Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico

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Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico
Partido Nacionalista de Puerto Rico
PresidentVacant
FoundedSeptember 17, 1922
Headquarters San Juan, Puerto Rico
Paramilitary wing Cadets of the Republic
Women's wing Daughters of Freedom
Ideology
Regional affiliation Foro de São Paulo
ColorsBlack, white
Party flag
Flag of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party.svg

Notable past presidents
*José Coll y Cuchí
*Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos

The Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico (Spanish : Partido Nacionalista de Puerto Rico, PNPR) is a Puerto Rican political party founded on September 17, 1922, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. [2] Its primary goal is to work for Puerto Rico's independence. The Party's selection in 1930 of Pedro Albizu Campos as its president brought a radical change to the organization and its tactics.

Contents

In the 1930s, intimidation, repression and persecution of Party members by the government, then headed by a U.S. president-appointed governor, led to the assassination of two government officials, the attempted assassination of a federal judge in Puerto Rico, and the Rio Piedras and Ponce massacres. Under the leadership of Albizu Campos, the party abandoned the electoral process in favor of direct armed conflict as means to gain independence from the United States.

By the late 1940s, a more US-friendly party, the Partido Popular Democrático (PPD), had gained an overwhelming number of seats in the legislature and, in 1948, it passed Ley de la Mordaza (Gag Law), which attempted to suppress the Nationalist Party and similar opposition. The Puerto Rican police arrested many Nationalist Party members under this law, some of whom were sentenced to lengthy prison terms. With a new political status pending for Puerto Rico as a Commonwealth, Albizu Campos ordered armed uprisings in several Puerto Rican towns to occur on October 30, 1950. In a related effort, two Nationalists also attempted to assassinate US President Harry S. Truman on November 1, 1950, in an effort to call international attention to issues related to Puerto Rico's political status, but the attempt failed. The last major armed event by the Nationalists occurred in 1954 at the US House of Representatives when four party members shot and wounded five Congressmen.

After Albizu Campos's death in 1965, the party dissolved into factions and members joined other parties, but some continue to follow the party's ideals in one form or another, often informally or ad hoc, to this day. [3]

Historical context

The first American governor of Puerto Rico resigned to become Puerto Rico's first sugar baron Charles Herbert Allen, 1898.jpg
The first American governor of Puerto Rico resigned to become Puerto Rico's first sugar baron

After four hundred years of colonial domination under the Spanish Empire, Puerto Rico finally received its sovereignty in 1898 through a Carta de Autonomía (Charter of Autonomy). This Charter of Autonomy was signed by Spanish Prime Minister Práxedes Mateo Sagasta and ratified by the Spanish Cortes. [4] Despite this, just a few months later, the United States claimed ownership of the island as part of the Treaty of Paris which concluded the Spanish–American War.

Opponents to the colonial government argued that the profits generated by this arrangement were one-sided, enormous for the United States.[ citation needed ]

When the war ended, U.S. President McKinley appointed Charles Herbert Allen as the first civilian governor of Puerto Rico. Though Allen had a business background, his financial administration of Puerto Rico was strikingly unsound. He ignored the appropriation requests of the Puerto Rican House of Delegates, refused to make any municipal, agricultural or small business loans, built roads at double the costs of preceding administrations, and left 85% of the school-age population without schools. Rather than making these requested infrastructure and education investments, Allen's budget raided the Puerto Rican treasury. His administration re-directed tax revenues to no-bid contracts for U.S. businessmen, railroad subsidies for U.S.-owned sugar plantations, and high salaries for U.S. bureaucrats in the island government. [5] [6]

Allen's financial acumen improved considerably when he returned to the U.S., and resumed his own personal business interests. In 1901, Allen resigned as governor and installed himself as president of the largest sugar-refining company in the world, the American Sugar Refining Company. 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. [7]

In 1914, the Puerto Rican House of Delegates voted unanimously for independence from the United States. In 1917, the US Congress passed an act by which it granted citizenship to Puerto Rican residents. This was overwhelmingly opposed by the island's political leaders. Critics said the US was simply interested in increasing the size of its conscription pool to get soldiers for World War I. [8]

United States "Manifest Destiny"

Pres. Roosevelt wielding his big stick in the Caribbean Tr-bigstick-cartoon.JPG
Pres. Roosevelt wielding his big stick in the Caribbean

By 1930, over 40 percent of all the arable land in Puerto Rico had been converted into sugar plantations, which were entirely owned by Domino Sugar Company and U.S. banking interests. These bank syndicates also owned the entire coastal railroad, and the San Juan international seaport. [7]

This was not limited to Puerto Rico. By 1930 the United Fruit Company owned over one million acres of land in Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, Panama, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Mexico and Cuba. [9] By 1940, in Honduras alone, the United Fruit Company owned 50 percent of all private land in the entire country. [9] In Guatemala, the United Fruit Company owned 75 percent of all private land by 1942 – plus most of Guatemala's roads, power stations and phone lines, the only Pacific seaport, and every mile of railroad. [10]

The U.S. government supported all these economic exploits, and provided military "persuasion" whenever necessary. [9]

Founding of the Nationalist Party

Jose Coll y Cuchi Jose Coll y Cuchi.jpg
Jose Coll y Cuchi

The origins of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party date to 1917, when a group of Union Party members in Ponce, dissatisfied with the attitude of the Union Party of Puerto Rico towards the "granting" of U.S. citizenship, formed the "Asociación Nacionalista de Ponce" (Ponce Nationalist Association). Among its founders were Guillermo Salazar, Rafael Matos Bernier, J. A. González, and Julio César Fernández. These men also founded the newspaper El Nacionalista. [11]

The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party was formed as a direct response to the American colonial government. In 1919, José Coll y Cuchí, a member of the Union Party of Puerto Rico, felt that the Union Party was not doing enough for the cause of Puerto Rican independence. Coll y Cuchí and some followers left to form the Nationalist Association of Puerto Rico in San Juan. Under Coll y Cuchí's presidency, the party convinced the Puerto Rican Legislative Assembly to approve an Act that would permit the transfer of the remains of the Puerto Rican patriot, Ramón Emeterio Betances, from Paris, France, to Puerto Rico.

Don Pedro Albizu Campos Pedro Albizu Campos raising his hat to a crowd, 1936.jpg
Don Pedro Albizu Campos

The Legislative Assembly appointed Alfonso Lastra Charriez as its emissary since he had French heritage and spoke the language fluently. Betances' remains arrived in San Juan on August 5, 1920. A funeral caravan organized by the Nationalist Association transferred the remains from San Juan to the town of Cabo Rojo, where his ashes were interred by his monument.

By the 1920s, two other pro-independence organizations had formed on the Island: the Nationalist Youth and the Independence Association of Puerto Rico. The Independence Association was founded by José S. Alegría, Eugenio Font Suárez and Leopoldo Figueroa in 1920. On September 17, 1922, these three political organizations joined forces and formed the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. Coll y Cuchi was elected president and José S. Alegría (father of Ricardo Alegría) vice-president.

In 1924, Pedro Albizu Campos joined the party and was named vice-president. Alegría was named Nationalist Party president in 1928 and held that position until 1930. By 1930, disagreements between Coll y Cuchi and Albizu Campos as to how the party should be run, led the former and his followers to leave and return to the Union Party. Albizu Campos did not like what he considered to be Coll y Cuchí's attitude of fraternal solidarity with the enemy. [12] On May 11, 1930, Pedro Albizu Campos was elected president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party.

The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party maintained that, as a matter of international law, the Treaty of Paris following the Spanish–American War could not have empowered the Spanish to "give" to the US what was no longer theirs. [7] Under Albizu Campos's leadership during the years of the Great Depression, the party became the largest independence movement in Puerto Rico.

In the mid-1930s, there were disappointing electoral results and strong repression by the territorial police authorities. The party staged some protests that developed into celebrated incidents because of police overreaction: The October 1935 Rio Piedras [13] and the Ponce massacres. In these, government forces fired on unarmed civilians. [14] [15] After the Río Piedras massacre, in December 1935, Albizu Campos announced that the Nationalist Party would withdraw from electoral participation while the United States kept control. Albizu Campos began to advocate direct, violent revolution.[ citation needed ]

Nationalist Party during 1930–1950

Nationalist Party partisans were involved in a variety of dramatic and violent confrontations between 1930 and 1950:

The Ponce massacre. Police open fire on unarmed marchers and bystanders on Palm Sunday. The 19 dead included a 7-year-old girl, who was shot in the back. Ponce Massacre.JPG
The Ponce massacre. Police open fire on unarmed marchers and bystanders on Palm Sunday. The 19 dead included a 7-year-old girl, who was shot in the back.
Many of these unarmed people were shot in the back while trying to run away – including a 7-year old girl, who died as a result. [24] [25] An ACLU report declared it a massacre [26] and it has since been known as the Ponce massacre. The march had been organized to commemorate the ending of slavery in Puerto Rico by the governing Spanish National Assembly in 1873, and to protest the incarceration by the U.S. government of nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos. [27] Soon thereafter, the Puerto Rican government arrested the leadership of the Nationalist party, including Pedro Albizu Campos. In two trials, they were convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States.
A government investigation into the incident drew few conclusions. A second, independent investigation ordered by the US Commission for Civil Rights (May 5, 1937) led by Arthur Garfield Hays (a member of the ACLU) with Fulgencio Piñero, Emilio Belaval, Jose Davila Rice, Antonio Ayuyo Valdivieso, Manuel Diaz Garcia, and Franscisco M. Zeno, concluded that the events on March 21constituted a massacre. The report harshly criticized the repressive tactics and massive civil rights violations by the administration of Governor Blanton Winship. [28]
External videos
Nuvola apps arts.svg and view a portion of the Albizu Documentary Trailer made in English here.
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg You may watch newsreel scenes of the Ponce Massacre here

The point I am to make is that the Governor [Winship] himself through his military approach to things has helped keep Puerto Rico in an unnecessary state of turmoil. He seems to think that the political problem of Puerto Rico limits itself to a fight between himself and the Nationalists, that no holds are barred in that fight and that everybody else should keep out. As a matter of fact he has played the Nationalist game and they have played his. [29]

Soon afterward, two Nationalist partisans, among them Raimundo Díaz Pacheco, attempted to assassinate Robert Cooper, judge of the Federal Court in Puerto Rico. On May 12, 1939, Winship was summarily removed from his post as Governor by President Roosevelt. [30]

Officially known as Law 53 (Ley 53) of 1948, the Gag Law made it illegal to display the Puerto Rican flag, sing patriotic songs, talk about independence, or fight for the liberation of the island, with anyone found guilty of disobeying the law being subject to a sentence of up to ten years imprisonment, a fine of US$10,000 (equivalent to $127,000in 2023), or both.

Nationalist Revolts of 1950

El Imparcial headline: "Aviation (US) bombs Utuado" El Imparcial Utuado.jpg
El Imparcial headline: "Aviation (US) bombs Utuado"
External audio
Nuvola apps arts.svg You may listen to one of the speeches made in Spanish by Albizu Campos here
External videos
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg Newsreel scenes in Spanish of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg Newsreel scenes in English of the assassination attempt on U.S. President Harry S Truman
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg Newsreel scenes in Spanish and in English of the attack on the U.S. Capitol led by Lolita Lebrón

The first battle of the Nationalist uprisings occurred in the early hours of October 29, in barrio Macaná of Peñuelas. The police surrounded the house of the mother of Melitón Muñiz, the president of the Peñuelas Nationalist Party, that he was using as a distribution center for weapons for the Nationalist Revolt. Without warning, the police fired on the Nationalists and a firefight ensued, resulting in the death of two Nationalists and wounding of six police officers. [34]

The 296th Regiment of the U.S. National Guard occupy Jayuya Troops in Jayuya.gif
The 296th Regiment of the U.S. National Guard occupy Jayuya

In the Jayuya Uprising, led by Nationalist leader Blanca Canales, a police station and post office were burned. The town was held by the Nationalists for three days. [35]

The Utuado Uprising culminated in the Utuado Massacre by the local police, in which five Nationalists were executed.

The San Juan Nationalist revolt was a Nationalist attempt to enter the Governor's mansion, La Fortaleza , in order to attack then-governor Luis Muñoz Marín. The hour-long shootout resulted in the death of four Nationalists: Domingo Hiraldo Resto, Carlos Hiraldo Resto, Manuel Torres Medina and Raimundo Díaz Pacheco. Three guards were also seriously wounded.

Hipolito Miranda Diaz, killed in the Arecibo incident Scan0001-Miranda Diaz-Arecibo (2).jpg
Hipólito Miranda Díaz, killed in the Arecibo incident

Various other shootouts took place throughout island – including those at Mayagüez, Naranjito, Arecibo, and Ponce, where Antonio Alicea, Jose Miguel Alicea, Francisco Campos (Albizu Campos's nephew), Osvaldo Perez Martinez and Ramon Pedrosa Rivera were arrested and accused of the murder of police corporal Aurelio Miranda during the revolt. Raul de Jesus was accused of violating the Insular Firearms Law. [36]

On October 31, police officers and National Guardsmen surrounded Salón Boricua, a barbershop in Santurce. Believing that a group of Nationalists were inside the shop, they opened fire. The only person in the shop was Campos barber Vidal Santiago Díaz. Santiago Díaz, who fought alone against the attackers for three hours, received five wounds, including one in the head. The battle was transmitted "live" via the radio airwaves to the public in general. [37]

On November 1, 1950, Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate U.S. President Harry S. Truman, who was staying at the Blair House in Washington, D.C.

Truman supported development of a constitution for Puerto Rico and the 1952 status referendum on it; 82% of the voters approved the constitution. The US Congress also approved the constitution.

On March 1, 1954, Lolita Lebrón together with fellow Nationalists Rafael Cancel Miranda, Irvin Flores and Andrés Figueroa Cordero attacked the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. The group opened fire with automatic pistols. Some 30 shots were fired (mostly by Cancel, according to his account), wounding five lawmakers. One of the congressmen, Representative Alvin Bentley from Michigan, was seriously wounded. On her arrest, Lebrón yelled "I did not come to kill anyone, I came to die for Puerto Rico!"

On November 18, 1955, a non-violent splinter group of nationalists calling themselves La Quinta Columna (The 5th Column) broke away from the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party due to not supporting the ideas and thoughts of Albizu Campos, as to a Puerto Rico relationship with Spain as its Mother country and their nationalistic love for Puerto Rico as their Motherland.[ citation needed ] The other reason for the splinter group was due to the violence that took place in the 1950s.[ citation needed ] This splinter group would later become known in 1968 as El Movimiento Indio Taino de Boriken (The Taino Indian Movement of Puerto Rico) which was primarily made up of the children of the Puerto Rican Nationalists whom would come to establish the indigenous grassroots civil rights movement in Puerto Rico.[ citation needed ]

1960s–present

Although less active, the Nationalist Party continues to exist as an organization and an ideology. It also has somewhat of a "chapter" in New York City. The New York Junta is an autonomous organ of the party that recognizes, and is recognized by, the National Junta in Puerto Rico.[ citation needed ]

In 2006 and in representation of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, Jose Castillo spoke before the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization and said that the Nationalist Party "had appeared in the past to denounce colonialism in Puerto Rico and hoped the Special Committee would show its commitment to the island's struggle for self-determination, so that it could join the United Nations in its own right ... The Special Committee and its resolutions on Puerto Rico were indispensable instruments." Castillo "called upon the United States Government to assure the Puerto Rican people of their right to self-determination and human rights and immediately cease the persecution, arrests, and murders perpetrated against independence fighters. Vieques peace activists must be freed immediately, and the FBI's electronic surveillance and continued harassment of independence fighters must be stopped. The United States must also end its actions against basic human rights while fully implementing the United Nations resolution calling for a constituent assembly to begin decolonization." Castillo added that "Puerto Rico had its own national identity ... Since its 1898 invasion, the United States had tried to destroy the nationality of Puerto Rican people. It kept Puerto Rico in isolation, maintaining it as private corporation from which it earned billions a year ... exploitation had made foreigners richer and the Puerto Rican people poorer. The fact that Puerto Rico was the last territory in the world could not be hidden. Violation of rights there would cease only once it was a free and independent nation. The United States must provide compensation for what it had done to Puerto Rico's land and people." [38]

In 2013 the Puerto Rico Nationalist Party made a public demonstration of their pro-Independence commitment by protesting a speech from the Governor of Puerto Rico, Alejandro García Padilla. [39]

Its last president was Antonio "Toñito" Cruz Colón until his death in October 2014. [40]

See also

Notable members of the PNPR

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pedro Albizu Campos</span> Puerto Rican politician and independence advocate

Pedro Albizu Campos was a Puerto Rican attorney and politician, and a leading figure in the Puerto Rican independence movement. He was the president and spokesperson of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico from 1930 until his death. He led the nationalist revolts of October 1950 against the United States government in Puerto Rico. Albizu Campos spent a total of twenty-six years in prison at various times for his Puerto Rican independence activities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ponce massacre</span> 1937 police shooting in Puerto Rico

The Ponce massacre was an event that took place on Palm Sunday, March 21, 1937, in Ponce, Puerto Rico, when a peaceful civilian march turned into a police shooting in which 17 civilians and two policemen were killed, and more than 200 civilians wounded. None of the civilians were armed and most of the dead were reportedly shot in their backs. The march had been organized by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party to commemorate the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico by the governing Spanish National Assembly in 1873, and to protest the U.S. government's imprisonment of the Party's leader, Pedro Albizu Campos, on sedition charges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blanca Canales</span> Puerto Rican politician and independence advocate

Blanca Canales was an educator and a Puerto Rican Nationalist. Canales joined the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party in 1931 and helped organize the Daughters of Freedom, the women's branch of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jayuya Uprising</span> Puerto Rican nationalist revolt that took place on October 30, 1950

The Jayuya Uprising, also known as the Jayuya Revolt or El Grito de Jayuya, was a Nationalist insurrection that took place on October 30, 1950, in the town of Jayuya, Puerto Rico. The insurrection, led by Blanca Canales, was one of the multiple insurrections that occurred throughout Puerto Rico on that day against the Puerto Rican government supported by the United States. The insurrectionists were opposed to US sovereignty over Puerto Rico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">José Coll y Cuchí</span> Puerto Rican politician and independence advocate

José Coll y Cuchí was a lawyer, writer and the founder of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. He was a member of a Puerto Rican family of politicians, educators and writers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Río Piedras massacre</span> Police shooting of supporters of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party

The Río Piedras massacre occurred on October 24, 1935, at the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras. Puerto Rico Police officers confronted and opened fire on supporters of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. Four Nationalist Party members were killed, and one police officer was wounded during the shooting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Utuado uprising</span> 1950 revolt against the US by Nationalist party in Utuado, Puerto Rico

The Utuado uprising, also known as the Utuado revolt or El Grito de Utuado, refers to the revolt against the United States government in Puerto Rico which occurred on October 30, 1950, in the town of Utuado. There were simultaneous revolts in various other towns in Puerto Rico, including the capital of San Juan and the cities of Mayaguez and Arecibo, plus major confrontations in the city of Ponce and the towns of Peñuelas and Jayuya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Juan Nationalist revolt</span> Revolt against the United States Government in Puerto Rico

The San Juan Nationalist revolt was one of many uprisings against United States Government rule which occurred in Puerto Rico on October 30, 1950 during the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party revolts. Amongst the uprising's main objectives were an attack on La Fortaleza, and the U.S. Federal Court House Building in Old San Juan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Puerto Rican Nationalist Party insurgency</span> Armed pro-independence protests

The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party insurgency was a series of coordinated insurrections 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" status that had been enacted in 1950 and which the Nationalists considered a continuation of colonialism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museo de la Masacre de Ponce</span> Museum and historic building in Ponce, Puerto Rico

The Museo de la Masacre de Ponce is a human rights museum and historic building in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It depicts the history and events surrounding the Ponce massacre, which occurred in broad daylight on Palm Sunday in 1937. The museum is housed inside the building where the event itself occurred, with one of its sections devoted to the Nationalist leader, Pedro Albizu Campos. It also documents the blacklisting of Puerto Rican Nationalists performed by the United States, as well as hosting a considerable number of photos from the Nationalist era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugo Margenat</span> Puerto Rican politician and independence advocate

Hugo Margenat, was a Puerto Rican poet and Puerto Rican Independence advocate. His art was committed to serving a militant nationalistic agenda. He was the founder of the political youth pro-independence organizations "Acción Juventud Independentista" and the "Federación de Universitarios Pro Independencia".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Casimiro Berenguer</span> Puerto Rican independence advocate

Casimiro Berenguer Padilla was a Puerto Rican nationalist. He was the military instructor of the Cadets of the Republic who received permission from Ponce Mayor Tormos Diego to celebrate a parade on March 21, 1937, in commemoration of the abolition of slavery and to protest the jailing of its leaders, including Pedro Albizu Campos. The parade resulted in the police riot known as the Ponce massacre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isolina Rondón</span> Puerto Rican independence advocate

Isolina Rondón was a political activist. She was one of the few witnesses of the killing of four Nationalists committed by local police officers in Puerto Rico during a confrontation with the supporters of the Nationalist Party that occurred on October 24, 1935, and which is known as the Río Piedras massacre. Rondón joined the political movement and became the Treasurer of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party which staged various uprisings in Puerto Rico against the colonial Government of the United States in 1950.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isabel Rosado</span> Puerto Rican educator, social worker, and independence advocate

Isabel Rosado, also known as Doña Isabelita, was an educator, social worker, activist and member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. Influenced by the events of the Ponce massacre, Rosado became a believer of the Puerto Rican independence movement and was imprisoned because of her commitment to the cause.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vidal Santiago Díaz</span> Puerto Rican politician and independence advocate

Vidal Santiago Díaz was a member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and served as president of the Santurce Municipal Board of officers of the party. He was also the personal barber of Nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos. Though not involved in the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s, Santiago Díaz's barbershop was attacked by forty armed police officers and U.S. National Guardsmen. The attack was historic in Puerto Rico—the first time an event of that magnitude had ever been transmitted live via radio and heard all over the island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raimundo Díaz Pacheco</span> Commander of the Cadets of the Republic of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party

Raimundo Díaz Pacheco was a political activist and the Treasurer General of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. He was also commander-in-chief of the Cadets of the Republic, the official youth organization within the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. This quasi-military organization was also known as the Ejército Libertador de Puerto Rico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cadets of the Republic</span> Youth organization of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party

Cadets of the Republic, known in Spanish as Cadetes de la República, was the paramilitary wing of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party in the twentieth century. The organization was also referred to as the Liberation Army of Puerto Rico(Ejército Libertador de Puerto Rico)

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tomás López de Victoria</span> Commander of the Cadets of the Republic of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party

Tomás López de Victoria (1911–????) was a political activist and the Sub-Commander of the Cadets of the Republic. These cadets were the official youth organization within the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. They were also known as the Ejército Libertador de Puerto Rico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elías Beauchamp</span> Puerto Rican independence advocate

Elías Beauchamp was a member of the Cadets of the Republic, the paramilitary wing of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. Beauchamp is best known for having assassinated Col. Elisha Francis Riggs, the United States appointed chief of the Puerto Rico Police, along with fellow Cadet Hiram Rosado. Both men were arrested and shot without trial, officially while attempting to escape, at Police Headquarters in San Juan. News of the assassinations spread throughout the United States and led to legislative proposal by U.S. Senator Millard Tydings, to grant independence to Puerto Rico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hiram Rosado</span> Puerto Rican militant

Hiram Rosado was a member of the Cadets of the Republic, the paramilitary wing of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party who, together with fellow Cadet Elías Beauchamp, carried out the 1936 assassination of Col. Elisha Francis Riggs, the United States appointed chief of the Puerto Rico Police. Both men were arrested and shot, officially while attempting to escape, at the police headquarters in San Juan. News of the assassinations spread throughout the United States and lead to legislative proposal by U.S. Senator Millard Tydings, to grant independence to Puerto Rico.

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Further reading