With the election of a governor who favors closer ties to the United States, Puerto Rico will make a controversial bid next year to become the 51st state.
Dr. Pedro Rossello of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party won the Nov. 3 election and plans to hold a plebiscite in 1993. Voters on this Caribbean island will be offered three choices: statehood; independence; or a continuation of 40 years of commonwealth status."Without statehood, we are second-class citizens," said Kenneth McClintock Hernandez, a pro-statehood politician elected to the Puerto Rican Senate. "It's the right thing to do."
Under commonwealth status, 3.5 million Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens but do not pay federal taxes or vote in presidential elections. The island is represented in Congress by a non-voting resident commissioner.
On Nov. 3, Rossello, a 48-year-old pediatrician, won 50 percent of the vote. His opponent, Victoria Munoz of the pro-commonwealth Popular Democratic Party, garnered 46 percent.
The result of next year's plebiscite will be taken to the U.S. Congress, which would decide whether to make Puerto Rico a state.
Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan has warned that granting statehood would create "another Northern Ireland," - a wave of bloodshed unleashed by radical separatists.
Island political observers reject that idea, noting that Fernando Martin, the Independence Party candidate for governor, drew only 4 percent of the vote.
Still, the New Progressives' victory "is not necessarily a mandate for statehood," said political analyst Luis Davila Colon. "It's an anti-incumbent vote."
The pro-commonwealth Popular Democrats have controlled the governorship and legislature for eight years. Retiring Gov. Rafael Hernandez Colon turned Puerto Rico toward Spain and away from the United States, angering many pro-American voters.
The governor backed a law that made Spanish the official language and outlawed English in all government business.
Analysts say the nationalistic trend hurt the Popular Democrats.
With a virtual sweep of the legislature by pro-statehood candidates, the so-called Spanish-only law will be the first to go in January when the new administration comes to power, said McClintock.
"We want to be part of the United States," he said. "It's clear." But even McClintock acknowledges that the vote was more anti-incumbent than pro-statehood.
Juan Cruz, a San Juan cab driver, voted for Rossello because the doctor is a fresh-faced political outsider.
"I don't think Puerto Rico's ready for statehood," he said.
Puerto Rico has had pro-statehood administrations before, but none has actively sought admission. In 1991 an attempt was made to fashion a plebiscite palatable to Congress, but the measure died a quick death.
The status question poses innumerable headaches for Congress. Puerto Rico - a U.S. possession since 1898 - is a poor island with a per capita income less than half that of Mississippi. Unemployment is nearly 18 percent compared with the U.S. average of 7.4 percent.
Critics say Congress would be asked to adopt a welfare state.
"The United States is not in a mood to take on a multibillion-dollar obligation," said Puerto Rican political pundit A.W. Maldonado. "And statehood would ruin our economy."
Puerto Rico's $23 billion economy was built on special tax breaks possible only under commonwealth status. One such break, Section 936 of the Internal Revenue Service code, allows Puerto Rican subsidiaries of mainland firms to repatriate profits tax-free.