Let Puerto Rico stand on its own

Last week, the archbishop of San Juan, Roberto Gonzalez Nieves, stated that Puerto Rico should never become a state, and that if it did, the island would lose its culture, language and identity as a "people." Many residents of Puerto Rico agree, although they are afraid of what the island would become if it were an independent and sovereign country.

I believe that after many years of colonial rule by the Spaniards and then the United States, Puerto Rico should be allowed to flourish as its own nation — one with a strong trade and protective treaty with the United States. It should not depend on U.S. entitlement programs but be based on the ability to grow as an independent country that can negotiate commercial treaties with other countries — treaties that would make Puerto Rico great again.

For decades in the past century, the U.S. and Puerto Rico were interdependent. The United States depended on the island for several commodities — mostly sugar, but also tobacco and coffee. Unfortunately, agriculture gave way to manufacturing plants and an ever-growing government bureaucracy on the island. Today, Puerto Rico imports 85 percent of its food, even though most of the land is fertile. Only a mere 6 percent is arable, a fact that threatens Puerto Rico's food security.

Also, it’s no doubt that the U.S. depended on Puerto Rico to provide men to serve in the military. In fact, the main reason Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens today is due to the passage of the Jones-Shafroth Act in 1917. The U.S. was about to enter World War I and needed men to rebuild its military. This is the law, still in the books today, that essentially “imposed” U.S. citizenship on Puerto Ricans. The law, indeed, converted Puerto Ricans into second-class citizens, as it did not provide the residents of the island with the full rights and privileges granted under the U.S. Constitution to those born on the mainland, Alaska or Hawaii. President Wilson signed the law in 1917, barely a month before the U.S. entered the war.

History shows that not one Puerto Rican enlisted when the law was signed. It took instituting the draft to eventually bring about 20,000 Puerto Rican men into the military. Like my grandfather, most of them served in Panama, protecting the Panama Canal. The U.S. imposed citizenship on the residents of the island without Congress consulting with the people of the United States or the residents of Puerto Rico.

Given the 100-plus years of close ties between the U.S and Puerto Rico, and the size of the population and the economy of Puerto Rico, vis-a-vis that of the United States, interdependence will never be balanced and equal.

Today, Puerto Rico depends almost 100 percent on the U.S. In addition to strategic security, the U.S. provides the island with markets for 90 percent of those goods manufactured or grown on the island. Furthermore, the economic conditions in Puerto Rico have created a growing dependency on federal government welfare programs. Pew Research Center reports nearly 6 in 10 children, 58 percent, live in poverty. If not for aid from the U.S., Puerto Rico could be facing the same calamity as Haiti or Venezuela.

If Puerto Ricans fear that statehood would rob the island of its culture and language, this implies that keeping one’s culture and language overrides the economic well-being and security of the residents. If this is truly the case, there’s only one choice: independence for Puerto Rico. Residents would get to keep their culture and language. They would control all strategic, economic and insular matters. They would have to stand up their own military, their own Coast Guard, their own Border Patrol, and their own Federal Emergency Management Agency. But with what economic resources? Puerto Ricans don’t pay a penny for any of these services today. They’re included under the laws and budgets that have been passed by the U.S. Congress.

Entitlement programs targeted for Puerto Rico cost the U.S. billions each year with no true return on the investment. Puerto Ricans have had their own insular-constitutional government since 1952. They have had the opportunity to learn and grow as a self-governing entity. Granted, they haven't done very well, with billions of dollars owed to its investors and with hardly any attention paid to maintaining or enhancing the island’s infrastructure.

However, given the trillions in debt the U.S. has today, I believe the U.S. should begin divesting itself of the costs incurred yearly maintaining the residents of the island. Statehood or independence? It’s time to decide.

Angel “Hank” Cintron, a Puerto Rico native, is a past president of the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce, Gulf Coast of Florida, and a U.S. Army veteran.

Angel "Hank" CintronGuest Columnist
Let Puerto Rico stand on its own