May 24, 2008
Puerto Rico, the U.S. territory scheduled to hold a closely watched Democratic presidential primary June 1, is unaccustomed to cutting such a high-profile role in presidential politics.
Indeed, you have to look back roughly a decade to find the last time Puerto Rico played a starring role in mainland politics–the summer of 1999, when President Bill Clinton drew sharp criticism by offering clemency to 16 imprisoned Puerto Rican nationalists who belonged to an organization responsible for more than 100 bombings in the U.S. and Puerto Rico between 1974 and 1983.