A PROJECT OF COUNTRY SOVEREIGN ELA
Development of the Commonwealth:
Building the Future from the Sovereignty and Self-Sufficiency
The Popular Democratic Party bet on the future of Puerto Rico. We are proud of the past and build a future that preserves the great contributions of our history. The Commonwealth is the tool of political and economic development that allowed the generation of Don Luis Muñoz Marín move the country to achieve the aspirations of an entire people. For over half a century, the effective combination of political and fiscal autonomy of the Commonwealth processor allowed us to progress of Puerto Rican life.
That reality has changed in the twenty-first century. The federal government has reduced the space for creative action under the State Free Association achieved. The same thing happened to all 50 states of the Union, but may seek a political alternative that allows them to advance out of excessive federal authority. Thanks to the flexibility of our status, Puerto Rico may develop a political relationship based on respect and historical fact, social and cultural development that we are one nation.
Time to move forward. That’s why we encourage and support regional development of the Commonwealth based on the principles of sovereignty, association and shared responsibilities with the United States.
The Popular Democratic Party believes in a dignified political partnership, not colonial or territorial between Puerto Rico and the United States based on the power of the people of Puerto Rico to determine their key issues, and the indissoluble bond of American citizenship.
Sovereign Commonwealth
Sovereignty means that the ultimate power of a nation on its business lies in its people, in the village. To address the status issue of Puerto Rico, should begin with the recognition that sovereignty rests with the people of Puerto Rico.
The concept of sovereign Commonwealth seeks to Puerto Rico and the U.S. government agree on specific terms defining the relationship between them, with American citizenship as a binding element of political association.
In that effort, provides the scope of judicial powers that the people of Puerto Rico authorized leave it retains the U.S. and other powers or the courts.
What is essential is that the powers U.S. government in Puerto Rico to exercise arising from the specific and not generic consent of the people of Puerto Rico, in accordance with the extension of the terms of the agreement began in 1952.
Essentially we want to use our sovereignty to be free, for example, of the Cabotage Act, adding to products imported from United States to reach agreements that allow us to create jobs, protect our agricultural products, expand our presence in the world, reducing our economic dependence on the United States and Puerto Rico make a vibrant nation that honors the American citizenship that binds us and put our spirit high, decent people.
Constitutional Assembly on Status
The Popular Democratic Party advocates an inclusive process to resolve the matter more than century-old relations with the United States. This process must begin in Puerto Rico, and guarantee equal opportunities to all status options.
Our country can no longer tolerate electoral processes that have no consequence in the United States, or that their results are not respected by some political sectors of the country or the United States Congress.
In the exercise of its sovereignty our people can: partnering with the United States (ELA Sovereign), break away and become an independent country (independence) or join the United States as a federal state (government). To respect the right of people to decide their future:
- The first legislation enacted by the new People’s Legislature in January 2009 will be the convening of a Constitutional Assembly on Status.
The Constitutional Assembly shall be elected Status of the People of Puerto Rico, to develop and negotiate with Congress and the Executive Branch of the United States, definitions and formulas for the solution acceptable status.
Self-Sufficiency Trust of Puerto Rico
One of the main objectives of ELA Soberano is to get the tools to move beyond the economic dependence on individual, family and community. The unit has been an obstacle to our development as individuals and as a people.
The Popular Democratic Party proposes to transform the economic relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States to be a source of economic development for all. United States must undertake to support efforts to ensure that Puerto Rico is self-sufficient.
A key element of these efforts will agree with our proposal to the United States a fund of self-sufficiency as part of the work of the Constitutional Assembly on Status. We firmly believe that creating such a mechanism is good for America, and a key element in the path towards self-reliance of our people.
- The Government of Puerto Rico negotiate the U.S. government to create a Standing Committee for the Self-Sufficiency Trust of Puerto Rico.
The Self-Sufficiency Trust was endowed by the total amount of funds that the United States would bring to Puerto Rico in twenty (20) years,
quality of federal transfers to individuals and the government itself, not including funds received by acquired rights, such as Social Security and veterans’ benefits and federal employees.
The interest generated by the Trust will be used to achieve the goal to bring Puerto Rican families to self-sufficiency, provide social assistance to the needy, foster business-tourism, creating jobs and stimulating local capital.
Trust managers establish strategic priority areas which will target investments to be undertaken by the Fund, such as economic development, welfare, job creation, physical infrastructure, environmental protection, among others.
