Puerto Rico (
Spanish) is a self governing
unincorporated territory of the
United States with
Commonwealth status. It is located in the northeastern
Caribbean, east of the
Dominican Republic and west of the
Virgin Islands; approximately two-thousand kilometers (2,000 km; 1,280 miles) off the coast of Florida (the nearest of the mainland United States). The
archipelago of Puerto Rico includes the main island of Puerto Rico, the smallest of the
Greater Antilles, and a number of smaller islands and
keys, the largest of which are
Mona,
Vieques, and
Culebra. Puerto Ricans sometimes refer to their island as Borikén, or the
Spanish variant Borinquen, a name for the island used by
indigenous Taíno people. The current term boricua derives from the Taíno name for the island, and is commonly used to identify oneself as
Puerto Rican.
Even though all people born in Puerto Rico are statutory U.S. citizens, the nature of Puerto Rico's political relationship with the United States is the subject of ongoing debate in the island, the
United States Congress, and the
United Nations. Those who support maintaining the status quo (i.e., Commonwealth status) insist that upon attaining this status, Puerto Rico entered into a voluntary association with the U.S. "in the nature of a
compact", but according to a President's Task Force report, Puerto Rico is an
unincorporated organized territory of the United States, subject to the
plenary powers of the U.S. Congress and with the "right to establish a constitution for the internal administration of government and on matters of purely local concern". For more information, please visit:
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