The Foraker Act, Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law 56–191, 31 Stat. 77, enacted April 12, 1900, officially known as the Organic Act of 1900, is a United States federal law that established civilian government on the island of Puerto Rico, which had recently become a colony of the United States as a result of the Spanish–American War. Section VII of the Foraker Act also established Puerto Rican citizenship. President William McKinley signed the act on April 12, 1900 and it became known as the Foraker Act after its sponsor, Ohio Senator Joseph B. Foraker. Its main author has been identified as Secretary of War Elihu Root.
The government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is a republican form of government with separation of powers, subject to the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United States. Article I of the Constitution of Puerto Rico defines the government and its political power and authority. The powers of the government of Puerto Rico are all delegated by the United States Congress and lack full protection under the U.S. Constitution. Because of this, the head of state of Puerto Rico is the President of the United States.
The Senate of Puerto Rico is the upper house of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico, the territorial legislature of Puerto Rico. The Senate, together with the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico, control the legislative branch of the government of Puerto Rico.
The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico is the highest court of Puerto Rico, having judicial authority to interpret and decide questions of Puerto Rican law. The Court is analogous to one of the state supreme courts of the states of the United States and is the highest state court and the court of last resort in Puerto Rico. Article V of the Constitution of Puerto Rico vests the judicial power in the Supreme Court, which by nature forms the judicial branch of the government of Puerto Rico. The Supreme Court holds its sessions in San Juan.
Thomas Rivera Schatz is a Puerto Rican politician, legal advisor, attorney, and former prosecutor, who was the fourteenth and sixteenth President of the Senate of Puerto Rico. He is affiliated with New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico and the mainland Democratic Party. On July 22, 2019, Rivera Schatz announced that he will take over as acting chair of the PNP following the resignation of Ricardo Rosselló due to the Telegramgate scandal.
Roberto Sánchez Ramos is a Judge of the Court of Appeals of Puerto Rico and former Attorney General of Puerto Rico, appointed in 2005 by Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá. Before becoming Attorney General, Sanchez Ramos served as Solicitor General of Puerto Rico. He is the son of former Governor of Puerto Rico Roberto Sánchez Vilella. His mother, Jeannette Ramos Buonomo, is a retired judge of the Puerto Rico Court of Appeals, and his grandfather was Ernesto Ramos Antonini, who for many years was the Speaker (President) of Puerto Rico's House of Representatives. Also, his aunt was Ivette Ramos Buonomo, a retired professor at University of Puerto Rico's Law School. He was born while his father Roberto Sánchez Vilella was governor of Puerto Rico.
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 governor of San Luis Potosí exercises the role of the executive branch of government in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí, per the Political Constitution of the Free and Sovereign State of San Luis Potosí. The official title is Gobernador Constitucional del Estado Libre y Soberano de San Luis Potosí.
The secretary of state of Puerto Rico leads all efforts that promote the cultural, political, and economical relations between Puerto Rico and foreign countries, and other jurisdictions of the United States. The post was created by Article IV of the Constitution of Puerto Rico which merely establishes that the secretary serves as acting governor when the governor is unable to perform his duties—a post similar to that of a lieutenant governor in U.S. politics. In recent times, however, the post has evolved into one similar to that of a foreign minister. Today, the secretary is the officer in charge of Puerto Rico's foreign relations, albeit under the consent of Congress or the U.S. Department of State due to Puerto Rico's political status.
Alejandro Javier García Padilla is a Puerto Rican politician and attorney who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 2013 to 2017.
The executive branch of the government of Puerto Rico is responsible for executing the laws of Puerto Rico, as well as causing them to be executed. Article IV of the Constitution of Puerto Rico vests the executive power on the Governor—whom by its nature forms the executive branch.
The Secretary of Justice of Puerto Rico is the chief legal officer and the attorney general of the government of Puerto Rico.
Zoé Laboy Alvarado is an American attorney and public servant. Laboy served as Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from 1997 to 2000. in 2016 she was elected to become a senator with the New Progressive Party (PNP) where she was the leader of the liberal wing of the party. On August 21, 2019, she was appointed as Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced's Chief of Staff. In December 2019, she endorsed former Vice president and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden and has served as co-chair on his 2020 presidential campaign "Puerto Rico for Biden Leadership Committee".
Wanda Emilia Vázquez Garced is a Puerto Rican politician and attorney who served as Governor of Puerto Rico from 2019 to 2021. Prior to her tenure as governor, she served as the 19th secretary of Justice, from 2017 to 2019. A member of the New Progressive Party and Republican Party of Puerto Rico, Vázquez is the second female governor in Puerto Rican history, after Sila María Calderón. She assumed the office following the resignation of Ricardo Roselló, and the judicial annulation of Pedro Pierluisi's short-lived government, in the aftermath of the Telegramgate Scandal. On August 16, 2020, she failed to secure the New Progressive Party nomination for Governor of Puerto Rico in the 2020 elections, losing to Pedro Pierluisi.
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.
Dennise Noemí Longo Quiñones is a Puerto Rican lawyer and government official serving as the Secretary of Justice of Puerto Rico. Longo Quiñones was previously a United States Attorney and assistant federal prosecutor. She was a special assistant to Secretary of Justice José Fuentes Agostini from 1998 to 2000 and the legal advisor of Governor Luis Fortuño from 2009 to 2012.
A referendum of the status of Puerto Rico was held on November 3, 2020, concurrently with the general election. The Referendum was announced by Puerto Rico Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced on May 16, 2020. This was the sixth referendum held on the status of Puerto Rico, with the previous one having taken place in 2017. This was the first referendum with a simple yes-or-no question, with voters having the option of voting for or against becoming a U.S. state. The New Progressive Party (PNP), of whom Vázquez is a member, supports statehood, while the opposition Popular Democratic Party (PDP) and Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) oppose it.
This second government of Governor of Puerto Rico Luis Muñoz Marín followed his reelection after the enactment of the 1952 Commonwealth Constitution. In many ways it was a continuation of the previous government, with some changes in key positions such as the Secretary of Justice, and decreased control of the Senate of Puerto Rico and House of Representatives of Puerto Rico by virtue of the expansion of the Legislative Assembly's chambers and the effects of Article III, Section 7 of the Constitution of Puerto Rico (1952).
