The bill that finally passed was a victory for the commonwealth party, making enforcement difficult and subject to reprisal lawsuits.
A bill to establish a naval office was vigorously debated in 1681, with the house of deputies, dominated by the commonwealth party, opposing the idea, and the moderate magistrates supporting it.
Mr. Rosselló's opponent, Anibal Acevedo Vila, who is a member of Ms. Calderón's pro-commonwealth party, is earnest but not magnetic, and is starving for attention because of the sturm und drang between the current and former governors.
On Monday night, members of the island's pro-commonwealth party, independence advocates and even a few statehood supporters gave speeches and waved arms and banners outside of the prison's women's wing.
For Mr. Romero Barcelo, who lost the 1984 election for governor to Rafael Hernandez Colon of the pro-commonwealth party and wants the job back, the vote Sunday will be an important test of political strength.
"There's a climate in which if the subordinate sees the boss stealing, he, too, wants to steal," said Marco A. Rigau Jr., a former senator for the pro-commonwealth party and a lawyer for a police officer arrested this month on drug charges.
Ms. Calderón, who is the leader of the pro-Commonwealth party that supports the island's current status, which confers United States citizenship on Puerto Ricans but does not give them the right to vote in presidential elections, said the November referendum would be unfair.
The commonwealth is the state party at Unesco so it was highly appropriate for us to alert his office to this piece of work," Miles said.
"It appears from the analysis in the report that the commission has conflated Australia, as a state party to a treaty, with the commonwealth government.
(It's a Commonwealth company).
Even the Popular Democratic Party, the architect of the commonwealth and the party currently holding both the governor's office and a legislative majority, wants change.
