, proposed a referendum for the people of Aruba to determine Aruba's separate status or "Status Aparte" as a full autonomous state under the crown. He proclaimed: "Aruba shall never accept a federation and a second class nationality."
Betico Croes worked in Aruba to inform and prepare the people of Aruba for independence. In 1976, a committee appointed by Croes introduced the national flag and anthem as the symbols of Aruba's sovereignty and independence, and he also set 1981 as a target for Aruba's independence. In March 1977, the first Referendum for Self Determination was held with the support of the United Nations and 82% of the participants voted for independence.
The Island Government of Aruba assigned the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague to prepare a study of Aruba's independence, which was published in 1978, titled "Aruba en Onafhankelijkheid, achtergronden, modaliteiten en mogelijkheden; een rapport in eerste aanleg". At the conference in The Hague in 1981, Aruba's independence was set for the year 1991.
In March 1983 Aruba reached an official agreement within the Kingdom for Aruba's Independence, which would occur in a series of steps granting increasing autonomy. In August 1985 Aruba drafted a constitution that was unanimously approved. On 1 January 1986, after elections were held for Aruba's first parliament, Aruba seceded from the Netherlands Antilles and officially became a country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Full independence was projected in 1996.
Croes was later proclaimed "Libertador di Aruba" after his death in 1986. At a convention in The Hague in 1990, the governments of Aruba, the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles postponed indefinitely Aruba's transition to full independence at the request of its Prime Minister. The article scheduling Aruba's complete independence was rescinded in 1995, although the process can begin again after a referendum
