Gov. Pedro Pierluisi and his fiancee Fabiola Ansotegui Blanc arrive at a polling station to vote in the gubernatorial primaries, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Sunday, June 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Alejandro Granadillo)
Voters on the island of 3.2 million people will choose between statehood, independence, or independence with free association, the terms of which would be negotiated regarding foreign affairs, U.S. citizenship, and the use of the U.S. dollar.
“In this way, we assert our rights as American citizens to demand our self-determination through direct voting without intermediaries and to require the federal government to address the grievance represented by our colonial status,” Pierluisi said.
The governor, leader of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, will activate a 2020 law that allows the current governor to call for a status referendum.
The executive order follows approval of a bill by the U.S. House in 2022, aimed at helping Puerto Rico move towards changing its territorial status. The Puerto Rico Status Act, spearheaded by Representative Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, would exclude the island’s current territorial status as an option.
That status has lost support since the federal government established an unelected fiscal board in 2016, which has the authority to override local political branches after the island declared bankruptcy.
“These elections are about deciding the future of Puerto Rico’s reconstruction, the health system, education, and the disastrous service of LUMA,” said Jesús Manuel Ortiz, president of the pro-commonwealth Popular Democratic Party, in a statement. “This election is not about political agendas; it is about addressing the well-being of families and the country we want to build.”
In September 2023, U.S. Senator Roger Wicker reintroduced the bill bearing a similar name as Grijalva’s, but included Puerto Rico’s territorial status as an option. Two months later, Sen. Martin Heinrich introduced a similar bill.
