Mr. President, I am also an ingrate Puerto Rican. : CMI-PR

Your Puerto Rican ingrate tweet is, per your words, fair. As Puerto Ricans, we want more.

We want democracy for Puerto Rico!

How can Puerto Rico (P.R.) be complete democracy when the U.S. Constitution states that: “Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory." U.S. Const. Art. 4. Sec. 3. And this is about respecting the territory and not about the respect for the people of Puerto Rico.

How could P.R. achieve a democratic state when Congress has plenary powers over P.R. even without their consent or vote? Therefore, we want the right to vote in presidential elections. We want for your PROMESA executive dictatorship to be out of Puerto Rico. We want equal treatment under the law. We want freedom for Puerto Rico.

We want freedom for Puerto Rico!

Since 1898, the U.S. has dominated Puerto Rico's economy, affairs and its government. The Jones Act increases shipping prices in goods shipped from U.S. to P.R. It cost more to ship a container from the U.S. to P.R. than to Dominican Republic. See Federal Reserve Bank of New York: Report of the Competiveness of Puerto Rico’s economy (Jun. 29, 2012). Retrieved Oct. 12, 2017, from http://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/regional/PuertoRico/report.pdf. How can this be when the U.S. is infatuated with the free market enterprise but does not allow P.R. benefit from it?

Additionally, U.S. laws are selectively applied to P.R. For example, Congress stated that the capital gains of all bond issued from P.R. will be tax free for Puerto Rico, all 50 States and the Federal Government. 48 U.S.C. § 745. Could financial institutions ever profit by always issuing interest free loans? You benefited from the bankruptcy protections, why P.R. is not similarly protected?

Mr. President, I want you to consider the following:

• How would Martin Luther King respond if he ever heard the President say, "those ingrate Negros; you are no longer a slave and now you want to vote?”
• What would George Washington and Thomas Jefferson say if he ever heard the British Empire say, "those ingrate Americans; we colonized them and now they want independence?”

Bottom line, we want equal treatment under the law and we want democracy for Puerto Rico. And since the prejudiced United States will never accept a Spanish speaking state in your ranks, we want for the United States to acknowledge that P.R. will never have equal rights or equal treatment and will never be a State.

Mr. President, I am also an ingrate Puerto Rican!