Does Puerto Rico need a civil war?  I know this is like asking “Do you need a hole in your head?”  But is the United States waiting for one to develop before it realizes the implications of one fateful decision in American foreign policy in 1898?

It can be said that Puerto Rico has witnessed a civil war for more than two centuries, if by civil war is meant that Puerto Ricans have avoided coming to actual physical blows with each other over the fate of their country.

In 1898 Spain "ceded" the island of Puerto Rico to the United States as result of the "Spanish American War". Unfortunately, American public attention is never paid to issues regarding foreign affairs until caskets start coming back wrapped in American flags. So it is not surprising that after 100 years most Americans remain ignorant about the colonial situation of Puerto Rico.

Campaigning in Puerto Rico during the primaries candidate Obama promised to attend to Puerto Rico's situation. Last week a task force of 18 White House emissaries went to the island “to listen” and to learn about the situation. But according to Congressman Gutierrez of Chicago, he bypassed those in Congress of Puerto Rican birth or descent in any consultations.

Since the 1950s Puerto Ricans, and most of their fellow American citizens in the continent, have thought the issue of the island's status was solved for good in the form of a "Commonwealth". But was it?

A presidential task force initiated under President Bush, made it clear that as result of the “Treaty of Paris” which ended the “Spanish-American War”, the truth is that Puerto Rico has always been an “unincorporated territory”, a possession, nothing more than a real estate property of the United States Congress.  Puerto Rico is not even “part of” the United States. It simply “belongs to”. 

But there was a problem with this. There were people living in those islands at the time of the treaty. Those people had been struggling for their independence from Spain and at the time of the 1898 war they had settled their affairs with Spain. Puerto Rico became an autonomous province of Spain, with full self-government and with full representation in the Cortes (Spain’s parliament). 

Although Congress and American presidents, their actions and inactions, share most of the blame for the situation, Puerto Ricans also share in the responsibility. In the 1990s the leaders of the three major parties, each representing a status option—statehood, independence, association—came together to petition Congress for a commitment to solve the centenary puzzle. But for the most part, to this day, they have failed to present a united front to solve the issue.

Only the irrational would deny that as murky as the situation of Puerto Rico is it has, nevertheless, been somewhat mutually beneficial. The U.S. got what it wanted, a highly valuable strategic foothold in the Atlantic, a captive market, and it managed to do it while presenting to the world a showcase of democracy in the Caribbean. Puerto Rico developed economically surpassing by far its Caribbean neighbors and most, if not all, of Latin America.

Through the 20th Century a series of juridical decisions and the applications of federal laws regarding the islands made the situation harder to untangle. Precedent has been established in situations for which perhaps there is no reversal.

The majority of Puerto Ricans have consistently expressed their desire to remain associated with the United States in one form or another. They are a nation divided between those in the islands and those in the American Diasporas. Some say that Puerto Rico has become a de facto state of the union.

But still the sovereignty of Puerto Rico resides not in its people but in the Congress of the United States.  Even though the United States granted “natural born” American citizenship to Puerto Ricans, there is no longer anyway that one cannot say that a colony is a colony.

The people of the United States, through their representatives in Congress, took on an enormous historical and moral responsibility when it demanded Puerto Rico as payment for the war. It placed the people of Puerto Rico, and the American people, in an almost unsolvable conundrum.

Will Americans accept Puerto Rico as a new state of the union? Is independence inevitable? Or is the U.S. capable of accepting a new arrangement based on mutual benefit, and commensurate with a 100 years old relationship?

Only through moral good will is there any possibility of truly moving forward. Puerto Ricans need a common front to find that good will in Congress. It’s time to end the mutually shameful conditions. Presidential task forces mean nothing. If Congress won’t listen, make them.