[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 11 (Thursday, February 12, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H451-H452]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              PUERTO RICO

  (Mr. ROMERO-BARCELO asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ROMERO-BARCELO. Mr. Speaker, three days from today, 100 years 
ago, the USS Maine exploded in Havana, an incident that started the 
Spanish American War, a war that Americans proudly entered 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 
we have been disenfranchised U.S. citizens for 81 years. Can any Member 
of Congress give us one good reason why 3,800,000 American citizens 
should be denied the right to vote and the right to representation? 
Puerto Ricans are part of the great American family, but a century has 
passed us by and we remain disenfranchised as 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. Congress has procrastinated on the solution to our political 
dilemma for too long.
  Congress has the authority and the moral responsibility to approve 
H.R. 856, the U.S.-Puerto Rico Political Status Act, a bill for self-
determination, a bill to pave the road to enfranchisement and equality.

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