Jenniffer González and Charlie Rodríguez ask Joe Biden and Congress to admit Puerto Rico as a state 51

Washington dc– As presidents of U.S. parties in Puerto Rico, Washington-based commissioner Jenniffer Gonzalez and former senator Charlie Rodriguez addressed letters to President-elect Joe Biden and Congress leaders claiming that the island is the 51st state in the United States.

The letters – which brought together various organizations and leaders of the New Progressive Party (PNP) – called for “respecting the will of the majority of Puerto Rican voters who have applied for admission as a state of the Union.”

Commissioner Gonzalez signed the letter as president of the Republican Party of the United States in Puerto Rico, while Rodriguez signed it as president of the Democratic Party of the United States in Puerto Rico.

By calling on the next federal government for the immediate admission of Puerto Rico as a state, the organizations alluded to the Creole plebiscite on November 3 in which 52% of voters supported this option. .

The consultation was rejected last July by the U.S. Department of Justice, which determined that it violated federal public policy by not including other alternatives to the state and misleadingly claimed that it sought immediate admission of the island as a state.

“Last month, for the first time in history, voters on the island were asked if‘ Puerto Rico should be immediately admitted to the Union as a state ’and 52 per cent of voters, more than 620,000, went to say ‘yes.’ Now that Puerto Rico has spoken, Congress must begin acting on that mandate immediately, ”they indicated in the letter, sent on Thursday.

They added that “most Puerto Ricans, like all Americans, want to be treated equally before the law and have an equal voice in the government that regulates their lives,” but stressed that “only Congress has the power to act on the clear and democratically expressed will of the Puerto Rican people. “

The letter to Congress leaders was sent to Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell; Senate Democratic minority leader Charles Schumer; the head of the Republican minority chamberlain, Kevin McCarthy; the chairman of the House of Natural Resources Committee; the next Republican leader on that committee, Bruce Westerman; the outgoing chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Lisa Murkowski; and Democratic leader on that committee, Joe Manchin.

President-elect Biden, while personally believing that statehood is the best way to ensure equality within the federal government, is committed to driving a process for the state in consultation with all sectors that is binding on the federal government. .

McConnell has indicated that while overseeing the Senate agenda he will never give way to proposals to turn Puerto Rico or Washington DC into states. Grijalva said he will not prevent a status debate at the next session, but that chances of success will be required to push forward a proposal in favor of statehood for the island.

The outgoing governor of Puerto Rico, Wanda Vázquez Garced, has for her signature bills with which the Legislature of the PNP – in which González and Rodríguez militate, seek to leave in the hands of the elected governor, Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia, the call for a new referendum and also schedule for May 16 an election to choose intriguing in favor of the state.

In addition to the local committees of Republicans and Democrats, the charter is signed by 16 other groups on the island and the diaspora, including the director of the PNP State Mission Institute, Representative José Aponte Hernández; the executive director of the Puerto Rico Statehood Council and former deputy director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration (Prfaa) George Laws García; Luis Matos, of Renaissance Ideological Statesman; and Elvin Méndez Rosa, president of the Statistical Revolution Movement.

On the other hand, the chairman of the Equality Commission, former governor Carlos Romero Barceló, sent a letter to Congress and Democratic candidate for the Senate for Georgia, Jon Ossosf, to also advocate for the statehood for Puerto Rico.

Ossosf has supported the state, but after talking with former Democratic Congressman Luis Gutierrez (Illinois) would have indicated that he is in favor of a status process such as that proposed by Puerto Rican Democratic Congressmen Nydia Velazquez and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.

The project of Velázquez and Ocasio Cortez would allow to link to the Congress with a Convention of Status that summons the government of Puerto Rico.

“It seems to me that some claim to represent PNtan in Puerto Rico and have their best interest at heart, but only when it suits them when those interests align with their agendas,” Romero Barceló said.