OAS case on Puerto Rico voting rights still awaits ruling after 2 decades
By THE STAR STAFF
The Organization of American States (OAS) has yet to issue a ruling in a landmark human‑rights complaint filed 20 years ago alleging that the United States discriminates against 3.2 million American citizens living in Puerto Rico by denying them the right to vote for president and full representation in Congress.
The case, Igartua et al. v. United States (Petition 776‑06), was submitted to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in 2006 by attorney Gregorio Igartúa. A formal hearing was held in Boulder, Colorado, in 2018, with former Gov. Pedro Rosselló and then‑Gov. Ricardo Rosselló Nevares among those present. Despite the high-profile participation and repeated requests for a final opinion, the commission has not issued a decision.
In a recent letter to OAS Secretary General Albert Ramdin, Igartúa detailed more than a dozen attempts since at least 2020 to obtain an update from the commission. The correspondence underscores the prolonged silence from the IACHR, which has not responded to the petitioners since the case was first filed.
The complaint argues that Puerto Rico’s residents — U.S. citizens since 1917 — have lived under a federal system “without the consent of the governed” for more than a century. It claims violations of the U.S. Constitution’s Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, as well as treaty obligations, by denying island residents the ability to vote for president and for five members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Igartúa’s letter frames the delay as a failure of due process within the inter‑American system, noting that petitioners exhausted domestic remedies before turning to the OAS. He urged Ramdin to “comply with your fiduciary duties under the OAS Regulations” and direct the commission to issue a ruling without further delay.
With the case still undecided after two decades, the petition remains one of the longest‑pending matters before the IACHR — and a stark reminder of the unresolved debate over political rights for U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico.
The OAS did not answer requests for comment made to its press office.
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