There is NO mandate for statehood in Puerto Rico
While statehooders claim a major victory of 53% support, a closer look at those plebiscite results is in order.
In 2020, Puerto Rico celebrated its sixth status plebiscite, just as recent events in Puerto Rico and the U.S. have led not just to the political and economic demise of the Commonwealth, but the statehood option as well. Yes, statehooders claim to have won the “Statehood Yes/No Plebiscite” with 53%.
Now according to them, with that 53%…the Puerto Rican people have now chosen statehood and all other status options, particularly sovereignty options, need to stop and surrender their efforts forever. Yeah, not going to happen.
While the 53% figure may convince some that Puerto Rico is destined for statehood, a closer look behind these figures reveals a very different context and perspective - Puerto Ricans do not want statehood and pro-sovereignty sentiment is increasing.
Let’s consider these four findings:
Even before the 2020 plebiscite took place, the very U.S. Department of Justice stated that the plebiscite lacked basic democratic standards and that it would essentially ignore the results, even if “statehood” won. Well, statehood won with 53% and yes, the results were ignored by the U.S. government.
Not only were the results ignored, but U.S. congressional leadership (both Republicans and Democrats) have stated that they do not support statehood for Puerto Rico. Imagine, both Mitch McConnell (R) and Chuck Schumer (D) can agree on something - they will not support Puerto Rico statehood in the U.S. Senate.
With only 27% of all registered voters supporting statehood in 2020 and 67% of the people not voting for the pro-statehood governor, there certainly is no mandate for Puerto Rico statehood. Let’s explain: That 53% actually drops down to 27% when one considers all available voters. Of all the voters in Puerto Rico who could have voted for “statehood”, only 27% went to the polls to support it. That, of course, is hardly a majority nor a mandate for anything. The statehood party in Puerto Rico and its colonial representative in Congress ignore the 27% figure (not surprising) and just focus on and repeat, day after day, that 53% of Puerto Ricans support statehood.
Currently, Free Association is the status option with the largest growth margin of support in modern Puerto Rico, going from 0.29% of the vote in the 1998 plebiscite to 33.3% of the vote in the 2012 plebiscite. In the 2012 plebiscite, both sovereignty options together (Independence & Free Association) garnered almost 40% of the vote – not too bad when one considers that pro-sovereignty advocates have been persecuted by the colonial regime and statehooders for over a century. Thankfully, the fear of freedom is slowly wearing off.
In the recent 2020 elections, the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) received renewed electoral support not seen since the 1950s and various pro-sovereignty candidates (across various parties) were elected to Puerto Rico’s legislature - displacing the statehooders. The tide is invariably turning against the statehooders as the Puerto Rican Independence & Sovereignty Movement continues to grow, diversify, unite, and consolidate itself into a new patriotic political force in modern Puerto Rico politics. Let’s hope this trend continues towards the 2024 elections.