Something for Everyone

Despite its long association with the U.S., Puerto Rico still spices its politics with Latin bravado. Thus, after last week's plebiscite to settle the chili-hot arguments over the island's political status, everybody involved claimed victory.

Those who boycotted the plebiscite on the ground that it was stacked in favor of continuing Puerto Rico's commonwealth ties and therefore got no votes at all, claimed victory because 34.2% of the island's 1,067,526 registered voters stayed away from the polls. Independence received a minuscule 4,205 votes (.6%), but its advocates felt they had won a victory of sorts because the voters had turned down statehood. Those fighting to make Puerto Rico the 51st state considered their strong showing of 273,315 votes (38.9%) a moral victory. The actual victors, of course, were those who supported commonwealth status and emerged with a clear majority of 425,081 votes (60.5%). "This settles it," declared commonwealth's chief proponent, former

Governor Luis Munoz Marin, 69. "The people have been liberated from this debate about political status. It has ceased to be a subject for discussion."

The fact is that statehood has made strong gains in recent years, particularly among Puerto Rico's growing urban middle class. In the island's capital, San Juan, commonwealth edged out statehood by only 3,300 votes, and in Ponce, statehood won a majority. If the longing for statehood continues to grow, another plebiscite is certain to be called eventually. Said Millionaire Industrialist Luis A. Ferre, 63, leader of the statehooders: "Puerto Rico will be a state within eight to ten years."

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