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Comment by karpodiem | Hacker News Reader

The US is free to walk away and leave it how they found it, which was a worse state than present conditions, even after the hurricane.

No relationship is one sided - it takes two to make it a relationship.

The US doesn't need Puerto Rico - Puerto Rico needs the US.

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> The US is free to walk away and leave it how they found it,

The US didn't “find” it, it took it by force.

EDIT: From another colonial power. I’m not sure Spain is really in the market for a Carribean colony right now, so it might not be that easy for the US to walk away and leave PR in its pre-US position.

Well, when they "found it" this is, conquered by force, Puerto Rico was a territory of Spain. With the Constitution of 1812 Puerto Rico got a representative, like the other territories, and he was in fact chosen as Vice-president (= Deputy Speaker) of the House. 200 years later, the US hasn't still allowed them to ever send a representative...

I get this thread is off topic but:

That 1812 Constitution of Spain was a product of the Napoleonic wars and seems to have been basically ignored everywhere but Iberia-proper. So really, PR has never had proper representation to its colonial rulers. And technically PR has had a non-voting rep. in the US house of representatives since 1901.

> 200 years later, the US hasn't still allowed them to ever send a representative...

Well, we do let them have one non-voting representative in the House (similar to D.C. and other territories.)

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