The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party insurgency was a series of coordinated uprisings for the secession of Puerto Rico led by the president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, Don Pedro Albizu Campos, against the United States government's rule over the islands of Puerto Rico. The party repudiated the "Free Associated State" (Estado Libre Asociado) status that had been enacted in 1950 and which the Nationalists considered a continuation of colonialism.
The party organized a series of uprisings to take place in various Puerto Rican cities on October 30, 1950. The uprisings were suppressed by strong ground and air military force, including forces of the U.S. military, under the command of Puerto Rico National Guard Major General Luis R. Esteves. In a related event, on November 1 of that year, two Nationalists from New York City attempted to storm the Blair House in a failed effort to assassinate U.S. President Harry S. Truman, who supported the Puerto Rican government effort to draft a constitution that would rename the local government as a commonwealth of the United States and provide some limited local autonomy.
In 1952, nearly 82% of Puerto Rican voters approved the Constitution of the Estado Libre Associado. But the Nationalists considered the outcome of the vote a political farce since the referendum offered no option to vote in favor of independence or statehood, restricting the choices to only two: a continuation of the colonial status existing at that time and the proposed new commonwealth status.Juan Gonzalez, Harvest of Empire, p. 63; Penguin Books, 2001; Manuel Maldonado-Denis, Puerto Rico: A Socio-Historic Interpretation, pp.189-209; Random House, 1972;
On March 1, 1954, in another armed assault, four Nationalists fired shots from the visitors' gallery in the House of Representatives of the United States Capitol during a full floor debate, wounding five Congressmen, one seriously. The Nationalists were protesting what they perceived as a continuation of a colonial status in Puerto Rico.
Historical context Spanish Colony, Carta de Autonomía, US Possession After 400 years of colonial domination under the Spanish Empire, Puerto Rico received sovereignty in 1898 through a Carta de Autonomía (Charter of Autonomy). This Charter of Autonomy was signed by the Spanish Prime Minister Práxedes Mateo Sagasta and ratified by the Spanish Cortes.Manuel Maldonado-Denis, Puerto Rico: A Socio-Historic Interpretation, pp.52-64; Random House, 1972; Federico Ribes Tovar, Albizu Campos: Puerto Rican Revolutionary, pp.106–109; Plus Ultra Publishers, 1971 However, at the conclusion of the Spanish–American War, it was still the age of imperialism and Manifest Destiny. The United States claimed rule over the island under the Treaty of Paris, and the US demanded cessions from its defeated foe, Spain. The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party arose among opponents to this action, who said that, as a matter of international law, the Treaty of Paris could not empower the Spanish to give what was no longer theirs. The US administered Puerto Rico as a territory, initially with a military government.Manuel Maldonado-Denis, Puerto Rico: A Socio-Historic Interpretation, pp.65–83; Random House, 1972;
In 1901, the first civilian U.S. governor of Puerto Rico, Charles Herbert Allen, became the president of the largest sugar-refining company in the world, the American Sugar Refining Company, which also dominated Puerto Rico's economy. This company was later renamed as the Domino Sugar company. In effect, Charles Allen leveraged his governorship of Puerto Rico into a controlling interest over the entire Puerto Rican economy.Ribes Tovar et al., p.122–144
The federal government did not quite know how to classify Puerto Ricans at first. In 1904, the Immigration Service implemented more strict regulations that classified people from Puerto Rico as aliens who tried to enter the US, although previously they had easily migrated. In a case carried to the US Supreme Court by Isabel González in 1904, the court ruled that Puerto Ricans had the right of free travel to the US. In 1917, the US granted full US citizenship to residents of Puerto Rico just before sending Puerto Rican men to fight for the US in World War I; however, Puerto Ricans were restricted from voting in presidential elections because Puerto Rico did not have the status of a state.
United States "Manifest Destiny" and the banana republics
The U.S. government supported expansion of its interests throughout Latin America.
In 1912 the Cuyamel Banana company, a U.S. corporation, orchestrated the military invasion of Honduras in order to obtain hundreds of thousands of acres of Honduran land, and tax-free export of its entire banana crop.Rich Cohen. The Fish That Ate the Whale. pub. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2012. pp. 14-67. By 1928 the United Fruit Company, another U.S. corporation, owned over 200,000 acres of prime Colombian farmland. When a labor strike erupted against the company in December 6 of that year, over one thousand men, women and children were shot and killed in order to "settle" the strike. This was known as the Banana Massacre.
By 1930 the United Fruit Company owned over one million acres of land in Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, Panama, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Mexico and Cuba.Rich Cohen (2012). pp. 146-150. By 1940, in Honduras alone, the United Fruit Company owned 50 percent of all private land in the entire country. By 1942, the United Fruit Company owned 75 percent of all private land in Guatemala - plus most of Guatemala's roads, power stations and phone lines, the only Pacific seaport, and every mile of railroad.Rich Cohen; The Fish That Ate the Whale; pub. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2012; p. 174
By 1930, over 40 percent of all the arable land in Puerto Rico had been converted into sugar plantations, which were entirely owned by former governor Charles Allen and U.S. banking interests. These bank syndicates also owned the entire coastal railroad, and the San Juan international seaport.
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
There had been a push to seeking independence from the United States from the earliest days of US rule. From the many groups and parties that existed in the first two decades after the Treaty of Paris, the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party emerged as the main affiliation. First organized on September 17, 1922, the Nationalist Party's main objective was Puerto Rican Independence. By 1930, disagreements between Jose Coll y Cuchi and Pedro Albizu Campos as to how the party should be run, led the former and his followers to abandon the party.
On May 11, 1930, Albizu Campos was elected president of the Nationalist Party. Social unrest increased during the Great Depression, and the party became the largest independence movement in Puerto Rico. In the mid-1930s, the Nationalist movement gained support after the Río Piedras and the Ponce massacres; they said the US-supported government resorted to violence to maintain its colonial regime in Puerto Rico.Latino Americans and Political Participation: A Reference Handbook, By Sharon Ann Navarro and Armando Xavier Mejia. 2004. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc. .
After disappointing electoral results, the two massacres and continued strong repression by the territorial police authorities, by the mid-1930s Albizu opted against electoral participation, and advocated violent revolution.
Lead up to October 1950 From mid-1948 to mid-1950, the efforts of the US government to control the political future of Puerto Rico, denying a voice for independence, were escalated through a law signed by the US-appointed territorial governor in June 1948 and a law signed by the US president in July 1950.
Puerto Rico's Gag Law (Ley de la Mordaza) On May 21, 1948, a bill had been introduced before the Puerto Rican Senate which, in the opinion of Leopoldo Figueroa, then a member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives, violated the civil rights of Puerto Ricans to the protection of the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees Freedom of Speech.La Gobernación de Jesús T. Piñero y la Guerra Fría The Senate, which at the time was controlled by the Partido Popular Democrático (PPD) and presided by Luis Muñoz Marín, approved the bill."La obra jurídica del Profesor David M. Helfeld (1948-2008)'; by: Dr. Carmelo Delgado Cintrón This bill became known as the Ley de la Mordaza (Gag Law, technically "Law 53 of 1948") when the U.S.-appointed governor of Puerto Rico, Jesús T. Piñero, signed it into law on June 10, 1948.
The Gag Law made it a crime to print, publish, sell, or exhibit any material intended to paralyze or destroy the insular government; or to organize any society, group or assembly of people with a similar destructive intent. It made it illegal to sing a patriotic song, and reinforced the 1898 law that had made it illegal to display the Flag of Puerto Rico, with anyone found guilty of disobeying the law in any way being subject to a sentence of up to ten years imprisonment, a fine of up to US$10,000 (), or both, for each offense.
Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950 On July 3, 1950, President Harry Truman signed into law the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950, as passed by the 81st United States Congress. The law authorized a new status for Puerto Rico, as a "Free Associated State" (Estado Libre Asociado). It provided for popular elections of the governor, a bicameral legislature and bill of rights, and executive functions similar to those of the states. The US was to keep control over the money, defense, customs, and any foreign treaties. The Nationalists considered this a continuation of colonialism.
Revolts and events of 1950
The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party uprisings were a repudiation of the "Free Associated State" designation of Puerto Rico - a designation they regarded as a colonial farce. They were a call for independence from US rule, demanding the recognition of the 1898 Charter of Autonomy, and Puerto Rico's international sovereignty.
The uprisings began on October 30, 1950, upon the orders of Pedro Albizu Campos, president of the Nationalist Party. Uprisings occurred in Peñuelas, Mayagüez, Naranjito, Arecibo and Ponce. The most notable rebellions occurred in Utuado, Jayuya, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The revolts were not limited to Puerto Rico. They included a plot to assassinate the President of the United States Harry S. Truman. On November 1, 1950, two Nationalists attacked the Blair House in Washington, D.C., where Truman was staying while renovations were being made to the White House.
The last major attempt by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party to draw world attention to Puerto Rico's situation occurred on March 1, 1954, when four Nationalists attacked the United States House of Representatives.
Peñuelas Incident The first incident of the Nationalist uprisings was an act by a police force against the rebels, in the pre-dawn hours of October 29, 1950. The Insular Police of the town of Peñuelas surrounded the house of Melitón Muñiz Santos's mother. Melitón Muñiz Santos was the president of the Peñuelas Nationalist Party in the barrio Macaná, and the police were about to raid the house that Muñiz Santos was using as distribution center for weapons for the Nationalist Revolt.Puerto Rico entre siglos: "Historiografía y cultura"; El Estado Libre Asociado y el Partido Nacionalista (1950-1954); Antecedentes inmediatos; by: Mario R. Cancel-Sepúlveda, historian and author"Guerra Contra Todos los Puertorrique os: Revoluci n y Terror en la Colonia Americana"; by: Nelson Denis; pages 212-213; Publisher: Nation Books; , 9781568585468.