Is Puert Rico a country or is it a part of the u.s?

Answer 1

The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Spanish: Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, IPA [esˈtaðo ˈlibɾe asoˈsjaðo de ˈpweɾto ˈriko]), also Porto Rico (archaic) and more commonly Puerto Rico, is a United States unincorporated territory with Commonwealth status[1] located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands; about 1,000 miles off the south coast of Florida. The archipelago of Puerto Rico includes the main island of Puerto Rico, the smallest of the Greater Antilles, and a number of smaller islands and keys, the largest of which are Mona, Vieques, and Culebra. Puerto Ricans sometimes refer to their island as Borikén, or the Spanish variant Borínquen, a name for the island used by indigenous Taíno people.

The nature of Puerto Rico's political relationship with the United States is the subject of ongoing debate in the island and also in the United Nations.[2] Those who support maintaining the status quo (i.e., Commonwealth status) insist that upon attaining this status, Puerto Rico entered into a voluntary association with the U.S. "in the nature of a compact", but according to a President's Task Force report, Puerto Rico is an unincorporated organized territory of the United States, subject to the plenary powers of the United States Congress and with the "right to establish a constitution for the internal administration of government and on matters of purely local concern".
Puerto Rico consists of a main island of Puerto Rico and various smaller islands, including Vieques, Culebra, Mona, Desecheo, and Caja de Muertos. Of the latter five, only Culebra and Vieques are inhabited year-round. Mona is uninhabited through large parts of the year except for employees of the Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources. There are also many other even smaller islands including Monito and "La Isleta de San Juan" known as Old San Juan.

The mainland measures some 100 miles by 35 nautical miles (170 km by 60 km). It is mostly mountainous with large coastal areas in the north and south regions of the island. The main mountainous range is called "La Cordillera Central" (The Central Range). The highest elevation point of Puerto Rico, Cerro de Punta (4,390 feet; 1,338 m)[14], is located in this range. Another important peak is El Yunque, located in the Sierra de Luquillo at the Caribbean National Forest, with a maximum elevation of 3,494 feet (1,065 m). The capital, San Juan, is located on the main island's north coast.

Located in the tropics, Puerto Rico enjoys an average temperature of 28 °C (82.4 °F) throughout the year. The seasons do not change very drastically. The temperature in the south is usually a few degrees higher than the north and temperatures in the central interior mountains are always cooler than the rest of the island. The hurricane season spans between June and November.

See also: Climate of Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico has 17 lakes (none of them are natural)[15] and more than 50 rivers. Most of these rivers are born in the Cordillera Central. The rivers in the northern region of the island are bigger and with higher flow capacity than those of the south region. Therefore, The south is drier and hotter than the north region.

As of 1998, 239 plants, Sixteen birds and 39 amphibians/reptiles have been discovered that are endemic to the archipelago of Puerto Rico. The majority of these (234, 12 and 33 repectively) are found on the main island.[16] The most recognizable endemic species and a symbol of Puerto Rican pride is the Coquí, a small frog easily recognized by the sound from which it gets its name. The Caribbean National Forest, also known as El Yunque, a tropical rainforest is home to the majority (13 of 16) of species of coquí. It is also home to more than 240 plants, 26 of which are endemic and 50 bird species, including one of the top 10 endangered birds in the world, the Puerto Rican Parrot.
The government of Puerto Rico is based on the formal (albeit not substantive) Republican system composed of 3 branches: the Executive branch headed by the Governor, the Legislative branch consisting of a bicameral Legislative Assembly (a Senate and a House of Representatives) and the Judicial branch, that form the formal or publicly touted government, which does not, however, hold sovereignty, or even limited state-sovereignty powers, necessary to conform a real republican national government based on the will of the governed. The legal system is based on a mix of the civil law and the common law systems. The governor as well as legislators are elected by popular vote every four years. Members of the Judicial branch are appointed by the governor and approved by the senate. Puerto Rico is divided into 78 municipalities, each of which elect a mayor and a municipal legislature.In 1950, the U.S. Congress afforded Puerto Ricans the right to organize a constitutional convention, contingent on the results of a referendum, where the electorate would determine if they wished to organize their own government pursuant to a constitution of their own choosing. Puerto Ricans expressed their support for this measure in a 1951 referendum, which gave voters a yes-or-no choice for the commonwealth status, defined as a ‘permanent association with a federal union’. A second referendum was held to approve the constitution, which was adopted in 1952. Prior to approving the new constitution, the Constitutional Convention specified the name by which the body politic would be known. On February 4, 1952, the convention approved Resolution 22 which chose in English the word “Commonwealth ”, meaning a “politically organized community” or “state” (with lower case "s", since it does not hold sovereignty), which is simultaneously connected by a compact or treaty to another political system. Unable to translate the word into Spanish, the convention adopted a translation inspired by the Irish Free State (albeit Puerto Rico ELA's limited powers paled in comparison to the ones that the Irish Free State obtained) called “Estado Libre Asociado” (ELA) to represent the compact between the people of Puerto Rico and the United States, which is literally translated into English as “Associated Free State”. The people of Puerto Rico did not have any negotiating power beyond voting "yes" for limited powers or "no", in which case even less powers to administer themselves would remain in their hands. Congress has never enacted a law that would bind itself to accept the true will of the Puerto Rico people through a plebiscite that would conform to international self-determination principles and thus the Nationalist Party has boycotted all the so-called referendums and plebiscites in the 1950s, 1967 (also boycotted by the Puerto Rican Independence Party {PIP}, 1993 and 1998.

Under the 1952 constitution, Puerto Rico is a Commonwealth and is permitted a degree of administrative-autonomy similar to that of a state of the Union, with the significant difference regarding the inability to participate in the national government's elected branches of government, nor exercise any official power in participating in the selection of the national government's legislative branch headed by the U.S. Supreme Court that holds a share of sovereign-colonial power over Puerto Rico; and as such Puerto Rico is not part of an arrangement known as a federation. Concretely, Puerto Rico does not have voting representation in the U.S. Congress (either in the Senate or in the House of Representatives); nor does it have any electors in the U.S. Electoral College, and therefore Puerto Rico's U.S. citizens do not participate in the U.S. Presidential elections, although political parties can, and do, have state-like voting delegations to the nominating conventions of both major national parties (although this representation does not conform to Puerto Rico's population as a proportion to the U.S. population as a whole). A non-voting Resident Commissioner is elected by the residents of Puerto Rico to the U.S. Congress acting as a delegate of the people of Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico is an pseudo-independent taxation authority per an act of the U.S. Congress. While residents of the island do not pay federal income tax, Puerto Ricans do pay U.S. federal payroll taxes (Social Security and Medicare), as well as Puerto Rico income taxes. Puerto Rico residents are eligible for Social Security benefits upon retirement. Puerto Rico is excluded from Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Because Puerto Ricans do not pay federal income tax, Puerto Rico receives less than 15% of the Medicaid funding it would be allotted as a state. For Medicare, Puerto Rico pays fully but only receives partial benefits.

As statutory U.S. citizens, Puerto Ricans may enlist in the U.S. military. Puerto Ricans have been included in the compulsory draft, when it has been in effect. Puerto Ricans have fully participated in all modern U.S. wars.

For the past fifty years, Puerto Rico's political status vis-à-vis the United States has been the subject of much debate and international conflict at world or regional supra-national organizations. As a colony dependent on the U.S. since 1952, the ideology of Puerto Ricans is represented by its political parties, which stand for the current relationship or the three distinct future political scenarios: the status quo, statehood, and independence. The Popular Democratic Party (PDP) seeks to, either obtain a recognition from the U.S. to the effect that P.R. is not a colony, or in the alternative, do away with the current colonial status in favor of true a free association status, the New Progressive Party (NPP) seeks to fully incorporate Puerto Rico as a U.S. state, and the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) seeks national independence through peaceful, albeit not passive, political/electoral methods. The Nationalist Party seeks national liberation, as does the PIP, albeit through different means; the Nationalist Party, for example does not participate in colonial-Commonwealth elections held every four years.

In 1967, the Legislative Assembly tested political interests of the Puerto Rican people by passing a plebiscite Act that allowed a vote on the status of Puerto Rico. This constituted the first plebiscite by the Legislature for a choice on three status options. Puerto Rican leaders had lobbied for such an opportunity repeatedly, in 1898, 1912, 1914, 1919, 1923, 1929, 1932, 1939, 1943, 1944, 1948, 1956, and 1960. Following the plebiscite, efforts in the 1970s to enact legislation to address the status issue died in Congressional committees. In both the 1993 plebiscite, in which Congress played a more substantial role, and the 1998 plebiscite the status quo, Commonwealth status, was upheld. [21]. In the last plebiscite, 46.5% of the population voted for U.S. Statehood, while only 2.5% voted for Independence. The majority voted for "none-of-the-above," which was considered to be a vote against the current colonial-status, statehood and absolute independence that would cut ties with Unites States before Puerto Rico could reform what has been engineered to be an extremely dependent economy to the metropolitan sovereign.

[edit] Political status and international law

Although Puerto Rico is, politically speaking, an unincorporated territory of the United States classified as a Commonwealth, some Puerto Ricans refer to Puerto Rico as a país, the Spanish word for country. This is a common term used to describe dependent territories by the United Nations although on many occasions it has been thought of as a possibility that Puerto Rico would become the 51st state of the United States of America. The United Nations has in the past evaluated Puerto Rico's political status to ensure that the island's government complies with the standards of self-government that constitute the basic tenets of the United Nations Charter, its covenants, and its principles of international law.

On November 27, 1953, shortly after establishment of the Commonwealth, the General Assembly of the UN approved Resolution 748, removing Puerto Rico’s classification as a non-self-governing territory under article 73(e) of the Charter from United Nations. The resolution garnered a favorable vote of fewer than 40% of the General Assembly, with over 60% abstaining or voting against it (20 to 16, with 18 abstentions). This resolution has not been revoked by the UN even though the political status is still debated in many international forums.

For a territory to be deemed self-governing, the United Nations requires:

"(a) Legislative representation. Representation without discrimination in the central legislative organs, on the same basis as other inhabitants and regions [within the governing nation].

(b) Participation of the population. Effective participation of population in the government of the territory

(1) Is there an adequate and appropriate electoral and representation system?
(2) Is this electoral system conducted without direct or indirect interference from a foreign government?

(c) Citizenship. Citizenship without discrimination on the same basis as other inhabitants

(d) Government officials. Eligibility of officials from the territory for all public offices of the central authority, by appointment or election, on the same basis as those from other parts of the country".

The General Assembly did not apply its full list of criteria to Puerto Rico for determining whether or not self-governing status had been achieved. In fact, in a 1996 report on a Puerto Rico status political bill, the U.S. House Committee on Resources stated that Puerto Rico’s current status “does not meet the criteria for any of the options for full self government.” The House Committee concluded that Puerto Rico is still an unincorporated territory of the United States under the territorial clause, that the establishment of local self-government with the consent of the people can be unilaterally revoked by U.S. Congress, and that U.S. Congress can also withdraw at any time the American citizenship now enjoyed by the residents of Puerto Rico as long as it achieves a legitimate Federal purpose, in a manner reasonably related to that purpose.

According to a report by the President’s Task Force on Puerto Rico’s Status, released in December 2005, it is not possible “to bind future Congresses to any particular arrangement for Puerto Rico as a Commonwealth”. This determination was based on articles in the U.S. Constitution regarding territories. The governor of Puerto Rico has challenged the task force report. On January 4, 2006, Governor Anibal Acevedo Vilá announced the steps that he and the governing Popular Democratic Party will take in the following months. The resolution denounces the task force as a political fraud that represents a threat to democracy and is in violation of the basic agreements held between the people of Puerto Rico and the United States since 1952.[22] It also stated a compromise to challenge the task force report and validate the current status in all international forums including the United Nations. Also rejects any colonial or territorial status as a status option and vows to keep working for the enhanced commonwealth status that was approved by the PPD in 1998 which included: sovereignty, an association based on respect and dignity between both nations, and common citizenship.

As part of the PPD's strategy, a bill supporting its position was introduced in the United States Senate by two senators who have traditionally been identified with Puerto Rico, Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and two senators whose interest in all matters Puerto Rican was up to then unknown, Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC) and Trent Lott (R-MS). Since its introduction, the bill has not attracted any other co-sponsors, in spite of heavy lobbying on the part of Puerto Rico's Executive Branch lobbyists. A bipartisan Senate bill supporting the implementation of the White House report recommendations is expected to be filed shortly by Sens. Mel Martinez (R-FL) and Ken Salazar (D-CO).

On the other hand, Resident Commissioner Luis Fortuño (R-PR) and Rep. Jose E. Serrano (D-NY) filed a bipartisan House bill to implement the recommendations, which has been cosponsored by over 60 Republicans and over 40 Democrats, significantly more cosponsors than the Young Bill which cleared the House in 1998. The House Committee on Resources called a hearing on the subject on April 27, 2006, signalling a greater degree of interest than previously anticipated.

Answer 2

Puerto Rico is a Common Wealth of the United States, in other words a territory. You can't say that P.R is U.S.A because is not a state. You can;t call it a state yet because the government of the United States haven't decided yet, and the puertorican people don't realize is up to them, we can't decide that no matter how many elections we do and the PNP wins (in favor of statehood). That's the crisis we are going through. We are stuck because we are confused with our identity crisis. We are hearing rumors that supposedly the United States will leave Puerto Rico on is own, to some people this is good news to others is bad, to all is frightening. We are accustomed to be part of the States without supporting ourselves alone. Maybe being Independent wouldn't be so bad for us. We will have a better identity as puertoricans since we are too influenced by the americans and they don't really cared about us. That's the truth. Hope you understand now. Don't worry much about where you were born, you are puertorican and american both things. I have never lived in the United States and I am an american citizen and puertorican. Is part of the E.L.A (Estado Libre Asociado) You will never lose that citizenship no matter what.

Answer 3

Puerto Rico, legally is a Territory of the USA. It is a Commonwealth of the US. But it falls into the category of Domestic Nation of the US Law.

Puerto Rico formally became a US Territory on July 25, 1895 after Spain surrendered during the Spanish American war. In 1917, Puerto Ricans became US Citizens.

Beautiful people. Great food, and Beautiful country and architecture, are part of what you will find in Puerto Rico. Been there many times, and I love it.

Answer 4

Puerto Rico is a country, no doubt.
P. R. have all the requirements to be classified as a country: defined territory (Island), common language(Spanish), common culture, common religion and common history(more than 500 years). Some people believe that the only definition of country is a political one. The actual condition of colony of the USA, and in the past colony of Spain, is a political issue and not a "country" issue. In Spain for example the people from Catalonia or from "El Pais Basco"( the Basque Country) consider themselves as Catalans and Basques. The same can apply to the Scotland, Corsica and Sardinia or even Holland, just to mention some European"countries".
Puerto Rico can be a part of the USA but only in the political maters and this can also be questionable. Is somebody said that P. R. is not a country is because he doesn't understand the reality of the Puertorricans, or don't want to understand it.

Answer 5

Puerto Rico is not a country is a free-state. The best way to explain it. It belongs to the United States, it is fully funded by the United States, it only has it's own government. Sets their own state laws, yet American Law supercedes all state laws. I think Puerto Rico is not an American State because 50 stars sounds better and looks better then 51!!!

Answer 6

Puerto Rico is an ISLAND that is US territory. But we are a Common Wealth, ELA, Estado Libre Asociado, you can compare it in some ways to the State of Massachusetts. We have our own laws and regulations controlled by senators and legislators, but we abide by many laws of the United States. Some people call it a country, PAIS, others even call it a state. I call it an Island asociated to the United States. We use US dollar and pay taxes as well(7%). We import/export and depend much from the United States.

Answer 7

YES!! Puerto Rico is a country AND part of the United States!!

Answer 8

In one word... BOTH. It is a country part of the United States.

Both perspectives are very well justified:

1. a country - it has its own representation on international beauty pageants and international sports, it has its own constitution, people in PR can not vote for the president of the US

2. part of the US - it is a US territory, federal laws are above the constitution of PR, people have US citizenship, the US regulate every commercial move in PR, PR is not free to commercialize with other countries but US.

And of course, in this dilemma there will always be debate. Just look at it they way that will please you more. I love to think that we are a country part of the US! What about you?

Answer 9

It is a US Territory. That means it has its own government but it is subject to US laws and regulations, and the government functions at the discretion of the United States. They do have their own government and local laws and local elections, but federal law pertaining to US Territories supercedes local law. There is a lot fo debate there regarding their status, and they have had referendums in attempt to decide whether to pursue statehood or independance. The majority just want to keep it as is, since there would be winners and losers in each scenario.

Answer 10

puertO rico is a country but aswell it is a commen wealth of the united states of america

Answer 11

Sure Puerto rico might be US territory, but to us, we consider it a country. In my heart la isla del encanto is a country also.