Context: Donald Trump spewing bullshit about annexing Canada and Greenland. Meanwhile, Congress has been dragging their feet for YEARS on resolving Puerto Rico’s territorial status.
Citizens living in US territories do not receive equal representation in congress. For instance, PR has one “delegate” to the House (not an official voting member) and no senators. Taxation without representation.
Although, at this point I wouldn’t blame PR if they changed their minds about wanting to become the 51st state.
Maybe the independence votes will grow, but since there is also still the large Puerto Rican diaspora in the US keeping close ties to the island, it would be difficult to separate from that with an independence movement. And a lot of Puerto Rican communities in the US who are eligible to vote for the president saw an uptick in support for the Republicans anyways, despite the “trash island” comment during Trump’s campaign.
At least as of a few months ago, the symbolic vote on the island was still overwhelmingly in favor of statehood, with independence being the least supported option.