ASSESSMENTS

Puerto Rico Won't Be the 51st State Anytime Soon

Oct 11, 2017 | 09:30 GMT

During the June referendum, 97 percent backed the statehood option although turnout was less than 25 percent of registered voters.

Puerto Ricans have long been able to live, travel and work freely in the United States, so statehood would bring the average Puerto Rican few material benefits.

(MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

Popular opinion in the overseas U.S. territory of Puerto Rico has trended toward statehood, with about 97 percent of voters backing that option in a June referendum.
Admitting Puerto Rico into the Union would alter the composition of the U.S. Congress, and House and Senate members could resist adding extra legislators who could sway close votes.
Aside from political representation, statehood does not hold many material benefits for Puerto Ricans, because they are already U.S. citizens and have the right to work and to travel freely in the United States.

The destruction wrought by Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico has renewed attention on the island's relationship with the United States. Puerto Rico, a U.S. overseas territory, was a key part of the U.S. drive to secure the Caribbean against hostile foreign powers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. With the decline of the European powers and the rise of the United States as the globe's dominant power, the immediate importance of the Caribbean to U.S. foreign policy waned. Yet the Caribbean remains indispensable to U.S. national security, mainly because of its proximity to the mainland. No foreign powers are capable of making meaningful inroads into the region, although Russian and Chinese influence in such places as Cuba and Venezuela will continue to concern the United States....

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