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President Bill Clinton, News Conference in Vieques Island, Puerto Rico, February 16, 2000.

President Bill Clinton, News Conference on Vieques Island, Puerto Rico, February 16, 2000.  Q.  [D]o you believe in your heart that Puerto Rico’s colonial status is the root of this problem [the local discontent with Navy bombing and military exercises on the island] or is [it] related to Puerto Ricans’ ambivalence to issues of national security?Read More »President Bill Clinton, News Conference in Vieques Island, Puerto Rico, February 16, 2000.

The 1998 Plebiscite Revisited

It has been 6 1/2 years since the residents of Puerto Rico went to the polls to express a preference for a permanent political status.

On that occasion, the status definitions offered to voters were lifted from a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives (HR 856), the so-called “Young Bill.” The U.S. Senate took no floor action on HR 856, but did pass Senate Resolution #279 authorizing Puerto Rico, “through referendum or other means, to communicate its desires on future political status to the federal government, and that the federal government will consider such communication.”Read More »The 1998 Plebiscite Revisited