Puerto Rico, officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Caribbean island and unincorporated territory of the United States with official Commonwealth status. It is located in the northeast Caribbean Sea, approximately 1,000 miles (1,600 km) southeast of Miami, Florida, between the Dominican Republic and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and includes the eponymous main island and several smaller islands, such as Mona, Culebra, and Vieques. It has roughly 3.2 million residents, and its capital and most populous city is San Juan. Spanish and English are the official languages of the executive branch of government, though Spanish predominates.
The New Progressive Party is a political party in Puerto Rico that advocates statehood. The PNP is one of the two major parties in Puerto Rico with significant political strength and currently holds both the seat of the governor and of the resident commissioner.
The Puerto Rican Independence Party is a social-democratic political party in Puerto Rico that campaigns for the independence of Puerto Rico from the United States.
The Puerto Rican Socialist Party was a Marxist and pro-independence political party in Puerto Rico seeking the end of United States of America control on the Hispanic and Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. It proposed a "democratic workers' republic".
Throughout the history of Puerto Rico, its inhabitants have initiated several movements to obtain independence for the island, first from the Spanish Empire from 1493 to 1898 and since then from the United States.
The National Hostosian Congress was a small left-wing and pro-independence organization in Puerto Rico. Led by Héctor L. Pesquera, many of its members were formerly involved in the Puerto Rican Socialist Party. In 2004, the CNH joined with the New Puerto Rican Independence Movement to form the Hostosian National Independence Movement (MINH).
The Young Lords, also known as the Young Lords Organization (YLO) or Young Lords Party (YLP), was a Chicago-based street gang that became a civil and human rights organization. The group aims to fight for neighborhood empowerment and self-determination for Puerto Rico, Latinos, and colonized people. Tactics used by the Young Lords include mass education, canvassing, community programs, occupations, and direct confrontation. The Young Lords became targets of the United States FBI's COINTELPRO program.
Juan Mari Brás was an advocate for Puerto Rican independence from the United States who founded the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP). On October 25, 2006, he became the first person to receive a Puerto Rican citizenship certificate from the Puerto Rico State Department. His son, Santiago Mari Pesquera, was assassinated by a suspected far-right activist in 1976. In 2009, documents revealed the FBI had known of a plot to assassinate Mari Brás but did not share the information with him.
The Socialist Front is a coalition of far-left and pro-independence political organizations in Puerto Rico. The Socialist Front also includes non-partisan activists.
WSKN is a radio station. WSKN serves San Juan, Puerto Rico and is owned by Media Power Group. The station serves as the flagship station of the Radio Isla Network and carries a Spanish-language news and talk format.
Oscar López Rivera is a Puerto Rican activist and militant who was a member and suspected leader of the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña (FALN), a clandestine paramilitary organization devoted to Puerto Rican independence that carried out more than 130 bomb attacks in the United States between 1974 and 1983. López Rivera was tried by the United States government for seditious conspiracy, use of force to commit robbery, interstate transportation of firearms, and conspiracy to transport explosives with intent to destroy government property.
The Puerto Rico statehood movement aims to make Puerto Rico a state of the United States. Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territorial possession of the United States acquired in 1898 following the Spanish–American War, making it "the oldest colony in the modern world". As of 2019, the population of Puerto Rico is 3.2 million, around half the average state population and higher than that of 20 U.S. states. Statehood is one of several competing options for the future political status of Puerto Rico, including: maintaining its current status, becoming fully independent, or becoming a freely associated state. Puerto Rico has held six referendums on the topic. These are non-binding, as the power to grant statehood lies with the US Congress. The most recent referendum was in November 2020, with a majority (52.52%) of those who voted opting for statehood.
Rafael Cancel Miranda was a poet, political activist, member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and an advocate of Puerto Rican independence. On March 1, 1954, Cancel Miranda and three other Nationalists attacked the House of Representatives while it was in session at the United States Capitol building, firing 30 shots and injuring five Congressmen. The four were arrested, convicted, and sentenced to long prison terms. In 1979, Cancel Miranda's sentence was commuted by United States President Jimmy Carter.
The political status of Puerto Rico is that of an unincorporated territory of the United States officially known as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. As such, the island of Puerto Rico is neither a sovereign nation nor a U.S. state. It is because of that ambiguity, the territory, as a polity, lacks certain rights but enjoys certain benefits that other polities have or lack. For instance, in contrast to U.S. states, Puerto Rico residents cannot vote in U.S. presidential elections nor can they elect their own senators and representatives to the U.S. Congress. On the other hand, in contrast to U.S. states, only some residents of Puerto Rico are subject to federal income taxes. The political status of the island thus stems from how different Puerto Rico is politically from sovereign nations and from U.S. states.
Héctor Pesquera is a former Superintendent of the Puerto Rico Police and the Puerto Rico Commissioner of Safety and Public Protection. Graduated at Colegio San José High School. In 1968 he earned a bachelor's degree in business and financial administration from the University of Puerto Rico. Pesquera served for 27 years in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) until his retirement in 2003. He then served as Coordinator for the United States Department of Homeland Security at the Broward County Sheriff's Office from 2003 to 2008, and as Assistant Director of Safety Affairs of the Port of Miami from 2008 to 2012. In 2012, he was named chief of Puerto Rico's police. In an interview with NPR in early 2013, Pesquera stated that Puerto Rico needed more help from the United States in its war against criminals, stating the proverbial "out of sight, out of mind" as it related to how people on the mainland seemed to be out of touch with the issues on the Island. He resigned on November 30, 2013.
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 former governor Ricardo Rosselló signed the law to unify all safety agencies. All agencies are bureaus of the department.
José de Diego is a bronze bust by Compostela located in front of the original entrance to the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, honoring politician and writer José de Diego (1866–1918), who as representative of Mayagüez and speaker to the House of Delegates, was one of the three co-founders of the campus.
