Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican News

  
 Profile
Puerto Rico,officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is an unincorporated territory of the USA, located in the northeastern Caribbean, East of the Domican Republic and West of both the US Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.
Puerto Rico comprises an archipelago that includes the main island of Puerto Rico and a number of smaller islands
Puerto Rico is not an independent country and, as such, it hosts no embassies but  however, Puerto Rico is host to consulates  from 41 countries, mainly from the Americas  and Europe
Capital -San Juan
Official Language - Spanish and English
Population - 4 Million

History
The relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States dates back to the Spanish-American War, in which Spain, under the terms of theTreaty of Paris of 1898, ceded the island to the United States.
In 1917, Puerto Ricans became U.S. citizens,however,the islanders  may not vote in U.S. presidential elections.
Since 1947, Puerto Ricans have been able to elect their own Governor.

Govt and Politics
Puerto Rico has a Republican form of Govt subject to U.S. jurisdiction and sovereignty.The government of Puerto Rico s composed of three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial.

The Executive branch is headed by the Governor , currently Luis Fortuno

The Legislative branch  consists of a Bi-cameral Legislative Assembly -

Senate(Upper Chamber)headed by the President of the Senate with 31 senators
House of Representatives(Lower Chamber)  headed by the Speaker of the House with 53 representatives

The Juducial branch  is headed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico

Puerto Ricans favor statehood - Nov 6,2012

 

Puerto Ricans voted in favor of statehood in a nonbinding referendum, marking the first time such an initiative garnered a majority.

 

Puerto Ricans were asked about their desires in two parts. First, by a 54% to 46% margin, voters rejected their current status as a U.S. commonwealth. In a separate question, 61% chose statehood as the alternative, compared with 33% for the semi-autonomous "sovereign free association" and 6% for outright independence.