Why Am I Not Surprised?

The news that the U.S. will not recognize the results of the Crimean referendum is no news. The U.S. picks and chooses what voting it considers valid. As a Puerto Rican, I'm not at all surprised by this announcement. In 2012, we held a referendum which clearly expressed our dissatisfaction with our current status as a territory -- to put it mildly -- of the U.S. The American government has chosen to ignore the result.

Regardless of the merits of the Crimean voting per se, the fact of the matter is that the U.S. won't regard as valid any voting process that is not to its liking. Even if an election or other democratic process is fair and square, the Americans will not accept it, and will do anything and everything to reverse it, witness Venezuela as a recent case in point.

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