The politics of Puerto Rico take place in the framework of a democratic republic form of government that is under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United States Congress as an organized unincorporated territory. Since the 1898 invasion of Puerto Rico by the United States during the Spanish–American War, politics in Puerto Rico have been significantly shaped by its status as territory of the United States. The nature of Puerto Rico's political relationship with the United States is the subject of ongoing debate in Puerto Rico, in the United States, the United Nations and the international community, with all major political parties in the archipelago calling it a colonial relationship.Puerto Rico: The Trials of the Oldest Colony in the World. Jose Trias Monge. Yale University Press. 1997.Archaeology and the Postcolonial Critique. Matthew Liebmann and Uzma Z. Rizvi. Page 54. Accessed January 24, 2020Puerto Rico in the American Century: A History Since 1898. César J. Ayala and Rafael Bernabe. Page 82. Accessed January 24, 2020.
The government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is divided into three branches: executive, legislative and judicial, as established by the Constitution of Puerto Rico. The executive power is exercised by the executive branch, which is headed by the governor, advised by a cabinet of secretaries that are independent of the legislature. Legislative power is vested upon the Legislature. Judicial power is exercised by the judiciary, consisting of the Tribunal Supremo de Puerto Rico, the Tribunal de Apelaciones (English: Court of Appeals), and Tribunal de Primera Instancia (English: Courts of First Instance). There is also a Federal Court to hear cases of a federal nature or with federal jurisdiction.
Puerto Rico's governor, who is the head of government, and the members of the legislature are elected every four years by popular vote. Puerto Rico's legislature is a bicameral body consisting of a Senate and a House. The members of the judicial branch are appointed by the Governor with the approval of the Senate to serve until they reach age 70. Due to the status of Puerto Rico as a territory of the United States, its residents cannot vote in the U.S. presidential elections.
Politics in Puerto Rico revolve around a multi-party political system. The politics of Puerto Rico are dominated by three political parties: the Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP), the Partido Popular Democratico (PPD), and, to a lesser extent, the Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño (PIP).
Political history and political parties
19th century One year after the United States invasion of the island, Dr. José Celso Barbosa embraced the idea of annexation as a U.S. state as a solution to the colonial situation and founded the Partido Republicano Puertorriqueño in 1899.
Celso Barbosa had been the leader in the Autonomist Party that favored a republican government for Spain. For much of the 19th Century, the principal parties favored Puerto Rico becoming another of the Spanish provinces on equal footing with the mainland provinces in Spanish Europe; such standing was given twice to Puerto Rico and other Spanish overseas territories under liberal governments, but it was revoked many times - before the establishment of the Spanish constitutional monarchy - every time the Spanish monarchs were successful in regaining their royal power during the first half of the 19th century.
In this context, and following the U.S. annexation of Puerto Rico at the end of the Spanish American War of 1898, Dr. Barbosa returned to the original idea of equal footing, but this time as a full constituent member of the American Republic.
In contrast, Roman Baldorioty de Castro, had been the leader of another faction inside the Autonomist Party, supported a territorial governance for Puerto Rico under Spain, similar to the Canadian model developed by the British. Before Baldorioty de Castro, other leaders had mentioned the possibility of autonomy, generally as an answer to the Spanish insistence in instituting special laws to govern the Spanish territories and overseas provinces.
During the last twenty years under the Spanish flag, the majority of the local parties, with the exception of the Partido Incondicional Español (Unconditional Spanish Party) embraced the idea of autonomy. The Incondicionales accepted whatever Spain had for Puerto Rico and the Crown duly recognized their support by giving aristocratic titles to their party's leaders.
20th century 1900-1940 The Partido Republicano Puertorriqueño won the elections in 1900 and again in 1902. The new government of Puerto Rico, organized under the Foraker Act of 1900, was a mixture of the British and the American system, somewhat similar to that established for the territory of Orleans after the Louisiana Purchase. The House of Delegates was elected directly by the voters (male, propertied) and the equivalent to the Senate was the Cabinet appointed by the Governor and by the President of the United States. Muñoz-Rivera exiled himself to New York after the defeat, but returned once the Federal Party was no longer useful and joined Rosendo Matienzo Cintrón in organizing the Union Party, also with them was José de Diego.
Matienzo Cintrón had been a Republican, supporting statehood. But two years into the new government, he realized that statehood would not be granted and the desired equality as citizens was not feasible under the United States. He brought with him other former Republicans and practically all of Muñoz-Rivera's Federalists into a party that was to bring about the union of all political groups. He was successful, they won the elections of 1904 and all subsequent elections until the 1920s when another defection of Republicans allowed for the creation of yet another party bringing into it persons supporting a status change.
The Union Party, initially supported statehood or an autonomous government, it then later added independence. In fact, Matienzo-Cintrón went from statehood advocate to autonomist to independence advocate as a result of eight years of American civil government in Puerto Rico. The Union Party, from the very beginning, was against the colonial government established under the Foraker Act. Rosendo Matienzo Cintrón, Manuel Zeno Gandía, Luis Lloréns Torres, Eugenio Benítez Castaño, and Pedro Franceschi started to organize the Independence Party in 1912, which paved the path for similar movements. The Union Party quickly gained the attention of the colonial governors, all Republicans, who were willing to work closely with them because of their control of the House of Delegates. The local Republicans protested bitterly and, at one point, they took statehood out of their platform – not reinstating it until the early 1920s. Many in the Union Party leadership were lawyers who had contracts with the sugar operations recently bought out and enlarged by the new American owners, thus establishing a close relationship between the nascent middle classes and the American corporate interests.
A coalition between the pro-independence Union Party presided by Antonio R. Barceló and the pro-statehood Partido Republicano Puertorriqueño presided by José Tous Soto called the "Alianza Puertorriqueña" was formed. Differences between Barceló and Tous Soto and Félix Córdova Dávila, the resident commissioner of Puerto Rico in Washington, as to the goals of the alliance became apparent. The Unionist sector of the alliance decided to disaffiliate themselves from the "Alliance." Because of legal reasons, Barceló was unable to use the name "Union Party" and in 1932, founded the "Liberal Party of Puerto Rico". The Liberal Party's political agenda was the same as the original Union Party's agenda and urged independence as a final political solution for Puerto Rico. After the Liberal Party was defeated in the 1936 elections, an assembly was held in Naranjales on May 31, 1937, in which Luis Muñoz Marín presented his ideas as to how the party should be run, however, the majority of the party members objected and blamed him for their defeat. Muñoz Marín considered this action the same as having been expelled from the party. Muñoz Marín and his followers, among which were included Felisa Rincon de Gautier and Ernesto Ramos Antonini, held an assembly in the town of Arecibo founded the Partido Liberal, Neto, Auténtico y Completo ("Clear, Authentic and Complete Liberal Party"), claiming to be the true Liberal Party. The Partido Liberal, Neto, Auténtico y Completo, an independent political party, later became the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) which would ironically end up promoting the "Estado Libre Associado" (Free Associated State) status that Barceló, as president of Union Party, had asked for in 1923 under Campbell Bill and which Muñoz Marín had always opposed, instead of independence.
The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party was founded in 1922. It strongly criticized the American colonial regime for its menace to the Spanish and Latin American roots of the Puerto Rican culture. It also advocated for complete independence. The PNP began to grow with the leadership of Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos, who was later jailed by the colonial regime under charges as a subversive leader. On March 21, 1937, a peaceful march was organized in the southern city of Ponce by the nationalists after receiving authorization from the pertinent authorities.American Gunfight: The Plot to Kill Harry Truman: And the Shoot-Out That Stopped It. Simon and Schuster. 2005. . Accessed 2009-10-09. The march was organized to commemorate the abolition of slavery and to demand the release of Albizu Campos from federal prison. The permit, however, was revoked by the U.S.-appointed governor of the Island Blanton Winship minutes before the march was to start. The march turned into a bloody event when the Insular Police ("a force somewhat resembling the National Guard of the typical U.S. state" and which answered to governor Winship) opened fire upon, what a U.S. Congressman and others reported were unarmed and defenseless cadets and bystanders alike killing 19 and badly wounding over 200 more, many in their backs while running away. The entire speech is contained in the Congressional Record of August 14, 1939. It is reported in the Cong. Rec., and various other publications elsewhere, that among those shot in their backs was a 7-year-old girl, Georgina Maldonado, who "was killed through the back while running to a nearby church" It came to be known as the Ponce massacre.
1940–1968 Luis Muñoz Marín founded the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) in 1938. Their slogan was Pan, Tierra y Libertad (Bread, Land and Liberty). The party favored independence from the United States in its initial stages but social and economic reform were priorities in their political agenda.
The Puerto Rican Independence Party was formed six years later by dissidents who saw the PPD moving away from the ideal of independence. During that period, the colonial regime appointed the first Puerto Rican governor, Jesús T. Piñero, until 1948 when the people elected Luis Muñoz Marín, the first elected governor.
The years of 1944–1948 were crucial ones in the direction of the country. Luis Muñoz Marín shifted his goals from independence to state-like autonomy to accommodate better economic circumstances. This led to the U.S. Congress to enact the Public Law 81-600 which led to the Congressional approval of a local constitution drafted by a constitutional assembly elected by Puerto Rico and the renaming of the United States unincorporated territory of Puerto Rico as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, using the same official name as the commonwealths of the U.S. states of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia, as well as that of other sovereign nation countries such as Australia. The alternative pro-independence Tydings bill had languished in Congress.