The Puerto Rico Senate approved a measure for a June referendum on Puerto Rico's political status.
The vote on Thursday was 22 in favor and eight against the "Law for the Decolonization of Puerto Rico." The 21 senators of the New Progressive Party, which favors statehood, and one independent senator voted in favor. The seven senators of the Popular Democratic Party, which favors the current status or something similar to it, and one senator of the Puerto Rico Independence Party voted against the measure.
The June 11 referendum would ask voters if they supported statehood or separate sovereignty from the United States of America. If the latter option picked up the most votes, an Oct. 8 referendum would be held between separate sovereignty, understood as a free association status, and full independence.
If free association status would win, Puerto Rico's government would have to renegotiate its relationship with the U.S. government and Puerto Ricans would no longer be granted U.S. citizenship simply by being born in Puerto Rico, according to the El Vocero news web site.
The bill will now go to the Puerto Rico House of Representatives for consideration. One observer said it will certainly be amended there.
Gov. Ricardo Rossell- is a member of the NPP.
Puerto Rico has had several referendums on its status over the last several decades. The last one was in November 2012 where voters were asked two questions. In the first, 54% voted against continuing the island's current self-governing commonwealth status. In a second question concerning what they thought should replace the commonwealth, 61% voted in favor of statehood. This was the first time a majority of voters voted in favor of a state.
Some members of the PDP have said that many voters chose not to make an election to the second question and that the language of the ballot, which was approved by the then in-control NPP, was biased against continuing the current commonwealth status.
The U.S. government last year adopted the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act. Among other things, this law set up an oversight board to oversee and potentially govern the island. It remains to be seen if the federal government would follow the results of a plebiscite and what the relationship would be between the board and any new Puerto Rico political entity.
Under the current status, bonds from Puerto Rico have had a triple tax exemption, contributing to demand for the island's bonds that became a factor in the size of the current debt crisis.
