The proposed bill from Puerto Rico’s pro-colony Resident Commissioner Pablo José Hernández seeks to perpetuate colonialism.
Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora (BUDPR) has learned that Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner, Pablo José Hernández, plans to introduce a Puerto Rico status bill that includes the colonial Commonwealth status as an option for Puerto Rico. We categorically denounce and reject the proposed legislation, which tries to legitimize the current colonial status, and we urge all of Puerto Rico’s allies in Congress to oppose any bill that includes the status quo.
BUDPR leaders have reviewed the draft bill, called the “Puerto Rico Democratic Self Determination Act,” and have learned that Rep. Hernández plans to introduce it in the coming days. The bill is largely modeled after the Puerto Rico Status Act (H.R.8393) which was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2022. But by including the Commonwealth it undoes the signature achievement of that legislation: eliminating the colonial status quo from consideration as an option for Puerto Rico’s future.
“This proposed bill is pure colonialism. By including the colonial Commonwealth as a legitimate status option for Puerto Rico, Rep. Hernández is undoing all of the political progress we have made in the struggle to decolonize Puerto Rico” said BUDPR president Alberto Medina. “Hernández is trying to drag the issue of Puerto Rico’s status back to 1952. He is lying to the Puerto Rican people and to Congress by pretending that the Commonwealth is not colonial when even the U.S. Supreme Court has acknowledged it is.”
“Appropriating the language of ‘self-determination’ for a bill that includes the colonial status quo is a shameful slap in the face to Rep. Nydia Velázquez, members of Congress who already voted to remove the commonwealth status, and all of the Puerto Rican people on the archipelago and in the diaspora that reject colonialism and support a just and democratic future for our people,” Medina added.
The bill proposes a plebiscite on Puerto Rico’s status to be held in March 2027 that would allow voters to choose between statehood, independence, sovereignty in free association, and the Commonwealth, or Estado Libre Asociado. If the Commonwealth wins, it calls on Congress to establish a “United States-Puerto Rico Commonwealth Development Commission” to reform the current status, echoing proposals for “improving” the colonial relationship that have been rejected by the U.S. government for decades.
“With old fantasies of an ‘enhanced Commonwealth’, Hernández is trying to fool Puerto Ricans with an empty promise that is legally and politically unworkable,” said BUDPR Policy Director Chris Soto. “But the Puerto Rican people are smarter than that. They are reminded every day—when their power goes out, they’re waiting in front of a truck for drinking water, or they hear about more FEMA funds that never arrive—that colonialism doesn’t work. The colonial status can’t be ‘developed;’ it has to be abolished.”
Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora, our allies in Congress, and our communities in the diaspora and in the archipelago pledge to strongly oppose any legislation that pushes more colonialism. If and when the bill is introduced, we will mobilize against it in Washington, D.C., and warn both elected officials and current candidates for office that supporting Rep. Hernández’s bill is a betrayal of the Puerto Rican people.
Journalists interested in reviewing the draft bill may reach out to the media contact at the top.
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About BUDPR
Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora (BUDPR) is a national advocacy organization of Puerto Ricans in the United States working toward a free, just, and prosperous future for Puerto Rico. BUDPR is the only national political organization that prioritizes decolonization and explicitly advocates for Puerto Rican independence. We use our influence in U.S. politics and society to support and ultimately free Puerto Rico.