AAV: Carta al Congreso

Saludos,


Te acompaño copia de la carta que envié en el día de hoy a la Presidenta de la Cámara de Representantes de los Estados Unidos y a todos los miembros del Congreso relacionada con el proyecto de status del Comisionado Residente, Pedro Pierluisi. Atentamente, Aníbal
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Honorable Nancy Pelosi
SpeakerU.S. House of Representatives
235 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515


Dear Speaker Pelosi,



As a former Governor of Puerto Rico and former member of Congress I write to strongly oppose H.R. 2499, the "Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2009" and urge you to join the majority of Puerto Ricans in rejecting this unfair and biased bill.



This bill -introduced by Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi, - a member of Puerto Rico's Statehood Party- is not the product of consensus among the many ideological factions in Puerto Rico. It is divisive, exclusionary, biased, and does not represent a true process of self determination. It is therefore of little surprise that two of the three main political parties in Puerto Rico -the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) and the Puerto Rico Independence Party (PIP)- opposes H.R. 2499.



It is also telling that the bill lacks the support of key Puerto Rican Members of Congress. Even one of the most important newspapers on the Island editorialized recently against it.The Puerto Rico Democracy Act (H.R. 2499) is based on a Bush task force report of 2005 that was widely repudiated by federal, state and local elected officials and many others, including President Obama who, as presidential candidate, explicitly rejected conclusions in that report. Among many other flawed conclusions, the Bush Report implies that the Commonwealth option or its enhancement is not a constitutionally valid option, as a way to eliminate it from any ballot. The Puerto Rico Democracy Act (H.R. 2499) is thus the fruit of a poisonous tree.



It must be rejected. This bill is unfairly structured to produce an artificial majority for making Puerto Rico the 51st state of the Union, a political status option that has lost every single plebiscite held in Puerto Rico on this issue. Since the Statehood option has lost all other plebiscites when pitted against Commonwealth and Independence, this time around the Statehood advocates behind this bill have tweaked the Bush task force recommendation and crafted a referendum process that first asks voters to choose between "continuing the current status" or rejecting it. That unfairly pits all the opponents of Commonwealth against this status. And it intentionally obviates the fact that Commonwealth supporters aspire for an enhancement of Commonwealth status based on the sovereignty of the People of Puerto Rico to sustain the relationship, not simply a mere continuation of the current Commonwealth.



Once the current Commonwealth option is eliminated through this rigged process, the bill provides for a second vote between Independence, Statehood and a non-descript "sovereignty in association with the United States", an option without U.S. citizenship, that again is based in the ill conceived Bush Report. All this makes it even more obvious that the ultimate goal is to create an artificial majority in favor of Statehood.



All these flaws are the reason why H.R. 2499 lacks the most basic consensus in Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricans want and deserve a real and fair process of self-determination. But the first step for such a process must be a rejection and repudiation of the Bush Report. I therefore urge you to to join me and the majority of Puerto Ricans in rejecting the Puerto Rico Democracy Act (H.R. 2499), an unfair bill that severely lacks consensus.



Sincerely,



Aníbal Acevedo Vilá
Governor of Puerto Rico (2005-2008)
Member of Congress (2001-2004)