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#73 A Time for Decision: Puerto Rico and the United States Facing the 1980s. A Rapporteur's Report

By Jorge Heine and Barbara Mauger

From the Introduction

The "Puerto Rican question" is perhaps the last outstanding colonial issue in U.S.-Latin American relations. It may also become an important issue within the U.S. political system in the 1980s, if Puerto Rico's push for statehood culminates in a majority endorsement of that option in a plebiscite announced for 1981. In many ways, such an outcome would confront Congress with an unprecedented situation for the first time an overseas possession with a sizeable population and national characteristics that are different from those predominating in the United States would ask for its formal incorporation into the Union.

Whether such a plebiscite takes place or not, it is apparent that the Commonwealth formula which has provided the framework for U.S.-Puerto Rican relations for almost three decades is under severe strain. 

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The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action.  Read more