Pedro Rafael Pierluisi Urrutia is a Puerto Rican politician and lawyer currently serving as governor of Puerto Rico since January 2, 2021. He has previously served as secretary of justice, resident commissioner, acting secretary of state, de facto governor of Puerto Rico and as private attorney for Puerto Rico's fiscal oversight board under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act. He is a member of the New Progressive Party and the Democratic Party of the United States.
The Puerto Rico Department of Education is one of two jurisdiction-wide public education system in the United States, with Hawaii being the other. The PRDOE is the state education agency in charge of managing public schools in Puerto Rico as well as the island's education system and curricula. The department, headquartered in Hato Rey, San Juan, is the result of a United States state department of education. It is also the largest agency of the executive branch of Puerto Rico, with, as of 2019, an annual budget of more than $3.5 billion USD and over 72,000 staff—including more than 41,000 teachers, and as of 2020 the department is the third-largest school district in the United States by enrollment, with over 276,413 students and 857 schools.
The Puerto Rico Department of Sports and Recreation is the executive department of the government of Puerto Rico responsible of sports and recreation in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
The Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (PRDNER) is the executive department of the government of Puerto Rico tasked with protecting, conserving, developing, and managing the natural and environmental resources in Puerto Rico. As of April 2022 the current interim Secretary is Anaí Rodríguez after the resignation of Rafael A. Machargo. As of November 2020 the department has 1,096 employees.
The Puerto Rico Department of Correction and Rehabilitation is the law enforcement executive department of the government responsible for structuring, developing, and coordinating the public policies in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the U.S. The department has authority over its correctional system and the rehabilitation of its adult and young population who have broken the law.
The Puerto Rico Department of Agriculture is one of the few Cabinet-level government agencies explicitly created by the Constitution of Puerto Rico as the Department of "Agriculture and Commerce", most of the commerce at the time of its enactment being agriculture-based. The DAC oversees rural development work and conservation and is headed by a cabinet secretary. The current secretary is Ramón González Beiró who was confirmed in May 2021.
The Secretary of Justice of Puerto Rico is the chief legal officer and the attorney general of the government of Puerto Rico.
The Secretary of Health of Puerto Rico leads the Department of Health of Puerto Rico and all efforts related to health in Puerto Rico.
The secretary of consumer affairs of Puerto Rico is responsible of defending and protecting consumers in Puerto Rico and leads the Department of Consumer Affairs (DACO). The position is appointed by the governor with advice and consent from the Senate. The secretary from 2013 to 2016 was Nery Adamés Soto. The current secretary is Lisoannette González Ruiz.
The secretary of housing of Puerto Rico is responsible for homeownership, affordable housing, and community assistance programs in Puerto Rico.
The Puerto Rico Department of Public Safety is the umbrella organization within the Executive branch of Puerto Rico that agglomerates the Puerto Rico Law Enforcement and Emergency Response agencies in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The department was formed on April 10, 2017, when then-Governor Ricardo Rosselló signed into law a bill to unify all safety agencies. All agencies are bureaus of the department.
Telegramgate, also known as Chatgate or RickyLeaks, was a political scandal involving Ricardo Rosselló, then Governor of Puerto Rico, which began on July 8, 2019, with the leak of hundreds of pages of a group chat on the messaging application Telegram between Rosselló and members of his cabinet. The messages were considered vulgar, misogynistic, racist, and homophobic toward several individuals and groups, and discussed how they would use the media to target potential political opponents. The leak came in the midst of allegations by former Secretary of Treasury of Puerto Rico, Raúl Maldonado Gautier, that his department boasted an "institutional mafia" that Rosselló was involved in. The leaks also came a year after a previous scandal, dubbed WhatsApp Gate, involving other members of Rosselló's cabinet.
The Secretary of Public Safety of Puerto Rico leads the Department of Public Safety, with its agencies, in all matters of law enforcement and emergency response. The position and department was formed in April 2017, when Governor Ricardo Rosselló signed into law the unification of the emergency service agencies in Puerto Rico. The secretary overlooks the actions of the agencies but does not have direct control over them.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Puerto Rico was an ongoing viral pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a novel infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It is part of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2024 Puerto Rico gubernatorial election will be held on November 5, 2024, to elect the governor of Puerto Rico, concurrently with the election of the Resident Commissioner, the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the mayors of the 78 municipalities. Incumbent New Progressive Party Governor Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia is running for re-election to a second term in office.
Gabriel Hernández-Rodríguez, son of Domingo Hernández and Maricruz Rodríguez, both natives of Camuy, Puerto Rico, was born on March 19, 1985, in the city of Chicago, Illinois, where he resided during his first year of life, until his mother moved to Paterson, New Jersey, where he lived until he turned 7. At that age, he moved to Camuy, where he lived during his childhood and adolescence in the Péndula sector of Barrio Santiago.
The government of Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia was formed in the weeks following the 2020 Puerto Rico gubernatorial election as he released a list of nominees for most of the positions before his swearing in on 2 January 2021. His New Progressive Party (PNP) not having a majority in either chamber of the 19th Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico meant that he would have to further negotiate the approval of his nominees with the opposition parties that hold control of the legislature.
The government of Wanda Vázquez Garced was formed the week following the resignation of Governor Ricardo Rosselló Nevares as a result of the massive protests resulting from the Telegramgate scandal, and a Supreme Court decision that vacated the office from an invalid occupant.
The government of Ricardo Rosselló Nevares was formed in the weeks following the 2016 Puerto Rico gubernatorial election and ended prematurely on the first week of August 2019.
The government of Alejandro García Padilla was formed in the weeks following the 2012 Puerto Rico gubernatorial election and was sworn in initially in January 2013, with some confirmations coming in later. It featured a pro-Independence secretary, a non-partisan Secretary of Governance, as well as the continuation of the previous PNP administrations' Commissioner of Safety and Public Protection.
