Talk:Puerto Rico Department of State

International Relations?

I question the statement that "The Department of State is statutorily charged with the operation of Puerto Rico's ... International and Interstate Relations, ...". As a territory of the U.S., I don't believe the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has the authority to conduct foreign relations. Is there any support for this statement? Terry Thorgaard (talk) 20:33, 2 February 2015 (UTC)

• I think you are misreading it so perhaps we should paraphrase the sentence? Yes, Puerto Rico by itself and only by itself is not authorized to conduct foreign relations. However, when the United States ratifies a treaty, U.S. states and territories can then engage in an international exchange with the signatories. In this case, let's take for example, NAFTA. Puerto Rico can engage Mexico freely through NAFTA. Local Puerto Rican law statutorily establishes that such relationship must be managed by the Puerto Rico Department of State. That's what that sentence means. Can you please come up with another way to express this? —Ahnoneemoos (talk) 22:26, 2 February 2015 (UTC)

The reference cited in the article (Note #1) recites (as translated, in pertinent part, by Google), that "... the State Department has a responsibility to promote economic, cultural, political [relations, presumably] and (sic) between Puerto Rico and foreign countries as well as with other jurisdictions in the United States. ...". Thus the statement I quoted earlier appears to be a correct translation (or paraphrasing) of this.

Assuming, arguendo, that NAFTA empowers states and territories to engage in negotiations with other signatory countries, there would still have to be a specific treaty with Spain to empower PR to negotiate with Spain. Terry Thorgaard (talk) 16:42, 3 February 2015 (UTC)

• Yes, you are entirely correct, Puerto Rico cannot engage Spain without a treaty that allows so (or without explicit permission from the United States). The local Puerto Rican laws that empower the PR-Dept of State establish that it must be the department the one that manages those relationships.. but if and only if those relationships can exist within the current political boundaries that limit Puerto Rico. We explain this in another article called "foreign and intergovernmental relations of Puerto Rico". Perhaps we should copy the explanation used over there to this article? —Ahnoneemoos (talk) 02:57, 5 February 2015 (UTC)