The 2013 Puerto Rico teachers protest is an ongoing protest staged by the teachers of Puerto Rico's public school system which began on December 19, 2013. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] During the protest, teachers from the Puerto Rico Teachers Federation took over the floor of the Senate of Puerto Rico with the intention of halting an extraordinary session called by Governor Alejandro García Padilla. Padilla was going to order a reform of the Puerto Rico Teachers Pension System. [6] The Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate of Puerto Rico stated he could not guarantee the safety of those in the hemicycle of the Capitol of Puerto Rico that houses the Senate. Both the Governor and the President of the Senate of Puerto Rico, Eduardo Bhatia, asked the Puerto Rico Joint Forces of Rapid Action (FURA) and the Puerto Rico Police to not intervene nor attempt to remove the protesters. [7]
The University of Puerto Rico, often shortened to UPR, is the main public university system in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a government-owned corporation with 11 campuses and approximately 44,200 students and approximately 4,450 faculty members. UPR has the largest and most diverse academic offerings in the commonwealth, with 472 academic programs of which 32 lead to a doctorate.
David Enrique "Quique" Bernier Rivera is a Puerto Rican dentist and politician that has served in various roles in public service in Puerto Rico. Bernier first served as executive director of the Office of Youth Affairs of Puerto Rico and was later confirmed as the youngest Secretary of Sports and Recreation of Puerto Rico in history. Four years later, he was unanimously confirmed as Secretary of State of Puerto Rico for the administration of Alejandro García Padilla. He was the 2016 candidate for Governor of Puerto Rico of the Popular Democratic Party.
The Teachers' Federation of Puerto Rico is a trade union federation of teachers in Puerto Rico. With currently 32,000 members, it is one of the most important non-US-aligned unions in the territory. Its primary base is among employees of the Puerto Rico Department of Education.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Puerto Rico have most of the same protections and rights as non-LGBT individuals. Public discussion and debate about sexual orientation and gender identity issues has increased, and some legal changes have been made. Supporters and opponents of legislation protecting the rights of LGBT persons can be found in both of the major political parties. Public opposition still exists due, in large part, to the strong influence of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as socially conservative Protestants. Puerto Rico has a great influence on the legal rights of LGBT citizens. Same-sex marriage has been legal in the commonwealth since July 2015, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges that same-sex marriage bans are unconstitutional.
Pedro Rafael Pierluisi Urrutia is a Puerto Rican politician and lawyer currently serving as Governor of Puerto Rico since 2021, having previously been the de facto governor from August 2–7, 2019. A member of New Progressive and Democratic Parties, he previously served as acting Secretary of State of Puerto Rico in 2019, as Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico from 2009 to 2017, and as Secretary of Justice of Puerto Rico from 1993 to 1997. He was formerly a private attorney for Puerto Rico's fiscal oversight board under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act.
Eduardo Bhatia Gautier is a Puerto Rican attorney and politician. Bhatia is a former 15th President of the Senate of Puerto Rico and executive director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration.
José Luis Dalmau Santiago is an attorney and politician. He is the current president of the Senate of Puerto Rico.
First Lady or First Gentleman of Puerto Rico is the official title given by the government of Puerto Rico to the spouse of the governor of Puerto Rico or the relatives of the governor, should the holder be unmarried. The governor's spouse leads the Office of the First Lady or First Gentleman of Puerto Rico.
The Puerto Rico Department of Education is one of five jurisdiction-wide public education systems in the United States, with Hawaii, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa being the others. 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 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.
Alejandro Javier García Padilla is a Puerto Rican politician and attorney who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 2013 to 2017.
The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority Is an electric power company owned by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico responsible for electricity generation, power distribution, and power transmission on the island. PREPA was the only entity authorized to conduct such business in Puerto Rico, making it a government monopoly, until on January 22, 2018, former governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rossello, announced that all assets of the company will be sold in a general privatization of PREPA.
Ricardo Antonio Rosselló Nevares is a Puerto Rican politician who served as Governor of Puerto Rico from 2017 until his resignation in 2019, after overwhelming protests related to the Telegramgate scandal. He is the son of former governor of Puerto Rico and pediatric surgeon Pedro Rosselló.
A referendum on the political status of Puerto Rico was held in Puerto Rico on November 6, 2012. It was the fourth referendum on status to be held in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico has been an unincorporated territory of the United States since the Spanish–American War in 1898.
Manuel Antonio Natal Albelo is a former member of the 29th House of Representatives of Puerto Rico. Natal is currently affiliated with the Citizen's Victory Movement party after being previously affiliated with the Popular Democratic Party and a legal advisor for Charlie Hernández, another member of the House, before becoming a legislator. He was a member of the free association movement, colloquially known as soberanistas. Elected at the age of 27, Natal is one of the youngest legislators in the history of Puerto Rico and was the youngest legislator to serve at the time of his election. He was the Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana party's nominee in the 2020 San Juan mayoral election, which he lost to senator Miguel Romero of the New Progressive Party.
The Puerto Rican government-debt crisis was a financial crisis affecting the government of Puerto Rico. The crisis began in 2014 when three major credit agencies downgraded several bond issues by Puerto Rico to "junk status" after the government was unable to demonstrate that it could pay its debt. The downgrades, in turn, prevented the government from selling more bonds in the open market. Unable to obtain the funding to cover its budget imbalance, the government began using its savings to pay its debt while warning that those savings would eventually be exhausted. To prevent such a scenario, the United States Congress enacted a law known as PROMESA, which appointed an oversight board with ultimate control over the Commonwealth's budget. As the PROMESA board began to exert that control, the Puerto Rican government sought to increase revenues and reduce its expenses by increasing taxes while curtailing public services and reducing government pensions. These measures provoked social distrust and unrest, further compounding the crisis. In August 2018, a debt investigation report of the Financial Oversight and management board for Puerto Rico reported the Commonwealth had $74 billion in bond debt and $49 billion in unfunded pension liabilities as of May 2017. Puerto Rico officially exited bankruptcy on March 15, 2022.
Víctor A. Suárez Meléndez is a Puerto Rican lawyer and politician who was the 24th Secretary of State of Puerto Rico, as well as being the current executive director of the Puerto Rico Convention Center District Authority. Prior to his current position, Suárez served in various roles in public service, including as executive director of the Puerto Rico Ports Authority, as Secretary of Consumer Affairs, as deputy mayor of Carolina, and as Puerto Rico Chief of Staff. Before he joined the government, Suárez worked as an operations manager for Colgate-Palmolive and as a private-practice lawyer. He also worked as a consultant for various public and private entities in matters such as process reengineering, projects management, organizational restructuring and development of efficiency indicators.
Angel Colón-Pérez is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico whose nomination was announced by Governor Alejandro García Padilla on April 8, 2016.
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.
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