As Puerto Rico enters another plebiscite question this November to check in on the island’s pulse regarding its 114-year-old colonial relationship with the United States, last night’s GOP Florida Debate on CNN included a question from Elizabeth Cuevas-Neunder, the Republican president and CEO of the Puerto Rican Chamber of Florida, about the candidates’ position on statehood for Puerto Rico. (SIDENOTE: The fact that Cuevas-Neunder called Puerto Rican Republican Governor Luis Fortuño a “great governor” can be the subject of another post, but we won’t go there today.)
For a brief second, we got excited about the question. YES! CNN has FINALLY gotten it. Florida’s Puerto Rican vote is a growing bloc and the issue of the island’s political status is a critical topic, especially since it would have been huge for ALL the GOP candidates to weigh in on the issue and more importantly, express public support for the upcoming plebiscite to become a BINDING resolution and respect the will of Puerto Ricans, who in essence are American citizens but have lived a second-class life. (On that point, we agree with Fortuñista Cuevas-Neunder, who made this point on CNN.)
But, in the end, CNN failed. Horribly. They glossed over an issue that matters for Puerto Rican voters, and never had all the candidates weigh in on it. Instead, it was Rick Santorum who answered the question and he was rather non-committal. After talking about supporting Puerto Ricans’ right to self-determination, he was quick to give a shout out to Fortuño, whose is a friend of Santorum’s and whose family went to the same church as Santorum’s in the DC area, when Fortuño was the island’s Resident Commissioner.
Santorum also went on to say that he LOVES Puerto Rico and has visited the island several times (probably when he was earning lobbying money from pharmaceutical companies who do business there), and blah blah blah. It was obvious to us that CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer had no clue about the issue of Puerto Rican status, and just goes to show how out of touch the mainstream American media is when it comes to the island.
But don’t take our word for it. A report today from Fox News Latino (yes, Fox News Latino) asked other Puerto Ricans about CNN’s fail and we are glad they did.
Puerto Ricans, the second largest voter group among Hispanics in the US, are “outraged” and “insulted” at CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and the Republican candidates for their “disrespectful” handling of a question centered around the longstanding issue of Puerto Rico’s statehood and independence.
During the live broadcast of the Jacksonville debate, audience members attending the Hispanic Leadership Network Conference, a center right advocacy organization, in Miami were given a chance to ask questions to the candidates. That’s when Elizabeth Cuevas-Neunder, the Republican president and CEO of the Puerto Rican Chamber of Florida, asked the GOP candidates where they stood on the issue of the island’s statehood.
The answer, or lack thereof, she received on national television sent her and a group of about five Puerto Ricans packing early as they stormed out of the CNN sponsored Watch Party mid-debate.
Here is what some Puerto Rican voters told FNL:
“It turns us off. The whole issue of Puerto Rico was just really insulting. They just blew it off. And of course no one takes a position,” Anthony Suárez, a veteran and lawyer, told Fox News Latino as he stormed off.
“You have got to understand not only is this an issue that is important to the four million American Puerto Ricans here -but there are four million Americans on that island who do not vote for president, who fight in wars, but have not had an opportunity to participate and that question is not even being debated – it’s not even being discussed.”
Colonel Dennis Freytes, USA Army Ret. Veteran and Chairman of the Hispanic Achievers Grant Council, was red mad specifically at Blitzer who moderated the event.
“I cannot understand the concept of Wolf Blitzer and CNN not even giving it the decency of having that question being asked of the other three candidates. It’s pretty disgusting,” he said.
Cuevas-Neunder, who had pinned the Puerto Rican flag on her outfit, was enraged after asking her question on national television.
“I felt as a second class citizen. As if we are not worth anything. Four million Puerto Rican voters, consumers, who have given more men and women to the United States armed forces then any other state in the union,” she said. “I am outraged. I think they need a little bit of education. I want to instruct them on who the Puerto Rican community is – they don’t know.”
José Fuentes, the former Puerto Rico Attorney General from 1997-1999, believes the flubbed debate moment which he called “shocking” will reverberate throughout the Puerto Rican community and will be felt as early as primary day on Tuesday in Florida.
“The impact is that there is going to be lower turnout of the I-4 corridor of the Puerto Rican community,” Fuentes told Fox News Latino specifically about this primary election.
Others reaffirmed the same belief that while CNN is at fault, it ultimately was a lose-lose for the Republican party.
“Even though it was an error on CNN they [the candidates] should have seized the moment. The other candidates should have said wait a second let me talk about Puerto Rican statehood. They spent more time talking about lunar statehood then Puerto Rican statehood,” said Alfonso Aguilar, of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles.
“Puerto Ricans are the decisive vote within the Latino electorate in Florida. This is a problem that CNN had. It was a big mistake. But to allow only Rick Santorum to answer the question was insulting.”
Alas, the mainstream media will never, ever, understand how important this issue because Puerto Rico has never, ever, been on their news radar.
But this, to me, is also evidence that Latin America, as a foreign policy issue, has not really been on these candidates’ radar, much less CNN or Fox. Yeah, yeah, the Republican candidates all hyped these fictional scenarios about what to do with Cuba during the debates that sound like a bad “Fantasy Island” script. But, given that we not only have a gubernatorial election/plebiscite double whammy in Puerto Rico but we also have presidential elections in Venezuela and Mexico, the complete absence of a discussion of these events in these debates is frankly short-sighted.
Unless of course they want to scare us all about Arab terrorists in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua.
They just locked in the vote for Obama by disrespecting us.
Y a mi me preocupan los que se sorprenden de que esto suceda…por que esos son los que nos hasen daño….
Don’t be surprised guys. the GOP doesn’t care about Latino’s unless it’s time to try and buy your vote. Republicans take a stance against the Castro regime and think they have i all locked up. What they won’t tell you is they’ll cut pell grants, health care and other reforms that help many Latino’s get a fair chance, but they will say a couple of words here and there to get your vote. The GOP as a whole acts like they don’t want Latino’s in the US. Last week the entire audience booed the country of Mexico, what does that say about the party??
Please make corrections, I did NOT walked out, is very disrespectful especially when Global Media had the eyes on me. My question was simple; how the GOP Candidates felt themselves about Puerto Rico to be state and the domestic trade between Florida and Puerto Rico via Ponce to Tampa Ports. I did not want a spin on the question, and that is what I got from Santorum and Speaker Gingrich. I have no idea that Speaker Gingrich and Governor Romney were going to make a stop at the conference in Miami. Upon their arrival I focus on the body language, Speaker Gingrich saw me, my flag and he avoided eye contact, when he casual mention Puerto Rico, I couldn’t resist to stand up and stay up for him recognized me and that is when I interrupted him with my question again. I had not made the decision wish candidate I was going to vote.
USNEWS POLITICS
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/01/27/how-puerto-ricos-governor-could-be-dark-horse-for-vp
Caribbean Business http://www.caribbeanbusinesspr.com/news03.php?nt_id=67342&ct_id=1
Fox News Latino http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2012/01/27/insulted-puerto-ricans-slam-cnn-debate-republican-candidates/?intcmp=related
http://www.kfor1240.com/pages/12117893.php?
Tell it to FNL, which we quoted from? We are just reporting what FNL said. Also, thanks for commenting on the page, we kind of wished you asked the question as follows: Will you make the will of the Puerto Rican people, which will be voted upon in November, 2012, a binding decision? By just making it a statehood question, you spoke to only a part of the island, since you know that the status issue is very divisive. But thank you for pushing them to get you an answer! Maybe we can work together to ensure that the upcoming plebiscite is actually ACTED upon by the US Government? I am not for statehood, but I AM for a final and binding acceptance of our country’s vote.
Thank you again for your comments and for your passion!!! I might not agree with your politics, but I do agree that Puerto Rico MUST become more important in the eyes of the United States media.
¡Saludos!
Julito
I think that last nights GOP reception of Puerto Rico Republican Party Report disrespected all Puerto Ricans as the GOP crowd boo’ed and shouted loudly USA, USA… when the PR Rep Party Representative was announced to deliver her report. It was not a loud cheering in support of Puerto Rico, but rather a racist ignorant crowd rousing attack against Puerto Rico. What do others think about this GOP outcry?
Although the video does seem to show the crowd booing the Puerto Rican Rep., who they were really booing was Rep. Ron Paul from Texas and his noisy delegates who were there to disrupt the Convention. They were angry at Mitt Romney for changing the rules at the last minute which prevented Paul from speaking. The crowd started chanting USA in hopes of drowning out Paul’s delegates who were angry and yelling at everyone.
If it was true the PRican Rep. was being booed by the GOP then MSNBC would certainly have been talking about it all day long today. Unfortunately for her, she came on stage at the wrong time.
I don’t buy your booing was against Ron Paul as an intelligent spin because the GOP Delegates were shouting “USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA…” Who would ever believe that was directed at Ron Paul??? It was a racist chant directed at the PR Delegate. How could you believe otherwise? Are you an apologist for the GOP?
“It was a racist chant directed at the PR Delegate. How could you believe otherwise?” Rog
Because, as I said, MSNBC would have been all over this one. Are you familiar with MSNBC? Apparently not.
“Are you an apologist for the GOP?” Rog
No.
MSNBC wants you to think the Republican Party hates minorities. So much so that the liberal news network cut minority speeches from it’s convention coverage.
When popular Tea Party candidate Ted Cruz, the GOP nominee for Senate, took the stage, MSNBC cut away from the Republican National Convention and the Hispanic Republican from Texas’ speech.
MSNBC stayed on commercial through former Democratic Rep. Artur Davis’ speech, as well. Davis, who recently became a Republican, is black.
Then, when Puerto Rican Governor Luis Fortuno’s wife Luce’ Vela Fortuño took the stage minutes later, MSNBC hosts Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews opted to talk over the First Lady’s speech.
And Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval? Noticeably missing from MSNBC, too.
Mia Love, a black candidate for Congress in Utah, was also ignored by MSNBC.
Will MSNBC conveniently manage not to show Governor Luis Fortuno’s speech tomorrow (Wednesday night) as well?
Former Secretary of State and prominent black conservative Condoleezza Rice is also slated to speak at tomorrow night’s convention.