Status of Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is an independent country within the empire of the United Status, as is the Northern Mariana Islands.  The term of art used is "commonwealth".  This is different from the status of Guam, and the US Virgin Islands and American Samoa, which are territories of the U.S., and the Federated States of Micronesia, which is a sovereign nation in free association with the United States.

Other entities with a similar status are Aruba, Curacao, and Sint Maarten, which are countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.  Also, Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man, called "Crown Dependencies" (as opposed to British Overseas Territories), within the British Empire (as opposed to the British Commonwealth), and the Cook Islands and Niue in the Realm of New Zealand.  And possibly Northern Cyprus within the Turkish Empire, (although no other country recognizes the independence of Northern Cyprus, instead seeing it as an occupied part of Cyprus).  And also possibly New Caledonia, a "special collectivity" of France.  And also Hong Kong and Macau with relation to China.

Puerto Rico is defaulting on its debts today.  I think it is inevitable that Congress will pass a bailout bill of some kind, and I think the bailout will result in a loss of sovereignty of Puerto Rico, making it into more of a territory of the US.

Update:  Upon further reading and reflection, I think that Puerto Rico is in fact already a territory of the US, and not independent.  Read this:

"After the island was taken as a possession after the Spanish-American War, the Supreme Court decided in a series of “Insular Cases” that the totality of citizenship rights and state powers only applied to states and people living in so-called “incorporated territories,” which were retroactively defined as Alaska and Hawaii. Puerto Rico was left as an “unincorporated territory,” despite Congress establishing a formal independent government and constitution—actions which Puerto Rico’s highest court holds made it a de facto incorporated territory. That argument has gone unacknowledged by the Court, Congress, and the executive branch."
--http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/04/puerto-rico-debt-crisis-congress/480027/

Puerto Rico's highest court is the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, from which decisions can be appealed to the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, MA.  If its highest court says that it is a de facto territory, and that decision hasn't been overturned, then I think it is pretty conclusive that it is a territory.  The only thing that is independent about it is that it has a separate Olympics team.

I think the people of Puerto Rico should decide their status, but I guess they have already done that 4 times.  I personally think they should either become a state or become totally independent.  But that won't happen.  Instead, Congress will bail them out and the dysfunctional status quo will prevail.  This is a FAIL, with blame shared between Congress and Puerto Rico.