By Senabri Silvestre
SANTO DOMINGO, Dom. Rep. — Puerto Rico filed on Wednesday to become a U.S. state by 2025, setting in motion a campaign pledge by the island’s newly minted Governor Ricardo Rossello.
It was the first bill presented by the new representative of Puerto Rico in the U.S. Congress, Jenniffer Gonzalez, less than a day after she was sworn in as Resident Commissioner.
“Today we are facing a historic moment. This measure sets the tone for what will be my congressional work, to fight tirelessly to end colonialism in Puerto Rico,” Gonzalez said at a press conference held at the U.S. House of Representatives.
The project foresees a plebiscite endorsed by the United States Congress to let Puerto Ricans decide between independence and statehood, and seeks full equality in rights for the Caribbean island’s 3.5 million American citizens.
“It will be only achieved under a statehood”, the U.S. territory’s first female congressional representative said, according to The Voice.
Making Puerto Rico the 51st state of the U.S. is the main promise of Rossello as a measure to resolve a debt crisis crippling the Caribbean island.
“The process of transition to statehood represents an opportunity to make the United States larger, pushing its borders to the Caribbean, and setting an example before the world of values that also represent cultural diversity in the nation,” Rossello said during his inauguration speech Monday after his victory in November.
The Barack Obama administration has been forced to turn over the finances of the island to a federal committee, partly as a stopgap measure against potential mass migration from Puerto Rico to the mainland after the island defaulted on its $70 billion debt in municipal bonds and $2 billion in interest last July.
Commissioner Gonzales said statehood would bring nearly $10 billion in additional funds every year to the island.
