[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 11 (Thursday, February 12, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E177-E178]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    PUERTO RICO POLITICAL STATUS ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                     HON. CARLOS A. ROMERO-BARCELO

                             of puerto rico

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 12, 1998

  Mr. ROMERO-BARCELO. Mr. Speaker, three days from today, one hundred 
years ago, history was made. On the night of February 15, 1898 at 
exactly 9:40 p.m. the United States battleship USS Maine exploded in 
Cuba's Havana Harbor.
  To this day the cause of the explosion, which killed 266 naval 
officers and crewmen, remains a mystery. Yet despite the unknown source 
of the attack, it was the spark that fueled the Spanish American War in 
1898.
  A war that Americans proudly entered as a crusade to free Cuba from 
Spanish rule.
  A war that also liberated Puerto Rico from Spanish rule, but turned 
Puerto Rico into a U.S. territory.
  We have now been a territory of the United States for 100 years and 
disenfranchised U.S. citizens for 81 years. But a century has passed us 
by and we remain disenfranchised and a colony, at a time when colonies 
are not only unfashionable but embarrassing to a Nation that preaches 
democracy throughout the world and calls for a plebiscite in Cuba.
  Puerto Ricans are part of the great American family. Puerto Ricans 
are United States citizens who have proudly fought in numerous 
conflicts for our Nation. They have shed their blood and they have 
defended democracy like any other soldier living in the 50 states.
  The U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico deserve much more than the continued 
postponements for consideration of their case. Congress has 
procrastinated our political dilemma for too long. The Legislature of 
Puerto Rico has enacted joint resolutions which it has sent to three 
consecutive Congresses, the 103rd, the 104th, the 105th--asking for 
Congress to take the necessary steps to resolve the Puerto Rico 
political status. This Congress, the 105th Congress, has the authority 
and the moral responsibility to approve H.R. 856--the US-Puerto Rico 
Political Status Act, a bill for self-determination--a bill which will 
pave the road to enfranchisement and equality.

[[Page E178]]



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