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href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/With-78-Abstention-Puerto-Rico-Plebiscite-Seen-as-Failure-20170611-0007.html">http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/With-78-Abstention-Puerto-Rico-Plebiscite-Seen-as-Failure-20170611-0007.html</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">With 78% Abstention, Puerto Rico
Plebiscite Seen as 'Failure'<br>
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<div id="reader-estimated-time">June 11, 2017<br>
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<p>Puerto Rico's fifth plebiscite Sunday on whether to
become an independent country, the 51st U.S. state or
remain a U.S. territory was characterized by a
staggering 78 percent voter abstention after the
independence movement called for a boycott of what it
termed an illegal vote.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>RELATED:<br>
<a
href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/What-You-Need-to-Know-About-Puerto-Ricos-Plebiscite-20170607-0046.html">What
You Need to Know About Puerto Rico’s Plebiscite</a></strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>With 97 percent vote in, statehood won in a non-binding
referendum that the U.S. colonial power does not have to
recognize. According to data published on the website of
the State Elections Commission, a total of 476,635
voters out of the 2.8 million eligible voters, chose
statehood. Those who voted for independence reached 1.5
percent of the vote, and 1.3 chose the current
commonwealth status.</p>
<p>Independence groups, along with three political
parties, called for a boycott of the ballot as a protest
against the government spending US$7.5 million on the
election in the middle of a budget crisis that has
forced the island to take on harsh austerity measures,
making its colonial status more acute as the country can
not solve the crisis without U.S. approval.</p>
<p>Critics also pointed out that the U.S. Department of
Justice has not supported the plebiscite.</p>
<p>"I'm not voting. The government has spent millions of
dollars on this campaign hoping that statehood wins, but
even if it does, the U.S. Congress won't want to do
anything about it," Felix Salasarar told Reuters.</p>
<p>The boycott seemed to have struck a chord with voters,
amid a debt crisis, growing protests against austerity
measures and the recent release of independence leader
Oscar Lopez Rivera.</p>
<p>Puerto Rico independence activists held a <a
href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Puerto-Ricans-to-March-for-Independence-During-Plebiscite--20170610-0020.html">caravan</a>
during the vote in the capital of San Juan outside the
U.S. Federal Court building.</p>
<p>Vice President of the Puerto Rican Independence Party
Maria de Lourdes Santiago described the electoral
exercise as a failure, "The result of the plebiscite is
a failure for those who were allowed to impose the
inclusion of the colonial option and only served to
dramatize disinterest and rejection of any project of
annexation."</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>RELATED:<br>
<a
href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Puerto-Rico-National-Strike-Protests-Colonial-Debt-Crisis-20170501-0014.html">Puerto
Rico National Strike Protests 'Colonial' Debt
Crisis</a></strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Those who support statehood, like Governor Ricardo
Rossello, claimed that the change in status would help
resolve the island’s US$123 billion debt load, including
pension debts. Rossello said that being incorporated
into the U.S. would allow Puerto Rico to become a
“diplomatic center and a business center of the
Americas.”</p>
<p>Groups that back the current commonwealth status, like
the Popular Democratic Party, called for a boycott of
the plebiscite, claiming the vote is “invalid” and
“rigged.”</p>
<p>A spokesperson for the governor told Reuters he will
push Congress to respect a result in favor of statehood,
saying the island will pursue the Tennessee Plan, where
U.S. territories send a congressional delegation to
Washington.</p>
<p>Puerto Rico’s ability to deal with its debt crisis has
been crippled by its legal status as a colony of the
United States, which bars the island from filing for
bankruptcy. An initial audit report found that up to
US$30 billion of Puerto Rico’s debt load was issued
illegally.</p>
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<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
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