MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Puerto Rico insists on having final say

Puerto Rico Gov. Aníbal Acevedo Vila yesterday rejected a Bush administration report saying that Washington has the final word in defining the US territory's status.

A presidential task force on Thursday asked Congress to set a vote for the island's citizens to decide whether they prefer remaining a US territory or moving toward a permanent solution.

It took no position on which of the three options ? continued commonwealth status, statehood or independence ? is preferable.

But ??the only constitutional options are to be a State or territory,'' it said. Congress may either ??continue the current system indefinitely'' or ??revise or revoke it at any time.'' The Constitution doesn't recognize a permanent union with the US ??under a covenant that could not be altered without'' their mutual consent, the task force said. Autonomy is ??the alternative that historically the Puerto Rican people has favoured,'' said Acevedo Vila. But the report denies the legality of this alternative, he said.

??I'm not going to grant any standing to a political report that pretends to tell Puerto Ricans what they can do,'' he said, calling it ??thoroughly superficial.''

The task force recommended that if Puerto Ricans supported a permanent status option in the first vote, another vote should be set to find out their preference between statehood and independence.

The pro-statehood New Progressive Party, which has a legislative majority, has called for a referendum to decide the island's status.

Puerto Rico has been a commonwealth since 1952, when Congress approved the relationship. Puerto Ricans voted to keep that status, rejecting statehood in nonbinding referendums in 1967, 1993 and 1998.

But deep divisions remain, with a sizable number supporting the call for statehood and a much smaller group backing independence.

Statehood would bring the right to vote for president and voting representation in Congress and the obligation to pay federal income taxes. Full independence would require some Puerto Ricans to relinquish US citizenship.

The US seized Puerto Rico from Spain in 1898. The island's nearly four million people became US citizens in 1917. (BAH)