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PUERTO RICO COULD BE ABOUT TO ELECT ITS FIRST PRO-INDEPENDENCE
GOVERNOR  
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Alberto Medina
October 21, 2024
Medium
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_ Something unprecedented is happening in Puerto Rico which, like the
U.S., will hold its general election on November 5th. For the first
time ever, the island could elect a governor who favors Puerto
Rico’s independence from the United States. _

Pro-Independence Candidate Juan Dalmau at his party's 2024
convention, Photo by Primera Hora // El Nuevo Día

 

That could herald the beginning of the end for a 125-year-old colonial
relationship.

Historically, Puerto Rico’s electoral politics have been defined by
its parties and leaders’ views on the island’s political status.
The pro-statehood (PNP) and pro-status quo (PPD) parties have
alternated power since 1948 — when the U.S., already 50 years into
its rule of Puerto Rico, finally allowed Puerto Ricans to choose their
own governor. The Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) had always run
a distant third, garnering single-digit support.

But times have changed in the last decade, as Puerto Rico has been
battered by both natural disasters and man-made crises. Hurricane
María killed thousands, and the U.S. government’s failures
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far beyond Trump throwing paper towels. A historic debt crisis led to
a U.S.-imposed financial board that has forced crippling austerity on
Puerto Ricans [[link removed]].
Massive protests ousted a pro-statehood governor
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moral turpitude and corruption.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court reminded Puerto Ricans that
they have no political sovereignty
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refused to reconsider the legal framework that undergirds the
colonial status
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and even denied disability benefits to some of the most vulnerable
island residents. Congress, for its part, has continued to dash many
Puerto Ricans’ hope for statehood despite three local votes since
2012 in which that option won majorities — albeit contested ones.

As everyday life has worsened on the island, and it’s become
increasingly clear that the United States isn’t coming to the
rescue, Puerto Ricans have started considering new political
alternatives and reconsidering their perspective on the status
question.

In the 2020 election, a new center-left party (MVC) won 14% of the
governorship vote. The progressive Independence Party won another 14%
in a five-way race
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the pro-statehood PNP governor won with just 33%.

The PIP and MVC have now joined forces, with leaders from both parties
running on essentially the same ticket led by the PIP’s Juan Dalmau.
A dynamic figure with a Harvard degree who cut his teeth engaging in
civil disobedience to force the U.S. Navy out of Vieques — and spent
weeks in jail for his trouble — Dalmau achieved that historic result
as his party’s 2020 nominee. Now, with a broader coalition at his
back, he is mounting a formidable challenge for the governor’s seat.

The most recent major poll of the Puerto Rican election shows Dalmau
in second place
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a four-way race: with 25% of the vote to pro-statehood (and pro-Trump)
Jenniffer González’s 37%. That may seem like a wide margin, but the
poll has been known to overestimate support for the pro-statehood and
pro-status quo parties, and in 2020 underestimated support for Dalmau
by 8 percentage points.

There’s also increasing recognition in U.S. politics that a
pro-independence candidate like Dalmau and his electoral alliance
represent a force for progressive change in Puerto Rico that deserves
support. Recently Reps. Nydia Velázquez and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
the two most influential representatives of Puerto Rican descent in
the U.S. Congress, endorsed Dalmau and the alliance
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Whether he wins this election or not, for a pro-independence
gubernatorial candidate to have a legitimate chance at victory was
unthinkable as recently as a few years ago. This seismic shift speaks
to broad discontent among the Puerto Rican electorate, but also to the
rapidly growing support for Puerto Rican sovereignty.

In that same poll
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25% of Puerto Ricans said they favor sovereignty in free association
with the United States, and another 19% back full independence. That
combined 44% puts sovereign status options in a tie with statehood,
which also garnered 44% support in the poll. Notably, among the
youngest Puerto Ricans (ages 18–34), support for sovereignty and for
Dalmau is significantly higher.​

Of course, Dalmau’s election would not automatically lead to
independence for Puerto Rico. After all, there have been seven
pro-statehood Puerto Rican governors in the past 55 years, and they
have brought the island no closer to becoming the 51st star on the
U.S. flag. But Dalmau, the PIP, and the MVC have committed to pursuing
an inclusive decolonization process that might achieve what previous
pro-statehood plebiscites have not: compel the U.S. government to
reckon with, and ultimately end, its colonial rule of Puerto Rico.

That’s a responsibility that the United States has skirted for far
too long, often arguing that Puerto Ricans have been too divided on
the issue for Congress to act. Those divisions remain, but they are
not the cause so much as the consequence of American silence and
inaction. For more than a century, the U.S. government has dangled the
possibility of statehood but invariably denied it, refused to explore
a potential transition to independence — when it wasn’t
violently suppressing the independence movement
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and instead perpetuated an undemocratic political condition in Puerto
Rico.

For that to change, the United States must be challenged and shaken
out of its colonial apathy. The dwindling pro-status quo leaders in
Puerto Rico, increasingly irrelevant precisely because they cling to
their support for colonialism, will not do it. Pro-statehood governors
and resident commissioners have had decades to try; they have instead
chosen to plead for statehood and retreat when they’re invariably
refused, only to rinse and repeat the process a few years later.

But a pro-independence governor like Dalmau would bring much-needed
clarity and courage to this issue. The former is necessary for both
Americans and Puerto Ricans to seriously grapple with the political
realities
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United States
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maintain the status quo. The latter will allow him to do what no
Puerto Rican elected leader ever has: stand in front of the President
and Congress and not merely ask for the end of U.S. colonialism in
Puerto Rico — but demand it.

That’s a message the United States has not yet heard from a Puerto
Rican leader. It could be the first step to dismantling a colonial
relationship that has endured for far too long.

_[ALBERTO MEDINA is a Puerto Rico-born, U.S.-based political advocate.
He is the President of Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora, a national
organization of Puerto Ricans who educate and organize for
independence. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AlbertoMedinaPR
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* Puerto Rico
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* Puerto Rico political movements
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* Puerto Rican independence
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* Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana
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* Juan Dalmau
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* colonialism
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* neocolonialism
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* imperialism
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* Puerto Rican statehood
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* 2024 Elections
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