Should Puerto Rico and Quebec be Independent?
I will begin with a caveat. The following is my personal opinion based in one case on a lifetime of experience and in the other on more recent observations.
My family moved to Puerto Rico in 1947, one year before they voted for their first elected governor, Luis Munoz Marin. Prior to this, the governors of Puerto Rico were political appointees from Washington. Sometimes with hilarious or regrettable results.
The United States acquired Puerto Rico in 1898. The treaty that ended the Spanish-American war ceded to the US Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines. In 1902 all three were given the option of independence. Cuba and the Philippines chose to be independent. Puerto Rico opted to remain a territory of the USA.
That decision has become the focal point in Puerto Rican politics ever since.
There is an active independence party in Puerto Rico which at times has turned violent against the United States. In 1954 this resulted in an attack by Puerto Rican Nationalists in the US congress. While today the situation seems to have calmed somewhat, the Independence party remains strong.
Luis Munoz Marin, originally favoring independence, formed the Partido Popular (popular…
