by Dulce Alvarez
On March 3-5, 2026, Puerto Rico Governor, Jenniffer González-Colón, lead the second-ever Puerto Rico Equality and Statehood Summit in Washington D.C. The Summit’s intended purpose was “educating and motivating” Congress and to raise the voices of Puerto Ricans in the diaspora to take up the position of statehood for the island. Yet another statehood bill will be drafted and proposed to Congress. This marks the most recent of attempts of the comprador Puerto Rican government to beg at the feet of the US Congress for Statehood. The bitter pill that Statehood advocates refuse to swallow is that the United States has no real desire to make Puerto Rico the 51st state, as this would require the establishment of the basic democratic rights which the imperialist state has denied our people for over 100 years. Citizenship of Puerto Ricans has fluctuated throughout the United States’ 128 year long ownership of the island, often along racial lines. The plan for the island was never to accept its inhabitants, nor for the island to become a state.
Since the 1898 Spanish-American war, Puerto Rico has been a colony of the United States. Under the control of the United States, Puerto Rico remains subject to life-altering blackouts, is given piece-meal weather relief funds, and militarization of the island takes president over the people. Just 9 months ago, hormone replacement therapy for transgender youth was criminalized with doctors who prescribe it facing up to 15 years in prison. This past year we have seen rapid, continual militarization of Puerto Rico as a proxy in the Caribbean to further U.S. imperialist ambitions with bombing exercises presiding on the islands coasts. The Esencia project, the most recent development of high end residential houses and hotels, is a $2 billion resort which seeks to privatize 2k+ acres of land and beaches in Cabo Rojo, projected to be finalized in 2028. This disregard for the Puerto Rican masses and their ecosystem expresses the true attitude of the imperialist state towards Puerto Rico.
Governor Jenniffer González-Colón is a staunch supporter of statehood, ally of Donald Trump and the Republican Party. González-Colón shares the same fascist imagination of global conquest and hegemony. “I don’t mind if it’s after Greenland or after Canada,” she says. González-Colón suggests that “statehood is for the people,” but the Puerto Rico Equality and Statehood summit is a knee-jerk reaction to the reality that support for the independence of Puerto Rico, on the island and in the diaspora, is quickly growing. The broad masses of Puerto Rico desire independence. Ultimately, Puerto Rican statehood is clearly a farce which is neither in the interest of the broad Puerto Rican masses who demand self-determination, nor the U.S. imperialist state who benefit from Puerto Rico’s status as a colonial “territory.” The path forward for Puerto Rico can only be the development of a revolutionary movement which fights for independence and socialism.
Sources:
https://thelatinonewsletter.org/p/why-puerto-rican-activists-fighting-2-billion-resort
