Puerto Ricans voted overwhelmingly Sunday to become the 51st USA state, but there is no celebrating yet. About 1.5 percent of voters were in favor of independence or free association with the United States and 1.3 percent voted for the current territorial status.
"It would be highly contradictory for Washington to demand democracy in other parts of the world, and NOT respond to the legitimate right to self-determination that was exercised today in the American territory of Puerto Rico", he added.
No clear majority emerged in the first three referendums on status, with voters nearly evenly divided between statehood and the status quo. Chanting "Puerto Rico Not for Sale", people marched in front of their idol, while others called on the USA to release of the nation's "political prisoners". But a former governor for the island said Washington likely won't take the vote seriously. Critics also point out that the U.S. Department of Justice has not supported the plebiscite.
"I think it's good that he declined it because it was entirely distracting from the issue at hand, which is Puerto Rico", Mayor Bill de Blasio, who planned to march all along, said last week.
Congress, the only body that can approve new states, will ultimately decide whether the status of the USA commonwealth changes.
While the 2012 referendum saw a turnout of 77.5%, with 1.8 million votes cast, Sunday's referendum had only 518,000 votes cast - 23% of the eligible voters.
Many Puerto Ricans believe the current territorial arrangement is responsible for a massive 10-year economic recession on the island, which has left it with a 12% unemployment rate. This is the fifth vote on the political status of Puerto Rico since the United States annexed the island in 1898.
Those who remain behind have been hit with new taxes and higher utility bills on an island where food is 22 per cent more expensive than the United States mainland and public services are 64 per cent more expensive.
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Ms sanders also said says the president was pleased with attorney general Jeff Sessions' evidence to Congress on Tuesday. Trump took to his Twitter account Thursday morning to denounce the report.
But becoming a state won't magically solve the island's deep problems.
However US Rep. Luis Gutierrez, whose parents hailed from Puerto Rico, cautioned that, consistent with its failure to take action in 2012, "Congress won't do anything".
The election results were underwhelming, even though a large majority of Puerto Rican voters who went to the polls Sunday said their homeland should be granted statehood.
Puerto Rico's economy has been in recession since 2006, according to the General Accounting Office, and its levels of employment and labor force participation are relatively low, compared with those of the US states. The Puerto Rican Independence Party had called the vote a "farce".
Almost half a million Puerto Ricans have fled to the USA mainland to escape the island's 10-year economic recession and 12 percent unemployment rate.
NY state has been the main destination for mainland Puerto Ricans, with about 1.2 million people of Puerto Rican descent. "And that message is that we Puerto Ricans not only want our USA citizenship, but we want equal treatment".
Only Congress can make Puerto Rico a state, and there's little appetite to do that right now. This shows up in the turnout and the overwhelming result in favor of statehood.
The current territorial status option received 6,821 votes, or 1.32 percent. Just last week, Rosello signed a law meant to force Congress to act in accordance with the results of the recent referendum.
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