DIVIDED ISLAND
Sunday’s referendum, which cost Puerto Rico between $5 million and $7 million, according to government estimates, was the island’s fifth since 1967 – and the third in which pro-statehood sentiments triumphed, though none have moved Congress to act.
“If the U.S. is going to go to Venezuela and Cuba and Afghanistan and push democracy abroad, they’ve got to do the same” with their own territories, he said.
But Puerto Ricans are skeptical the island’s status will change. “This has all been a waste of time,” said taxi driver Felix Salasarar, 54, adding that federal lawmakers will “look at the voter turnout and say, ‘where’s the will of the people?'”
Working against the governor may be a perception in Washington that Sunday’s vote was not fair.
The U.S. Department of Justice in April called on Rossello to change ballot language that initially did not give voters an option to remain a U.S. territory.
Rossello told Reuters he made that decision because the territory option – which Rossello equates to colonialism – already lost in a previous status referendum, in 2012, making this year’s vote a choice between statehood and independence.
The Justice department viewed the language as politically unfair to millions of Puerto Ricans who favor territory status, prompting Rossello to add the territory option. But the Justice department never reviewed or approved the new language.
To be sure, Sunday’s results do not reflect the true nature of Puerto Ricans’ views on statehood, which are fairly evenly divided between those who favor it and those who do not, based upon historical election results.
Statehooder Rossello, for example, won his own election with just 42 percent of the vote.
But that, the governor said, is how democracy works: “Everybody knows that those who go through the voting process have a louder voice than those who don’t,” he said.
Carolina Santos, a single working mother struggling to make her mortgage payments, said bankrupt Puerto Rico has more important things to worry about than a status vote.
“Maybe we should focus more on fixing our financial problems and our schools,” she said.
(Editing by Bernard Orr, Daniel Bases)
Article Appeared @http://www.reuters.com/article/us-puertorico-debt-vote-idUSKBN1931NG