Puerto Rico will hold a nonbinding referendum in November to decide whether the island should become a U.S. state.
The announcement that Gov. Wanda Vázquez made Saturday comes amid growing disillusion with the island’s U.S. territorial status.
For the first time in the island’s history, the referendum will ask a single, simple question: Should Puerto Rico be immediately admitted as a U.S. state?
It’s an answer that requires approval from U.S. Congress and a question that outraged independence supporters and members of the main opposition Popular Democratic Party.
But it’s a gamble that the governor’s pro-statehood party is confident will pay off given that Puerto Rico has struggled to obtain federal funds for hurricanes, earthquakes and the pandemic.
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