,000 dollars or up to ten years in prison. It was similar to the also unconstitutional Smith Act which meant to make illegal pro-communist speech in the states.
Finally in 1950 the Puerto Ricans were given the right to make their own constitution, much like each state has, and after a draft was put to a vote it passed with an 82% majority and was ratified in 1958. It also has strict protections for the freedom of speech in vast contrast to the Gag Law.
MODERN ECONOMICS OF PUERTO RICO
Now lets move onto the modern economics of the island. In short, they are a total mess. The island is extremely in debt and despite legislation by congress last year allowing it to renegotiate some of its debt it still does not have enough money to operate and is at threat of default still. Historically the Island has not been very prosperous under US control Since the 1918 earthquake and tsunami the territory has been under extreme financial hardship. This largely started to ease post World War II but no real progress was made until Operation Bootstrap came into effect which rapidly modernized the tiny island and led to an economic boom primarily through the manufacture of pharmaceutical goods. Before then, the island's economy was largely reliant on agriculture through the farming of sugar cane.
In fact despite being part of the United States it was routinely listed as one of the poorest islands in the Caribbean through much of the 20th century. In 1947 Puerto Rico's first governor and the US Government began the operation which invested millions into the island's industry and infrastructure similarly to the New Deal did with the states during the Great Depression. In fact the operation was largely based directly on the New Deal with the intention of moving the the economy out of a 3rd world status and making it into a modern industrialized community. They did this through massive infrastructure projects and by offering US manufacturers access to a domestic labor force that was cheaper than ones stateside, and allowing goods to be brought to the US from Puerto Rico free of import tax. Think of it like getting the benefit of outsourcing to China AND the benefits of not then having to import those good back into the US and paying any import duties on them! You could also transfer any of those profits from the island to the mainland without having to pay federal taxes on them, just like you were transferring them between states. To further sweeten the deal, Puerto Rico and the Federal government would offer large tax exemptions and special rental rates for facilities and land to put factories on which helped assure that the factories that did arrive were capitol-intensive ones like chemicals, pharmaceuticals, machinery, and electronics. The plan was so successful that it started what is known as an economic miracle that changed the island overnight from an agriculture economy that was largely out of date to a modern one based on industry and tourism. The plan backfired a little as it proved to be too good at boosting the economy and raising the standard of living too fast which caused pay rates to rise until the benefit of cheap labor left. By the 1960's unemployment was back on the rise but conditions on the island were still significantly better than before.
In comes Congress once more to try and fix things with the enactment of Section 936 to the US Federal Tax Code. Seeing that unemployment in Puerto Rico was stuck hovering between 14% and 24%, and those employed saw minor wage growth but were still often below the poverty line, they decided to further push high quality manufacturing jobs into the island with substantial tax incentives. To some degree this worked and while quality of life has improved and the island was financially better off than before, it came at a cost of making statehood harder to achieve as well as independence.
While the total sum of employment in fishing, agriculture, and manufacturing did experience a net loss, it should be noted that the industrialization process created jobs in other sectors. The net loss portrayed in this table only takes into account direct jobs associated within these industries without taking into account the indirect jobs associated with them such as those in the service industry and government. The financial sector grew from 10% of GNP in 1950 to 14.4% in 1980, and the governmental sector grew from 10% in 1950 to 17.1% in 1980.[5] Regardless of all this, Puerto Rico did experience an overall net loss due to Bootstrap. The data show that the new economic model generated growth but no employment. New jobs created in manufacturing did not fully compensate for jobs lost in agriculture.
In comes NAFTA in 1994 which began the death spiral of Section 936. First it was the competition coming from a nation connected by land. Mexico boarders the US and products can be brought by train and truck which is cheaper than by boat. In addition to this, thanks to the 1920 Jones Act only American ships can bring cargo too and from Puerto Rico which is much more expensive than using non-American shipping companies. By 2006 the tax cuts were removed by congress making almost all of the businesses that had moved to the island to close shop since it now became more expensive to do business on the island than it did in the mainland or in Asia. This basically ended their ability to court any off-island company to come to their island without offering their own massive subsidies that would, in turn, prevent them from gaining funding that would allow a stream of revenue to prevent the island from going into debt, as well as jobs for those on the island to work at, the loss of section 936 being pushed by a Congress they have no vote or real representation in.
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To pay its bills to cover the sudden loss of industry the island tried to sell bonds, just as the United States did in WWII to fund the war effort. The only issue with this is that Congress stepped in and decided that the bonds from Puerto Rico would be triple tax-exempt (meaning they were virtually tax-free in the US on any level). This caused a mad rush to buy as much as possible by people, particularly Wall Street who loved the benefit of not having to pay taxes on them at all. In turn, Wall Street successfully lobbied to be able to bundle those bonds with other things without having to name the bonds in any disclosures and where the bonds were from. One example of how this can be bad is that you can name something whatever you want. Oppenheimer's Maryland municipal bond plan you can buy into is only 48% Maryland bonds, the rest if Puerto Rican bonds. This loophole allowed Wall Street access to as many tax-free bonds as possible and got Puerto Rico addicted to the revenue stream since they lost the vast majority of their industry to the end of the policies of section 936. In response to this being the one lifeline that was keeping the island, the island did what it could to keep the bonds being purchased as government jobs were now the largest single point of employment on the island. They amended their own constitution to state that, "... the public debt ... shall first be paid and other disbursements shall thereafter be made ...", and did so in a desperate measure to keep revenue coming in. This meant that the island would pay bondholders before paying anything else such as payroll and services such as infrastructure improvement and vital services, not even the US Federal debt is paid that way. With no support from the Federal Govt to help spur business in the island, it meant they were forced to rely on those bonds.
Finally, when the time came to pay back on those bonds the island was forced by its constitution to begin payment on those rather than pay their vital services first as they had nothing in savings to do so with. Now normally when this happens in the United States it is a state that has made this poor decision and when they do they can file for Chapter 9 Bankruptcy which the territory could also do until 1989 when an amendment to the Federal Judgeship Act took away their right. There was no debate and the only place that got their right revoked by this amendment was Puerto Rico. Strom Thurmond slipped it into the bill and it was overlooked without any debate or notice. Strom (a guy who was a very vocal Racist and couldn't keep his dick in his pants) himself did not even mention why it was put in before his passing. With the loss of jobs and now government services the citizens of the island have either been moving away or turning to crime and bribery to keep food on the table. There is another issue with the bonds. UBS is an underwriter of the bonds and they first bought the bonds and then sold them to themselves before then selling them to the public which is illegal per the Investment Company Act of 1940, HOWEVER, an amendment to that law was written in that allows you to do that with Puerto Rican bonds and their bonds only. All of this happened without them having the ability to get self representation and now when they have tried to become a state we are telling them to fuck off because they are poor.
Modern (late 20th century) attempts at Puerto Rico Statehood, Independence, and everything in between!
Puerto Rico has had a long history of not being able to determine their own state. Between Spanish and now American rule the island has been forced to live under the rule of another nation as its colony since the 1500's, so long that even the United Nations has deliberated on this fact (we will cover this more in a bit). Since the late 20th century there have been four attempts at a change of status for the territory in the form of a plebiscite. One of these occurring in 2012 with the options of "status quo" or "change the status" 54% of the voters wanted a change with the majority favoring statehood.
However because there was 500,000 blank ballots Congress chose to ignore the result so the Island tried again. This time they left, "keep the status quo" of the ballot since it lost the previous time plebiscite but the Trump Administration threw a fit and asked for it to be placed on there. They did so with reluctance and the vote still showed the Island favored statehood but turn out was very low, 23% to be precises. After the count the Justice Department was non-committal and and has yet to review the ballot and the wording on it.
Subsequent to the 2017 referendum, Puerto Rico's legislators are also expected to vote on a bill that would allow the Governor to draft a state constitution and hold elections to choose senators and representatives to the federal Congress but Hurricane Maria has interrupted that. In addition to that even had they moved forward with those actions thanks to the way the Constitution is worded, Congress has ultimate say to their fate.
The United Nations, like the people of Puerto Rico, also favor a change of status. Per their investigation on the policies, history, and treatment of the Island they see the relationship with the United States is one of a colony instead of a a territory. As recently as 2016 they even tried started an investigation to see what they could do to expedite the process to change the status of the Island and how to get Congress to also act on their own initiative with little success.
Is Puerto Rico still significant to the Navy? I mean, what does Congress get out of continuing to be dicks to Puerto Rico?
Ego masturbation. (See also: Congress' treatment of the District of Columbia.)
Beyond that, there are 4.6 million Puerto Ricans in the diaspora across mainland US, in addition to the 3.4 million in Puerto Rico proper. Most of those on the mainland are in high electoral-value or states (Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, California, Illinois, and Texas). This is also part of why how Puerto Rico is treated in this current disaster is important politically, beyond the immediate "not being a horrible human being and caring for people in a horrific disaster" reasons. When the next election comes, a motivated Puerto Rican diaspora voting bloc could be incredibly meaningful to the political landscape. Historically, Puerto Rican turnout in US elections is very low (~14.6% of US Puerto Ricans are registered and just under 14% usually turnout to vote) while turnout in Puerto Rican internal voting is abnormally high (usually above median US turnouts by percentage of eligible voters).
The GOP congressfolks pushing for Trump to do something aren't generally doing that because they are decent people, but because they fear for their own seats (particularly Marco Rubio, who only took Florida with overwhelming support of the Orlando Area, which happens to be the second largest Puerto Rican enclave in the US).
Racist satisfaction
Not much, but Puerto Ricans would no longer be US citizens, which is why independence has had a hard time getting traction.
Now PR statehood scares the GOP, as it would mean 2 new Democratic senators and 3-4 Democratic representatives at the very least.
I have a friend in the Coast Guard that used to be stationed there. I make fun of him by saying he serves in he knee deep navy just to irritate him.
That said there isn't much that we gain from keeping Puerto Rico outside of physical land and geographical location. Puerto Rico's industry has largely become unimportant to the mainland but we do like their rum and sugar cane. Really we just hold on to it because of it's geographical location and size.
Honestly the status quo isn't working in Puerto Rico but independence wouldn't do much to help it either other than get it out of the restrictive rules of shipping that it has suffered under. Those rules are the Jones Act of 1920 which require only ships of American ownership be allowed in and out of the port. This act is also helping to slow the relief on the island as it limits the amount of ships from outside the US that can bring in aid. This dated law was made to protect the merchant navy of the US and is not really relevant in today's globalized world.
Puerto Rico stands to gain much more in statehood. It may damage it some culturally but economically it will help the island get out from debt and give it representation that will greatly assist in rebuilding the island. The culture will likely become slightly more "American" but not to the point that it would be unique to the rest of the country.
I feel statehood would be a solid option for it and the USVI though the USVI may be too small to ever become a state on its own. The population of the small islands being almost 1/6th that of Wyoming which is the least populated state. Becoming part of the state of Puerto Rico would also be strange as culturally it is very distinct from Puerto Rico and has a completely different past and unique needs and desires.
The only thing really standing in the way of statehood for Puerto Rico is the GOP on a partisan notion that it would add another blue state, and that the island is too "un-american" in race, language, and culturally (which is a mostly antiquated and racist belief).
It's interesting that PR's economy got screwed (to a degree) not from globalization or from protectionism, but from a weird combination of the two phenomenons interacting in a stupid way.
It also was severely hampered by a need for the geographical position but not of the the people or its resources.
Additionally the island was sadly mismanaged after WW2- this NYT article goes into detail but local politicians quit raising taxes or doing property tax assessments and handed out free electricity to every town for almost 70 years. This had the consequences you'd expect, with mayors building big-ticket items like waterparks and skating rinks with abandon. Private citizens were caught running businesses from public buildings. I don't know what the power authority expected to happen, but the whole "free electricity" thing is a large part of why the island is so in debt.
This is true and partially why the Cuban and Puerto Rican flag are essentially the same with the colors inverted, and why the flag was banned for a time in the island. This group was very much to the US and Puerto Rico what the IRA was to Northern Island and England.
The issues with corruption and miss management can also largely be attributed to the lack of oversight AND support from the mainland. While corruption and crime can be born from any level of development and affluence, it seems to be easier to arise to that level when you are dealing with an area that is largely unemployed, uneducated, and destitute. During the Bootstrap years very little was done to help the island government in fighting this corruption and poor management in favor of just trying to pump industry into the the nation to help temper the exporting of American jobs overseas. I imagine the thought was once people became better educated and joined the middle class that they would just solve the problems on their island themselves but this does not happen without oversight and guidance.
One issue is how the US seems to treat the island like a foreign power found in Latin America/South America and not like a part of its self.