PREXIT: Forging Puerto Rico’s Path to Sovereignty

by Javier A. Hernández

In this book, Javier A. Hernández tackles the Puerto Rico status issue and explains very succinctly why Puerto Rico will never become a U.S. state and why sovereignty is in the best interests of both Puerto Rico and the United States. "PREXIT: Forging Puerto Rico’s Path to Sovereignty" is aimed at educating Puerto Ricans, Americans, and others around the world about the colossal mistake it would be to annex Puerto Rico as a U.S. state; explains the inner workings and legacies of U.S. colonial rule in Puerto Rico; and also proposes the viable option of National Sovereignty for Puerto Rico.

In these pages, you'll discover:
1. Why statehood will never happen;
2. The many political, cultural, and economic reasons Puerto Ricans and Americans should support Sovereignty;
3. The PREXIT strategies to begin Puerto Rico's decolonization and transition to Sovereignty;
4. Various political, democratic, security, defense, diplomatic, maritime, and economic development proposals, plans, and policies that would transition Puerto Rico from a corrupt and bankrupt colony to a democratic republic and economic powerhouse in the Caribbean and Latin America.

This book hopes to generate debate and will attempt to outline and detail a viable plan to support Puerto Rico’s path to sovereignty, particularly after the tumultuous events that led to the Puerto Rican Summer Revolution of 2019 that ousted the corrupt pro-statehood governor and threatened the legitimacy and foundation of the colonial regime.

This book is divided into seven parts:
1. FAQs about Puerto Rico Sovereignty & Free Association;
2. The Ten Major Reasons Why Puerto Rico will Never become a U.S. State;
3. List of Colonial Atrocities, Repression & Policies Committed on Puerto Rico by U.S. Colonial Rule;
4. Invalidating the Statehooder & Colonialist Narratives;
5. Why Americans must Oppose Statehood & Support Sovereignty;
6. Developing a PREXIT Strategy & Why National Sovereignty is the Only Viable Option;
7. An Exhortation to Liberate Puerto Rico from the Barbarians

The author states: “U.S. colonial rule in Puerto Rico has been a blatant failure and only sovereignty, freedom, and democracy can help Puerto Rico to not only protect its national culture, identity, and Spanish language, but to also support its own economic development in a globalized world economy. Some form of Puerto Rican sovereignty is inevitable. Whether total independence or a modality of sovereign free association via a compact or treaty, Puerto Rico will be free, and Puerto Ricans will finally be able to rule themselves and advance their political and economic interests in the international community and global economy.”

Genres: Politics

428 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 13, 2020

Reviews

[Migdalia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great ideas for Puerto Rico's sovereignty

First some context, I'm one of those bilingual, college educated Puerto Ricans who believe the best decolonization option for PR is free association with the US. I live in the island, and so have a local's perspective of this situation.

While I can say that a lot of Puerto Ricans are still fighting assimilation tactics (I've actually been on the receiving end of criticism and ridicule for speaking English with my son), I don't think PR is so eager to support sovereignty. Colonialism has surely done a number on a lot of people. Whenever the political status comes up on social media (mostly on the local newspapers' social media accounts), I see SO MANY statehooders (who don't seem very educated because their writing is TERRIBLE) ridicule people who support independence or free association. I also have friends from university who support statehood (but didn't major in political science, like I did). While the 2012 local status referendum did show a growing support for this option, statehood won by 61%. I did not participate in the 2017 referendum because I had become increasingly disappointed in the Puerto Ricans who support statehood. That one got a whopping 97% support for statehood because of the boycott and the extremely low turnout. So, as this shows, the vast majority of Puerto Rican VOTERS support statehood even though I really wish otherwise.

Another issue I have with this book is that it doesn't clearly show where all the money needed for all the new government agencies is going to come from. While it does state that with taxes and the end of the Jones Act, we could come up with Puerto Rico's current budget, there are so many new government agencies and services that would need funding that I'm not very confident that we would be able to pull all that off. This book would be much better with a detailed budget analysis. However, I believe Puerto Rico can definitely be a prosperous country if it where liberated from the shackles of colonialism.

Other than that, I found a few typos but they were less than 10, so I didn't factor it into my rating. I give it 4.5 stars but I've rounded it up because I really enjoyed reading this book and actually learned quite a lot from it. I highly recommend this book to anybody wanting to learn about free association as a viable option for Puerto Rico.

[Julian G · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the proposals regarding what a sovereign Puerto Rico would look like were very salient and easily digestible, however, I felt like this book was trying to do too much. It just felt like the crash course regarding the atrocities Puerto Rico endured seemed watered down given the page limits or whatever other constraints were in place. I was especially frustrated in the way Hernandez would say “In my experience…” or would give anecdotal evidence regarding something that could potentially be a trend or fact in Puerto Rico. If you’re going to make broad claims, you should be able to point to something concrete like a study or even news clippings as evidence. Lastly, I was really frustrated with the way Hernandez would write about something and he’d say something along the lines of “You don’t believe me? Follow this hyperlink to this website to see” or “Check out YouTube to learn more.” I’m reading your book to educate myself and making me go on a scavenger hunt is annoying.

I believe in a sovereign, independent Puerto Rico and I applaud this book for attempting to discuss and solve this issue. This book left much to be desired but nevertheless, free Puerto Rico