B JORGE RODRIGUE^
Puerto Rico : ^ist State or Motional Liberation?
ON TWO OCCASIONS, in the short period of seven months, the mass media of the capitalist countries have prominently reported events related to a small Caribbean colonial possession of the United States:
Puerto Rico. In June 1976, US President Ford announced that Puerto Rico had been chosen as the site for the economic summit meeting of the advanced capitalist countries. The choice was simultaneously geared to defiantly showing the supporters of Puerto Rican decolonization that the US government continued considering and acting towards the island as if it were an ^integral" part of the US as well as to firmly securing the continued support of the advanced capitalist countries for the present colonial status. On 31 December 1976 (just 20 days before the end of his term, and two days before the inauguration of the new pro-statehood governor of Puerto Rico, Carlos Romero Barcelol), Ford told the press that he had decided to reject the timid changes proposed by the US Puerto Rico Ad Hoc Commission1 (the ^New Pact") and considered, instead, that the moment had arrived for Puerto Rico to be fully assimilated as the 51st state. In order to begin this process, he declared his intention of presenting legislation to the US Congress before the end of his term.2
Following Ford's declaration a statehood law was hastily drafted