All Quotes

I have no problem accepting our fault in the current crisis. But to pretend it is 100 percent our fault is incorrect and immoral.

Yet, here we are in 2015, and instead of open democratic self-determination, the ideological faction clinging to the status quo insists on obstructing the will of the people as so clearly expressed in the 2012 plebiscite.

The 3.5 million U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico get it. That is why a 54 percent majority voted to end the current status in the plebiscite of 2012.

The current economic crisis is a cruel manifestation that territorial status is not a sustainable model for the political economy of America's last large and populous territory.

The most logical and democratic way for Congress to know where we stand as Americans is to allow us an up-or-down vote to confirm or overturn the 2012 results.

Yet, instead of open democratic self-determination, the ideological faction clinging to the status quo insists on obstructing the will of the people.

There is no legal basis for assigning a meaning to blank ballots on the second question in the 2012 vote.

That is why a 54 percent majority voted to end the current status in the plebiscite of 2012.

Puerto Rico's full potential for economic success and job creation will not be realized until economic uncertainty generated by the island's unresolved political status is replaced by stability.

The current economic crisis is a cruel manifestation that territorial status is not a sustainable model for the political economy of America's last large and populous territory.

This Congress must address the issue and consider enacting a bill to provide for the admission of Puerto Rico as a state.

Puerto Rican Americans have more than earned their right to equal participation in our Nation's democratic process.

We are, as a matter of fact, the world's last colony with more than 1 million (1,000,000) inhabitants.

Not a single territory of the 37 admitted to the Union were deprived of equal economic opportunities and benefits for as long as we have.

The solid majority vote for statehood in 2012 cannot be ignored.

Whether we demand equality or not, it is the Congress and the President's duty, as leaders of the world's greatest democracy, to put an end to this inequality and denial to participate in our Nation's democracy.

It is way past the time when Congress and the President should have put an end to our disenfranchisement and to our being denied equal opportunities under the laws of our Nation.

Yes, we must stop begging for equality and demand it loud and clear and belligerently, if need be.