Daily Headlines: April 16, 2013

* Puerto Rico: Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla warned that he would push for a Constitutional Assembly over Puerto Rico’s statehood issue if Washington does not take action this year.

* U.S.: Mexicans Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab and Narciso Contreras along with Rodrigo Abd of Argentina won Pulitzer Prizes for their respective work in journalism.

* Latin America: A new study found that Costa Rica and Chile are the Latin American and Caribbean states with the most “social progress” for its citizens.

* Vatican: Argentine-born Pope Francis supports a controversial plan passed by his predecessor to overhaul the largest umbrella group of nuns in the U.S.

Video Source – YouTube via Newsy (Puerto Rican voters last year backed changing the island’s political status from a commonwealth to the 51st U.S. state).

Online Sources- Hispanically Speaking News, Huffington Post, Inside Costa Rica, USA TODAY

Daily Headlines: May 11, 2012

* Haiti: A 19-year-old Haitian man testified at a closed-door judicial hearing against six former U.N. peacekeepers from Uruguay accused of sexually assaulting him last year.

* Chile: The Chilean legislature overwhelmingly backed an anti-discrimination law that had been stalled for years but was fast-tracked after the March murder of gay teen Daniel Zamudio.

* Mexico: An American Civil Liberties Union report urged U.S. authorities to investigate complaints of abuse by Border Patrol agents against migrants and Mexican residents.

* Puerto Rico: According to a poll published this week a slim majority of Puerto Ricans back the island’s current commonwealth status.

Video Source – YouTube via Al Jazeera English

Online Sources- News24, Huffington Post, The Latin Americanist, MSNBC, Fox News Latino

Report: Most Puerto Rican kids in poverty

A majority of Puerto Rican children are in poverty and face dwindling prospects for the future according to a report by the National Council of La Raza (NCLR).

The NCLR study found that 56% of children on the island live below the poverty line, triple the figure or the U.S. as a whole. The “2010 KIDS COUNT - Puerto Rico Data Book” also noted that the commonwealth has one of the highest teen birth rates in the U.S. and leads all U.S. states and territories in the proportion of youth who neither work or go to school (14.6%).

What factors contribute to this problematic data on Puerto Rico’s youth? According to the report’s main author, Nayde Rivera-Hernández, one of the main factors is the prevalence of single-parent households. (Children live in 49% of them said Rivera-Hernández). In a press conference yesterday she detailed that the average household income in Puerto Rico in 2006-2008 was $20,795, over $1000 less than the poverty level for a family of four ($21,834).

While protests continue against government plans to impose a university fee, Rivera-Hernández called for officials to do more in order to combat “low educational levels” hurting the island’s youth.

Earlier today a White House task force on Puerto Rico advocated that a two-stage plebiscite take place to help determine the island’s political status. Gov. Luis Fortuño, a Republican who has called for Puerto Rican statehood, praised the White House report as one that “breaks the myths” of backing commonwealth status. Yet the NCLR could provide ammunition to anti-statehood activists who claim that Puerto Rico is too poor to become the 51st state.

Image- Prensa Latina
Online Sources- Terra.com, primerahora.com, The Latin Americanist, FOX News Latino, America Quarterly Blog, MSNBC, Huffington Post, National Council of La Raza

Congress to vote on Puerto Rican status referendum

The House of Representatives is expected to vote today on whether to pass a non-binding act establishing a referendum for Puerto Rico’s legal status.

The Puerto Rico Democracy Act would establishes a two-tiered vote wherein eligible voters would decide if they were satisfied with the island’s current commonwealth status. That could subsequently lead to a second vote where Puerto Ricans would select to have the island either remain as a commonwealth or move towards becoming a state or an independent country.

The possibility of Puerto Rico becoming the 51st state to the U.S. has alarmed some on the right. The Lexington Institute think tank issued a report in March warned of economic issues that “would need to be addressed” if statehood were to be achieved. On a more extreme level Glenn Beck declared that the act was part of a conspiracy by “the progressives” to rig the vote, ensure statehood, and increase their political power.

The bill has received some support from Republicans, however. "Congress has never asked those American citizens residing in Puerto Rico to express their opinion on the territory's political status," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Republican political consultant Alex Castellanos urged GOP legislators to pass the act and not fall into the trap of “mischaracterizing” it as a statehood bill. Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuño (who is allied to the Republicans) advocated for the act last year:

“The reality is that the island’s current status does not enable the people of Puerto Rico to fulfill their potential for social, economic and political development,” the island’s governor said on Wednesday in a hearing of the House Committee on Natural Resources…

He said the measure presented by Puerto Rico’s non-voting representative to Congress, Pedro Pierluisi, provides for a “just and impartial” process, without taking a position in favor of or against the options on the table.

Though the measure has received mostly Democratic support, one congressman is upset with the “shady” proceedings surrounding it. Rep. Luis Gutierrez wrote that he was disappointed with the alleged lack of debate and he will vote against the measure.

Image- Mental Floss
Online Sources- HULIQ, Indyposted.com, Lexington Institute, FOX News, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, National Review Online, LAHT, Huffington Post

Could Puerto Rico soon get Congressional voting rights?

By a vote of 61-37, the U.S. Senate approved a bill that would permit the District of Columbia to have a fully voting representative in Congress. The proposal will now go to the House of Representatives and that chamber is expected to soon approve a similar bill.

Supporters of the proposal like Democrat Sen. Harry Reid argued that the move represents changing a “centuries-old wrong…We are the only democracy in the world that denies the citizens of its capital, our capital, Washington, D.C., the right to vote.” Detractors like Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell contended that the bill was unconstitutional and that district representation is only reserved for states.

Ironically, it was GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch who helped push the bill through after a section was added that would potentially give Utah an extra House seat.

What are the chances that Puerto Rico- currently commonwealth- could get direct representation in Congress? According to the AP:

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley sympathizes with the plight of D.C. residents, but insists the measure is "flagrantly unconstitutional" and ultimately doomed.

"What these (lawmakers) are doing is extremely dangerous and destabilizing for our system of government," Turley said. "They are claiming the right to create a new type of voting member." The bill opens the door for Congress to give the vote to Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories, he said.

Days before being inaugurated, Barack Obama promised that Puerto Ricans would get a chance to decide the island’s political status. In 2007, Congress approved a bill stipulating that a congressionally backed referendum be held in Puerto Rico by the end of this year. That proposal was introduced by Puerto Rico’s then-House Rep. (and the island’s current governor) Luis Fortuño.

Puerto Rico’s lone House Rep.- Pedro Pirluisi- is one of six non-voting members of the chamber and he’s allied to the Democratic Party.

Image- Fact Checker (Protestor holding sign in favor of Puerto Rican statehood)
Online Sources- Salt lake Tribune, Wikipedia, AP, Reuters, CBS News, Bloomberg, New York Times, The Latin Americanist

Puerto Rican status examined at U.N.

The United Nations’ Decolonization Committee received testimony this week from numerous representatives with regards to the political status of Puerto Rico. Chief among these was the island’s governor- Anibal Acevedo Vila- who called for the island’s right to self-determination and blasted the White House for being “clumsy and partisan” in its behavior of the issue.

Acevedo Vila was indicted last March for violating federal campaign laws and he previously backed commonwealth status for the island.

Other petitioners who spoke in front of the committee varied in their opinions of Puerto Rico’s political future; yet in the end, the committee passed a resolution with several clauses:

The Special Committee on Decolonization today called upon the Government of the United States to expedite a process that would allow the Puerto Rican people fully to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and independence.

In a resolution adopted by consensus, the decolonization body…requested the President of the United States to release all Puerto Rican political prisoners serving sentences for cases relating to the Territory’s struggle for independence and to the Vieques Island “peace struggle”.

The Special Committee…urged the Government of the United States to complete the return of occupied land and installations on Vieques Island and in Ceiba; respect the fundamental human rights to health and economic development of their inhabitants; and expedite and cover the costs of decontaminating the areas previously used in military exercises.

Last year Congress passed the Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2007, which allows for a congressionally authorized referendum to be held by the end of 2009. In 2006, the Bush administration laid out a set of rules on how to decide Puerto Rico’s future status.

Sources- UN.org, The Latin Americanist, BBC News

Image- Fact Checker (Protestor holding sign in favor of Puerto Rican statehood)