Puerto Rico

Commonwealth of Puerto Rico

ORIGIN OF STATE NAME: Spanish for "rich port."

NICKNAME: Island of Enchantment.

CAPITAL: San Juan.

BECAME A COMMONWEALTH: 25 July 1952.

SONG: "La Borinquena."

MOTTO: Joannes est nomen ejus. (John is his name.)

FLAG: From the hoist extends a blue triangle, with one white star; five horizontal stripes—three red, two white—make up the balance.

OFFICIAL SEAL: In the center of a green circular shield, a lamb holding a white banner reclines on the book of the Apocalypse. Above are a yoke, a cluster of arrows, and the letters "F" and "I," signifying King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, rulers of Spain at the time of discovery; below is the commonwealth motto. Surrounding the shield, on a white border, are the towers of Castile and lions symbolizing Spain, crosses representing the conquest of Jerusalem, and Spanish banners.

BIRD: Reinita.

FLOWER: Maga.

TREE: Ceiba.

LEGAL HOLIDAYS: New Year's Day, 1 January; Three Kings Day (Epiphany), 6 January; Birthday of Eugenio Maria de Hostos, 2nd Monday in January; Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., 3rd Monday in January; Presidents' Day, 3rd Monday in February; Abolition Day, 22 March; Good Friday, Friday before Easter, March or April; Birthday of José de Diego, 3rd Monday in April; Memorial Day, last Monday in May; Independence Day, 4 July; Birthday of Luis Muñoz Rivera, 3rd Monday in July; Constitution Day, 25 July; Birthday of José Celso Barbosa, 25 July; Labor Day, 1st Monday in September; Discovery of America (Columbus Day), 12 October; Veterans' Day, 11 November; Discovery of Puerto Rico Day, 19 November; Thanksgiving Day, 4th Thursday in November, Christmas Day, 25 December.

TIME: 8 AM Atlantic Standard Time = noon GMT.

LOCATION, SIZE, AND EXTENT

Situated on the ne periphery of the Caribbean Sea, about 1,000 mi (1,600 km) se of Miami, Puerto Rico is the easternmost and smallest island of the Greater Antilles group. Its total area is 3,515 sq mi (9,104 sq km), including 3,459 sq mi (8,959 sq km) of land and 56 sq mi (145 sq km) of inland water.

Shaped roughly like a rectangle, the main island measures 111 mi (179 km) e-w and 36 (58 km) n-s. Offshore and to the e are two major islands, Vieques and Culebra.

Puerto Rico is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the n, the Virgin Passage and Vieques Sound to the e, the Caribbean Sea to the s, and the Mona Passage to the w. Puerto Rico's total boundary length is 378 mi (608 km).

TOPOGRAPHY

About 75% of Puerto Rico's land area consists of hills or mountains too steep for intensive commercial cultivation. The Cordillera Central range, separating the northern coast from the semiarid south, has the island's highest peak, Cerro de Punta (4,389 ft-1,338 m). Puerto Rico's best-known peak, El Yunque (3,496 ft-1,066 m), stands to the east, in the Luquillo Mountains (Sierra de Luquillo). The north coast consists of a level strip about 100 mi (160 km) long and 5 mi (8 km) wide. Principal valleys are located along the east coast, from Fajardo to Cape Mala Pascua, and around Caguas, in the east-central region. Offthe eastern shore are two small islands: Vieques, with an area of 51 sq mi (132 sq km), and Culebra, covering 24 sq mi (62 sq km). Uninhabited Mona Island (19 sq mi-49 sq km), off the southwest coast, is a breeding ground for wildlife.

Puerto Rico has 50 waterways large enough to be classified as rivers, but none is navigable by large vessels. The longest river is the Rio de la Plata, extending 46 mi (74 km) from Cayey to Dorado, where it empties into the Atlantic. There are few natural lakes but numerous artificial ones, of which Dos Bocas, south of Arecibo, is one of the most beautiful. Phosphorescent Bay, whose luminescent organisms glow in the night, is a tourist attraction on the south coast.

Like many other Caribbean islands, Puerto Rico is the crest of an extinct submarine volcano. About 45 mi (72 km) north of the island lies the Puerto Rico Trench, at over 28,000 feet (8,500 meters) one of the world's deepest chasms.

CLIMATE

Tradewinds from the northeast keep Puerto Rico's climate equable, although tropical. San Juan has a normal daily mean temperature of 80°f (27°c), ranging from 77°f (25°c) in January to 82°f (28°c) in July; the normal daily minimum is 73°f (23°c), the maximum 86°f (30°c). The lowest temperature ever recorded on the island is 39°f (4°c), at Aibonito, the highest 103°f (39°c), at San Lorenzo. The recorded temperature in San Juan has never been lower than 60°f (16°c) or higher than 97°f (37°c).

Rainfall varies by region. Ponce, on the south coast, averages only 32 in (81 cm) a year, while the highlands average 108 in (274 cm); the rain forest on El Yunque receives an annual average of 183 in (465 cm). San Juan's average annual rainfall is 54 in (137 cm), the rainiest months being May through November.

The word "hurricane" derives from hurakán, a term the Spanish learned from Puerto Rico's Taino Indians. Nine hurricanes have struck Puerto Rico in this century, the most recent being the devastating Hurricane Georges in 1998. On 7 October 1985, torrential rains created a mud slide that devastated the hillside barrio of Mameyes, killing hundreds of people; not only was this Puerto Rico's worst disaster of the century, but it was the single most destructive landslide in US history. On 15-16 September 2004, Hurricane Jeanne, the tenth named storm and the seventh hurricane of the 2004 hurricane season, entered southeast Puerto Rico near Maunabo and traveled west then north across Puerto Rico and exited over the northwest tip of the island near Aguadilla. Following the storm, Puerto Rico was declared a federal disaster area. As the storm approached, the entire power grid of Puerto Rico was shut down by the government, indirectly causing over $100 million in damage and resulting in 600,000 people left without running water. Seven deaths were attributed to Jeanne and there was also landslide damage.

FLORA AND FAUNA

During the 19th century, forests covered about three-fourths of Puerto Rico. As of the 21st century however, only one-fourth of the island is forested. Flowering trees still abound, and the butterfly tree, African tulip, and flamboyán (royal poinciana) add bright reds and pinks to Puerto Rico's lush green landscape. Among hardwoods (now rare) are nutmeg, satinwood, Spanish elm, and Spanish cedar. Pre-Columbian peoples cultivated yucca, yams, peanuts, hot peppers, tobacco, and cotton. Pineapple, guava, tamarind, and cashews are indigenous, and such fruits as mamey, jobo guanábana, and quenepa are new to most visitors. Coconuts, coffee, sugarcane, plantains, mangoes, and most citrus fruits were introduced by the Spanish.

The only mammal found on the island by the conquistadores was a kind of barkless dog, now extinct. Virtually all present-day mammals have been introduced, including horses, cattle, cats, and dogs. The only troublesome mammal is the mongoose, brought in from India to control reptiles in the cane fields and now wild in remote rural areas. Mosquitoes and sand flies are common pests, but the only dangerous insect is the giant centipede, whose sting is painful but rarely fatal. Perhaps the island's best-known inhabitant is the golden coqui, a tiny tree frog whose call of "ko-kee, ko-kee" is heard all through the night; it is a threatened species. Marine life is extraordinarily abundant, including many tropical fish, crabs, and corals. Puerto Rico has some 200 bird species, many of which live in the rain forest. Thrushes, orioles, grosbeaks, and hummingbirds are common, and the reinita and pitirre are distinctive to the island. Several parrot species are rare, and the Puerto Rican parrot is endangered. Also on the endangered list are the yellow-shouldered blackbird and the Puerto Rican plain pigeon, Puerto Rican whippoorwill, Culebra giant anole, Puerto Rican boa, and Monita gecko. The Mona boa and Mona ground iguana are threatened. Also, on the endangered list is the hawksbill sea turtle, which nests in Puerto Rico. There are three national wildlife refuges, covering a total of 2,425 acres (981 hectares).

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

US environmental laws and regulations are applicable in Puerto Rico. Land-use planning, overseen by the Puerto Rico Planning Board, is an especially difficult problem, since residential, industrial, and recreational developers are all competing for about 30% of the total land area on an island that is already more densely populated than any US state except New Jersey. Pollution from highland latrines and septic systems and from agricultural and industrial wastes is a potential hazard; the rum industry, for example, has traditionally dumped its wastes into the ocean. Moreover, the US requirement that sewage receive secondary treatment before being discharged into deep seas may be unrealistic in view of the commonwealth government's claim, in the late 1970s, which it could not afford to build secondary sewage treatment facilities when 45% of its population lacks primary sewage treatment systems. As of 2003, sewage discharges into the ocean remained a problem: in August 2000, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewage Authority's Aguadilla treatment plant a 20-year waiver for discharging primary treated sewage into the ocean, threatening coral reefs. In 2003, the EPA database listed 16 hazardous waste sites in Puerto Rico. As of 2006, 10 sites were on the National Priorities List, including the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Area and the Upjohn facility; Pesticide Warehouse I in Arecibo was a proposed site.

In 2003, total on-and off-site release of toxic chemicals was 8.8 million pounds. In January 1994, 750,000 gallons of oil were spilled off the coast of Puerto Rico, resulting in a fine of over $75 million levied against the three companies responsible. Wetlands on the island have been devastated by development, but in recent years, efforts have been mounted to save and expand these resources. An example is the restoration of one of the most important waterfowl habitats on the island, the freshwater wetlands of Laguna Cartagena.

POPULATION

Puerto Rico's population was estimated at 3,912,054 in 2005, an increase of about 0.4% from 2004 and up from 3,522,037 in 1990. From 1990 to 2000, the population increased by 8.1%. The population was projected to reach 4.4 million by 2010. The population density in 2004 was about 1,137.4 persons per sq mi (439.2 per sq km).

In 2004, about 26.8% of the population was under 18 years of age and 12.2% were 65 years or over. The median age was 33.8 years. In 2003, there were 93 Puerto Rican males for every 100 females.

The population was estimated to be 75.2% urban and 24.8% rural in 2000. San Juan is Puerto Rico's capital and largest city, with an estimated 2005 population of 428,591, followed by Bayamon, 222,195; Carolina, 187,472; Ponce, 182,387; and Caguas, 142,378. Approximately one-third of all residents live in the San Juan-Carolina-Bayamon metropolitan area.

ETHNIC GROUPS

Three main ethnic strands reflect the heritage of Puerto Rico: the Taino Indians, most of whom fled or perished after the Spanish conquest; black Africans, imported as slaves under Spanish rule; and the Spanish themselves. With an admixture of Dutch, English, Corsicans, and other Europeans, Puerto Ricans today enjoy a distinct Hispanic-Afro-Antillean heritage. In 2006, about 80.5% of the population was white (primarily of Spanish origin), 8% were black, 0.4% was Amerindians, and 10.9% were of other or mixed race.

Residents of Puerto Rico have been considered as US citizens since 1917, when the island was ceded to the United States at the end of the Spanish-American War. However, Puerto Ricans do not pay federal income tax to the Untied States and they do not vote in US presidential elections. Despite this link to the United States, most Puerto Ricans describe themselves as "Puertorriqueños" rather than Americans.

Less than two-thirds of all ethnic Puerto Ricans live on the island. Virtually all the remainder resides on the US mainland; in 2000 there were 3,407,000 people who identified themselves as Puerto Rican in the 50 states. The state of New York had the largest US ethnic Puerto Rican population (some 1.1 million) and ethnic Puerto Ricans made up 5.5% of that state's total population. New Yorkers who were born in Puerto Rico or who are of Puerto Rican descent sometimes refer to themselves as "Nuyorican." Florida's total ethnic population in 2000 stood second to New York's, at approximately one-half million.

LANGUAGES

Spanish and English are the official languages of Puerto Rico, but Spanish remains dominant among the residents. The issue of language has been an ongoing concern between residents and US authorities. A 1902 law established both languages for official use, but US officials pushed for many years to make English the dominant language in school and government use. In 1991, the Puerto Rican legislature issued a bill making Spanish the official language, but this decision was reversed in 1993, restoring both languages to official status.

Puerto Rican Spanish contains many Taino influences, which can be found in such place-names as Arecibo, Guayama, and Mayagüez, as well as hamaca (hammock) and canoa (canoe). Among many African borrowings are food terms like quimbombó (okra), guince (banana), and mondongo (a spicy stew). Some English words are incorporated into Spanish in what is commonly referred to as "Spanglish."

RELIGIONS

Until 1850, Roman Catholicism was the only religion permitted in Puerto Rico. Most of the population is Christian, with Roman Catholics accounting for about 85% of the population in 2006. The Catholic Church maintains numerous hospitals and schools on the island. Most of the remaining Puerto Ricans belong to other Christian denominations, which have been allowed on the island since the 1850s. Pentecostal churches have attracted a significant following, particularly among the urban poor of the barrios.

A small number of residents (an estimated 0.71% or 27,799 adherents in 2001) are Spiritists, incorporating native and African beliefs into their faith practices. Santeria, a syncretic religion originating in Cuba and Brazil that incorporates African and native Caribbean beliefs (including voodoo) with Catholicism, is practiced by some residents. As of 2001, Puerto Rico had 3,446 Hindus, 2,818 Baha'is, 2,715 Jews, 1,135 Muslims, and 509 Buddhists.

In 2006, the United Evangelical Church of Puerto Rico (Iglesia Evangelical Unida de Puerto Rico—IEUPR) voted to end a 40-year partnership with the United Church of Christ (UCC) due to the denomination's liberal polices on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues. The IEUPR, which was established in 1931 and became a conference of the UCC in 1961, planned to con-tinue to operate as an independent denomination, much as it had before affiliation with the UCC.

TRANSPORTATION

Puerto Rico's inland transportation network consists primarily of roads and motor vehicles. A system of public buses operated by the Metropolitan Bus Authority (MBA) provides intercity passenger transport in the capital of San Juan and nearby cities. As of 2000, the bus service carried 135,000 daily passengers, up from 60,000 daily passengers in 1995, a 125% increase. The públicos, a privately owned jitney service of small buses and cars, offers transportation between fixed destinations in cities and towns.

As of 2004, Puerto Rico had 264 mi (424 km) of interstate highways and 15,673 mi (25,217 km) of local roads. In 2000, the territory had approximately two million registered automobiles.

The Tren Urbano (Urban Train), a heavy rail transit train, began operations in December 2004. Tren Urbano connects San Juan to the surrounding urban areas with 16 stations along a 10.7-mi (17-km), 30-minute route. The cost of the Tren Urbano project was $2.25 billion.

In 1996/97, the Puerto Rico Hotel and Tourism Association invested nearly $750 million to complete the strategic highway network system around the island, as well as other roads that connect small towns with the nearby cities. By 2000, the majority of the projects to improve the highway system had been completed, including improvements to Highways 2, 3, 22, 26, 30, and 52. The PR-10 Expressway crosses from the north to the central mountainous region. The PR-53 toll road provides a new route for the towns of the northeast. The Baldorioty de Castro Expressway allows rap-id travel between the main airport and the capital. In 2000, a $200 million master plan for a new north-south expressway was being developed, which would involve the Martinez Nadal Expressway (Highway 20), improvements to Highway 1 to Caguas, an intersection in Caparra, and the Kennedy Expressway. The project was to be completed by 2008.

San Juan, the island's principal port and a leading containerized cargo-handling facility, handled 9.6 million tons of cargo in 2001. Ponce and Mayagüez handle considerable tons of cargo as well. Ferries link the main island with the islands of Vieques and Culebra.

As of 2006, the first of four phases was completed in the development of the "Port of the Americas," a world-class transshipment port and adjoining free industrial zone extending from Ponce to Guayanilla. Extensive tracts of land and the natural deep-water bay were an advantageous site for the port. The port was designed to handle all of Puerto Rico's foreign trade, and a good deal of the international container traffic crossing the Caribbean. It was expected that 12,000 jobs would be created with the establishment of the port.

Puerto Rico receives flights from 38 US mainland cities, and from the Virgin Islands, the British West Indies, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Great Britain, France, Spain, and the Netherlands. Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport in San Juan enplaned 10.4 million passengers in 2002. Puerto Rico shipped 495.8 million tons of air cargo in 2002. San Juan had 1.29 million passenger airline seats in January 2003. Other leading air terminals are located at Ponce, Mayagüez, and Aguadilla. There were 30 airports in Puerto Rico in 2004, 17 of which had paved runways. As of 2003, 52 airlines serviced Puerto Rico.

HISTORY

Archaeological finds indicate that at least three Indian cultures flourished on the island now known as Puerto Rico long before its discovery by Christopher Columbus on 19 November 1493. The first group, belonging to the Archaic Culture, is believed to have come from Florida. Having no knowledge of agriculture or pottery, it relied on the products of the sea; the remains of its members have been found mostly in caves. The second group, the Igneri, came from northern South America. Descended from Arawak stock, the Igneri brought agriculture and pottery to the island; their remains are found mostly in the coastal areas. The third culture, the Taino, also of Arawak origin, combined fishing with agriculture. A peaceful, sedentary tribe, the Taino were adept at stonework and lived in many parts of the island; Taino relics have been discovered not only along the coastal perimeter but also high in the mountains, where the Taino performed ritual games in ball parks that have been restored in recent times. To the Indians, the island was known as Boriqúen.

Columbus, accompanied by a young nobleman named Juan Ponce de León, landed at the western end of the island—which he called San Juan Bautista (St. John the Baptist)—and claimed it for Spain. Not until colonization was well under way would the island acquire the name Puerto Rico (literally, "rich port"), with the name San Juan Bautista applied to the capital city. The first settlers arrived on 12 August 1508, under the able leadership of Ponce de León, who sought to transplant and adapt Spanish civilization to Puerto Rico's tropical habitat. The small contingent of Spaniards compelled the Taino, numbering perhaps 30,000, to mine for gold; the rigors of forced labor and the losses from rebellion reduced the Taino population to about 4,000 by 1514, by which time the mines were nearly depleted. With the introduction of slaves from Africa, sugarcane growing became the leading economic activity. Since neither mining nor sugarcane was able to provide sufficient revenue to support the struggling colony, the treasury of New Spain began a subsidy, known as the situado, which until the early 19th century defrayed the cost of the island's government and defense.

From the early 16th century onward, an intense power struggle for control of the Caribbean marked Puerto Rico as a strategic base of the first magnitude. After a French attack in 1528, construction of La Fortaleza (still in use today as the governor's palace) was begun in 1533, and work on El Morro fortress in San Juan commenced six years later. The new fortifications helped repel a British attack led by Sir Francis Drake in 1595; a second force, arriving in 1598 under George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, succeeded in capturing San Juan, but the British were forced to withdraw by tropical heat and disease. In 1625, a Dutch attack under the command of Boudewijn Hendrikszoon was repulsed, although much of San Juan was sacked and burned by the attackers. By the 18th century, Puerto Rico had become a haven for pirates, and smuggling was the major economic activity. A Spanish envoy that came to the island in 1765 was appalled, and his report to the crown inaugurated a period of economic, administrative, and military reform. The creation of a native militia helped Puerto Rico withstand a fierce British assault on San Juan in 1797, by which time the island had more than 100,000 inhabitants.

Long after most of the Spanish colonies in the New World had obtained independence, Puerto Rico and Cuba remained under Spanish tutelage. Despite several insurrection attempts, most of them inspired by the liberator, Simón Bolivar, Spain's military might concentrated on these islands precluded any revolution.

Puerto Rico became a shelter for refugees from Santo Domingo, Haiti, and Venezuela who were faithful to Spain, fearful of disturbances in their own countries, or both. As in Cuba, the sugar industry developed in Puerto Rico during this period under policies that favored foreign settlers. As a result, a new landowner class emerged—the hacendados—who were instrumental in strengthening the institution of slavery on the island. By 1830, the population was 300,000. Sugar, tobacco, and coffee were the leading export crops, although subsistence farming still covered much of the interior. Sugar found a ready market in the US, and trade steadily developed, particularly with the northeast.

The 19th century also gave birth, however, to a new Puerto Rican civil and political consciousness. Puerto Rican participation in the short-lived constitutional experiments in Spain (1812–14 and 1820–23) fostered the rise of a spirit of liberalism, expressed most notably by Ramón Power y Giralt, at one time vice president of the Spanish Cortes (parliament). During these early decades, Spain's hold on the island was never seriously threatened. Although the Spanish constitution of 1812 declared that the people of Puerto Rico were no longer colonial subjects but were full-fledged citizens of Spain, the crown maintained an alert, centralized, absolutist government with all basic powers concentrated in the captain general.

Toward the middle of the 19th century, a criollo generation with strong liberal roots began a new era in Puerto Rican history. This group, which called for the abolition of slavery and the introduction of far-reaching economic and political reforms, at the same time developed and strengthened Puerto Rican literary tradition. The more radical reformers espoused the cause of separation from Spain and joined in a propaganda campaign in New York on behalf of Cuban independence. An aborted revolution, beginning in the town of Lares in September 1868 (and coinciding with an insurrection in Spain that deposed Queen Isabella II), though soon quelled, awakened among Puerto Ricans a dormant sense of national identity. "El Grito de Lares" (the Cry of Lares) helped inspire a strong anti-Spanish separatist current that was unable to challenge Spanish power effectively but produced such influential leaders as Ramón Emeterio Betances and Eugenio Maria de Hostos.

The major reform efforts after 1868 revolved around abolitionism and autonomia, or self-government. Slavery was abolished in 1873 by the First Spanish Republic, which also granted new political rights to the islanders. The restoration of the Spanish monarchy two years later, however, was a check to Puerto Rican aspirations. During the last quarter of the century, leaders such as Luis Muñoz Rivera sought unsuccessfully to secure vast new powers of self-government. By this time, Puerto Rico was an island with a distinct Antillean profile, strong Hispanic roots, and a mixed population that, borrowing from its Indian-Spanish-African background and an influx of Dutch, English, Corsicans, and other Europeans, had developed its own folkways and mores.

The imminence of war with the US over Cuba, coupled with autonomist agitation within Puerto Rico, led Spain in November 1897 to grant to the island a charter with broad powers of self-rule. Led by Luis Muñoz Rivera, Puerto Ricans began to establish new organs of self-government; but no sooner had an elected government begun to function in July 1898 than US forces, overcoming Spanish resistance, took over the island. A cease-fire was proclaimed on 13 August, and sovereignty was formally transferred to the US with the signing in December of the Treaty of Paris, ending the Spanish-American War. The US government swept aside the self-governing charter granted by Spain and established military rule from 1898 to 1900. Civilian government was restored in 1900 under a colonial law, the Foraker Act, which gave the federal government full control of the executive and legislative branches, leaving some local representation in the lower chamber, or House of Delegates. Under the Jones Act, signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on 2 March 1917, Congress extended US citizenship to the islanders and granted them an elective senate, but still reserved vast powers over Puerto Rico to the federal bureaucracy.

The early period of US rule saw an effort to Americanize all insular institutions, even to the point of superseding the Spanish language as the vernacular. In the meantime, American corporate capital took over the sugar industry, developing a plantation economy so pervasive that, by 1920, 75% of the population relied on the cane crop for its livelihood. Glaring irregularities of wealth resulted, sharpening social and political divisions. This period also saw the development of three main trends in Puerto Rican political thinking. One group favored the incorporation of Puerto Rico into the US as a state; a second group, fearful of cultural assimilation, favored self-government; while a third group spoke for independence.

The Depression hit Puerto Rico especially hard. With a population approaching 2 million by the late 1930s and with few occupational opportunities outside the sugar industry, the island's economy deteriorated, and mass unemployment and near-starvation were the results. Controlling the Puerto Rican legislature from 1932 to 1940 was a coalition of the Socialist Party, led by Santiago Iglesias, a Spanish labor leader who became a protégé of the American Federation of Labor, and the Republican Party, which had traditionally espoused statehood and had been founded in Puerto Rico by José Celso Barbosa, a black physician who had studied in the US. The coalition was unable to produce any significant improvement, although under the New Deal a US government effort was made to supply emergency relief for the "stricken island."

Agitation for full political and economic reform or independence gained ground during this period. A violent challenge to US authority in Puerto Rico was posed by the small Nationalist Party, led by Harvard-educated Pedro Albizu Campos. A broader attack on the island's political and economic ills was led by Luis Muñoz Marin and the Popular Democratic Party (PDP), founded in 1938; within two years, the PDP won control of the senate. Under Muñoz Marin, a new era began in Puerto Rico. Great pressure was put on Washington for a change in the island's political status, while social and economic reform was carried to the fullest extent possible within the limitations of the Jones Act. Intensive efforts were made to centralize economic planning, attract new industries through local tax exemptions (Puerto Rico was already exempt from federal taxation), reduce inequality of income, and improve housing, schools, and health conditions. Meanwhile, a land distribution program helped the destitute peasants who were the backbone of the new party. All these measures—widely publicized as Operation Bootstrap—coupled with the general US economic expansion after World War II, so transformed Puerto Rico's economy that income from manufacturing surpassed that from agriculture by 1955 and was five times as great by 1970. Annual income per capita rose steadily from $296 in 1950 to $1,384 in 1970.

The PDP, the dominant force in Puerto Rican politics from 1940 to 1968, favored a new self-governing relationship with the US, distinct from statehood or independence. The party succeeded not only in bringing about significant social and economic change but also in obtaining from Congress in 1950 a law allowing Puerto Ricans to draft their own constitution with full local self-government. This new constitution, approved in a general referendum on 3 March 1952, led to the establishment on 25 July of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico), which, according to a resolution approved in 1953 by the United Nations Committee on Information from Non-Self-Governing Territories, was constituted as an autonomous political entity in voluntary association with the United States.

An island-wide plebiscite in 1967 showed that 60% of those voting favored continuation and improvement of the commonwealth relationship, 39% preferred statehood, and less than 1% supported independence; the turnout among eligible voters was 65%. The result of the plebiscite, held to support a movement for additional home-rule powers, met with indifference from the US executive branch and outright opposition from the pro-statehood minority in Puerto Rico. Consequently, efforts to obtain passage by Congress of a "Compact of Permanent Union between Puerto Rico and the United States," although approved at the subcommittee level by the House of Representatives, failed to produce any change in the commonwealth arrangement.

The result was renewed agitation for either statehood or independence, with growing internal political polarization. The island's Republican Party rearranged itself after the plebiscite as the New Progressive Party (NPP), and came to power in 1968 as a result of a split in PDP ranks that led to the creation of the splinter People's Party. The two major blocs have been evenly balanced since that time, with the PDP returning to power in 1972 but losing to the NPP in 1976 and again, by a very narrow margin, in 1980, before regaining the governorship in 1984. The independence movement, in turn, divided into two wings: the moderates favored social democracy, while the radicals pursued close ties with the Fidel Castro regime in Cuba. Capitalizing on the increased power of Third World countries in the United Nations, and with Soviet support, the radicals challenged US policies and demanded a full transfer of sovereign rights to the people of Puerto Rico. Their position won the support of the UN Special Committee on the Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (more generally known as the Committee of 24), which on 15 August 1979 re-affirmed "the inalienable right of the people of Puerto Rico to self-determination and independence…." The US government replied that the people of Puerto Rico had already exercised their right of self-determination in the 1967 plebiscite, and noted that Congress in 1979 had restated its "commitment to respect and support the right of the people of Puerto Rico to determine their own political future through peaceful, open and democratic processes."

More advanced than most Caribbean countries in education, health, and social development, Puerto Rico suffered from growing political tensions in the early 1980s, with occasional terrorist attacks on US military installations and personnel. These tensions may have been exacerbated by the national recession of 1980–81, which had a particularly severe impact on Puerto Rico. The commonwealth's gross national product declined by 6% in 1982 and 1983, and federal budget cuts ended a jobs program and reduced access to food stamps. At the same time, the island's economy experienced a structural shift. Whereas 50% of jobs in Puerto Rico had been in agriculture in 1940, by 1989 that figure had dropped to 20%. Manufacturing jobs, in contrast, rose from 5 to 15% of total employment between 1940 and 1989. Although Puerto Rico's economy began to expand in the mid-1980s, growing at an annual rate of 3.6%, the island continued to depend heavily on the federal government, which in 1989 employed 25% of Puerto Rican workers. The economy grew at an estimated rate of 2.2% in 2001. (Due to adverse conditions in the global economy, however, the GDP growth rate stood at 0.5% in 2002).

Puerto Rico's political status remains a source of controversy. Statehood would give Puerto Rico representation in the US Congress and would make the island eligible for billions of dollars more a year in food stamps, medical insurance, and income support payments, which are currently set at levels far below those of states. However, statehood would also incur the loss of tax benefits. Under current federal tax law for the commonwealth, individuals pay no federal income tax. More importantly, corporations pay no federal tax on profits, which has persuaded many companies, particularly manufacturers of pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and electronics, to build plants in Puerto Rico. In 1993 and 1998 plebiscites, a slight majority of Puerto Rican voters chose to maintain the island's status as an American commonwealth rather than opt for statehood or independence.

In 1989, Hurricane Hugo caused 12 deaths and $1 billion in damage in Puerto Rico. In 1994, the island suffered its worst drought in almost 30 years, and narrowly avoided serious damage to its beaches and wildlife when over half a million gallons (2.3 million liters) of heavy oil were spilled by a barge that ran aground on a coral reef. In October 1998, Hurricane Georges ravaged the island, causing damage estimated in the billions of dollars.

Pedro Rosselló was reelected governor in 1994; he announced in 1999 that he would not seek a third term in elections of fall 2000. In the 2000 election, Sila M. Calderón was elected the island's first woman governor.

In 1999 one Puerto Rican civilian had been killed and four others were seriously wounded in an accident during a US military training exercise on the island of Vieques. Widespread protests following the accident led US president Bill Clinton to temporarily suspend military training on the island, pending an investigation, and subsequent exercises used inert weapons only. The residents of Vieques, however, maintained that the military exercises were responsible for health and environmental problems. Governor Calderón, who opposed the US Navy maneuvers, pressured President George W. Bush, Clinton's successor, to halt the activity. On 1 May 2003, the US Navy withdrew from Vieques, and approximately 15,000 acres of land previously used by the military were turned over to the US Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service, to be dedicated to a wildlife refuge closed to the public.

That same month (May 2003), Calderón announced she would not run for reelection in 2004. The announcement set off a chain of events that brought the island commonwealth to the brink of financial insolvency in 2006.

During Governor Calderón's administration, Puerto Rico was faced with a growing crime rate, fueled by the drug trade, and a sick economy, made worse by the phasing out of tax breaks that had been given to US companies to set up operations on the island and Washington's general disinterest in the island. In addition, Puerto Rico had been losing population to the US mainland, further demoralizing those who chose to stay on the island. Shortly after Calderón announced her retirement, her predecessor, Pedro Rossello, announced that he would run for the governorship in the 2004 election.

When Rossello left office in 2001, unresolved charges of corruption leveled against him and members of his administration remained. In the 2004 election, Rossello's opponent was Anibal Acevedo Vila, a member of Governor Calderón's pro-commonwealth party and the son of a former governor. During the campaign however, the interest centered upon the political theatrics between Rossello (whose party favored statehood) and Calderón.

The election was bitter and hard fought and the results were very close: Acevedo Vila's margin of victory, only 3,880 votes out of around 2 million paper votes cast, led to a recount and a challenge by Rossello in federal court. In the end, Acevedo Vila was pronounced the victor. However, this left the legislature and the office of the island's second-highest government official (the resident commissioner in Washington, DC, held by Luis Fortuno) under the control of the pro-statehood party. The result was political gridlock, mainly over a failure to agree on the budget.

The lack of a budget since 2004 caused a $740-million budget shortfall, and on 1 May 2006, the government ran out of money. Nearly 100,000 Puerto Rican government employees lost their jobs, some 43 government agencies shut down, and the island's 1,600 public schools were closed. The disruption to the Puerto Rican economy was severe and the island's bonds hovered at near junk status, seriously impacting the ability of the commonwealth to raise money for needed public works and other government needs.

Feeling the pressure, a meeting was arranged between the governor, the speaker of Puerto Rico's House, and the president of its Senate. Also invited to participate was a religious delegation that included the Roman Catholic archbishop of Puerto Rico. On 13 May 2006, a deal was approved that included a $741 million loan from the Government Development Bank of Puerto Rico and authorized the creation of an "urgent needs" fund, which would raise money through a new sales tax.

Although Puerto Rico banned capital punishment in 1929, in 2003, two men who were charged with first degree murder and extortion were being considered for execution under the 1994 Federal Death Penalty Act, which broadened the range of crimes punishable by death. Many Puerto Ricans claimed the imposition of the death penalty would infringe upon the commonwealth's right to self-government.

STATE GOVERNMENT

Since 1952, Puerto Rico has been a commonwealth of the US, governed under the Puerto Rican Federal Relations Act and under a constitution based on the US model. The Puerto Rican constitution specifically prohibits discrimination "on account of race, color, sex, birth, social origin or condition, or political ideas." The constitution has been amended a number of times, and in 2002, plans to hold a constitutional assembly to amend the constitution were proposed, providing for the elimination of the House of Representatives and the senate and the creation of a unicameral legislature. In 2005, the administration of President George W. Bush asked Congress to set a vote for the Puerto Ricans to decide on their status as a free nation.

The commonwealth legislature comprises a Senate (Senado) of 27 or more members, 2 from each of 8 senatorial districts, and 11 elected at large; and a House of Representatives (Cámara de Representantes) of 51 or more members, 1 from each of 40 districts and 11 at large. Each Senate district consists of five House districts. The Law of Minorities holds that if a single party wins two-thirds or more of the seats in either house, but does not win two-thirds of the vote in the gubernatorial election, the opposition parties are eligible for additional seats, in order to give the opposition (collectively) one-third of the seats in either house. The number of seats therefore, can be expanded (up to a limit of 9 in the senate and 17 in the house), if opposition parties receive at least 3% of the gubernatorial vote. In the 2000 election, one seat was added to the Senate according to this law, but no seats were added to the House of Representatives. Senators must be at least 30 years of age, representatives must be 25. Legislators must have been commonwealth residents for two years and district or municipal residents for one year. All legislators serve four-year terms.

The governor, who may serve an unlimited number of four-year terms, is the only elected executive. Candidates for the governorship must be US citizens for at least five years, must be at least 35 years of age, and must have resided in Puerto Rico for at least five years.

A bill becomes law if approved by both houses and either signed by the governor or left unsigned for 10 days while the legislature is in session. A two-thirds vote of the elected members of each house is sufficient to override a gubernatorial veto. The governor can employ the item veto or reduce amounts in appropriations bills. The governor also has the power to declare martial law in cases of rebellion, invasion, or immediate danger of rebellion or invasion. The constitution may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the legislature and ratification by popular majority vote.

Residents of Puerto Rico may not vote in US presidential elections. A Puerto Rican who settles in one of the 50 states automatically becomes eligible to vote for president; conversely, a state resident who migrates to Puerto Rico forfeits such eligibility. Puerto Rico has no vote in the US Senate or House of Representatives, but a nonvoting resident delegate, elected every four years, may speak on the floor of the House, introduce legislation, and vote in House committees.

Qualified voters must be US citizens, be at least 18 years of age, and have registered 50 days before a general election; absentee registration is not allowed.

POLITICAL PARTIES

Taking part in Puerto Rican elections during recent years were two major and three smaller political parties. The Popular Democratic (PPD), founded in 1938, favors the strengthening and development of commonwealth status. The New Progressive Party (PNP), created in 1968 as the successor to the Puerto Rican Republican Party, is pro-statehood. The National Republican Party of Puerto Rico is led by Luis Ferré. Two smaller parties, each favoring independence for the island, were the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), founded in the mid-1940s and committed to democratic socialism, and the more radical Puerto Rican Socialist Party, which had close ties with Cuba until it became defunct. A breakaway group, the Renewal Party, led by the mayor of San Juan, Hernán Padilla, left the PNP and took part in the 1984 elections.

In 1980, Governor Carlos Romero Barceló of the PNP, who had pledged to actively seek Puerto Rico's admission to the Union if elected by a large margin, retained the governorship by a plurality of fewer than 3,500 votes, in the closest election in the island's history, while the PPD won control of the legislature and 52 out of 78 mayoralty contests. Former governor Rafael Hernández Colón defeated Romero Barceló's bid for reelection in 1984 by more than 54,000 votes. Colón was reelected in 1988 and was succeeded in 1992 by Pedro Rosselló, a New Progressive and a supporter of statehood, who was reelected in 1996. In 2000, Sila M. Calderón was elected Puerto Rico's first female governor, with 48.6% of the vote. The 2004 General Elections were the second-closest in Puerto Rican history. A recount confirmed the winner, Anibal Aceve-do-Vila of the PPD; he was the first governor in Puerto Rican history not to have a resident commissioner of his same party, given that Luis Fortuno of the PNP won the post.

The question of Puerto Rico's status remained controversial as of 2006. Governor Rosselló called a plebiscite in November of 1993 to enable voters to choose between independence, commonwealth or statehood. A narrow majority of Puerto Rican voters decided to maintain the island's status as an American commonwealth. However, they conditioned their vote on a demand that the terms of the island's commonwealth status be modified. Such modifications would include eliminating the federal limits on food stamps and expanding Supplemental Security Income to encompass elderly and handicapped Puerto Ricans. Puerto Rican voters also requested that recent changes in Federal Tax Law 936, which had lowered by 60% the exemptions corporations could claim from taxes on profits, be removed and that the law be restored to its original form. Although Puerto Ricans have no vote in US presidential elections, the island does send voting delegates to the national conventions of the Democratic and Republican parties. In 1980, for the first time, those delegates were chosen by presidential preference primary.

Puerto Rico's political parties have generally committed themselves to peaceful change through democratic methods. One exception was the pro-independence Nationalist Party, whose followers were involved in an attempt to assassinate US president Harry S. Truman in 1950 and in an outbreak of shooting in the House of Representatives that wounded five congressman in 1954. A US-based terrorist group, the Armed Forces of Puerto Rican National Liberation (FALN), claimed credit during the late 1970s for bombings in New York and other major cities. FALN members briefly took over the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor on 25 October 1977. Another group, the Macheteros, apparently based on the island, claimed responsibility for an attack on a US Navy bus in 1980 and for blowing up eight US Air Force planes at a Puerto Rico Air National Guard installation early in 1981.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico had 78 municipalities in 2006, each governed by a mayor and municipal assembly elected every four years. In fact, these governments resemble US county governments in that they perform services for both urban and rural areas. Many of the functions normally performed by municipal governments in the US—for instance, fire protection, education, water supply, and law enforcement—are performed by the commonwealth government directly.

STATE SERVICES

The executive branch of Puerto Rico's highly centralized government is organized into departments, agencies, and public corporations. The departments are as follows: agriculture, consumer affairs, correction and rehabilitation, economic development and commerce, education, family services, health, housing, justice, labor and human resources, natural resources and the environment, recreation and sports, state, transportation and public works, and treasury. Lodged within the Office of the Governor are the Office of Management and Budget, Planning Board, Commission on Women's Affairs, and Environmental Quality Board, as well as offices of economic opportunity, energy, youth affairs, cultural affairs, labor affairs, child development, and development of the disabled, and commissions for the protection and strengthening of the family and of agricultural planning and action.

Puerto Rico is more heavily socialized than any US state. Almost one-fourth of all those employed work for the commonwealth government, which operates hotels, marine transports, the telephone company, and all sugar mills, among other enterprises.

JUDICIAL SYSTEM

Puerto Rico's highest court, the Supreme Court, consists of a chief justice and six associate justices, appointed, like all other judges, by the governor with the consent of the senate and serving until compulsory retirement at age 70. The court may sit in separate panels for some purposes, but not in cases dealing with the constitutionality of commonwealth law, for which the entire body convenes. Decisions of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico regarding US constitutional questions may be appealed to the US Supreme Court.

The Circuit Court of Appeals consists of 33 justices named by the governor with the consent of the senate. Decisions of the court may revise those of the trial courts of first instance. The Circuit Court of Appeals was created in 1994 as an intermediary tribunal between the courts of first instance and the Supreme Court. The tribunal sits in San Juan.

The nine superior courts are the main trial courts; superior court judges are appointed to 12-year terms. In 2003, superior courts were divided into 13 districts. These courts have original jurisdiction in civil cases not exceeding $10,000 and in minor criminal cases. District courts also hear preliminary motions in more serious criminal cases. Municipal judges, serving for five years, and justices of the peace, in rural areas, decide cases involving local ordinances.

San Juan is the seat of the US District Court for Puerto Rico, which has the same jurisdiction as federal district courts on the US mainland.

The death penalty is constitutionally forbidden; however, in 2003, the 1994 Federal Death Penalty Act was being invoked in a case involving two men accused of murder and extortion. This attempt met with increased activism against the death penalty, and reinforced the belief that the death penalty infringes on Puerto Rico's right to self-government. The last execution in Puerto Rico took place in 1927.

ARMED FORCES

In 2004, there were 611 active-duty military personnel stationed in Puerto Rico. Principal of the US military installations in Puerto Rico are the Naval Security Station at Sabana Seca and the Roosevelt Roads Naval Reservation, near Ceiba (a BRAC closing in 2004). Under BRAC Ft. Buchanan in Guaynabo became an army reserve base in 2005. Use of Vieques for training maneuvers, including shelling and bombing, forced many of that island's residents to move; the US Navy withdrew its forces in May 2003. Aerial and naval target practice on Culebra by the US Navy was halted by protests and legal action. Defense spending decreased dramatically in 2002: US defense agencies spent $133.8 million on procurement contracts greater than $25,000 during the first nine months of 2002.

As of 2004, some 131,448 veterans of US military service were living on the island, including 12,449 World War II veterans, 28,434 from the Korean Conflict, 34,195 Vietnam veterans and 17,345 from the Persian Gulf War. Total VA expenditures were $820,565. Puerto Ricans suffered 731 combat deaths in Korea and 270 in Vietnam.

Reserve and National Guard personnel in Puerto Rico totaled 7,605 in 2004, with the army accounting for the vast majority (6,693).

MIGRATION

Although migration from Puerto Rico to the US mainland is not an entirely new phenomenon—several Puerto Rican merchants were living in New York City as early as 1830—there were no more than 70,000 islanders in the US in 1940. Mass migration, spurred by the booming postwar job market in the US, began in 1947. The out-migration was particularly large from 1951 through 1959, when the net outflow of migrants from the island averaged more than 47,000 a year. According to the 2003 American Community Profile an estimated 3,717,941 ethnic Puerto Ricans were living in the 50 states, or about 1.31% if the US population. At least 32 cities had Puerto Rican communities of 5,000 or more. Puerto Ricans are found in significant numbers not only in New York State but also in New Jersey, Illinois, Pennsylvania, California, and Florida. Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Indeed, 58% of ethnic Puerto Ricans living in the 50 states were concentrated in the Northeast in 2002.

During the 1970s, in part because of the economic decline of many US urban centers, the migration trend slowed; official estimates show that the net flow of migrants from the island totaled only 65,900. But with the Puerto Rican economy worsening in the early 1980s, the net migration from early 1980 to mid-1983 was about 90,000. From 1990 to 1992, there was a net loss from migration of about 40,000.

One striking aspect of the US-Puerto Rico migration pattern is its fluidity. As US citizens, Puerto Ricans can move freely between the island and the mainland. Even in 1953, when the heaviest net outflow was recorded—74,603—fully 230,307 persons emigrated from the US mainland to Puerto Rico, as 304,910 Puerto Ricans were migrating the other way. In 2000, 242,973 people living on the US mainland said that they had lived in Puerto Rico in 1995, while 112,788 people living in the commonwealth in 2000 said that they had lived on the mainland in 1995. This extreme mobility, though sensitive to the job market, would not be possible were it not for the increased income available to Puerto Ricans on both the island and the US mainland, and the fact that Puerto Ricans who come to the continental US generally preserve their ties of family and friendship with those in the commonwealth, thus finding it easy to return, whether for a short stay at Christmastime or for a new job on the island.

INTERGOVERNMENTAL COOPERATION

A member of the US Council of State Governments, Puerto Rico subscribes to the Compact for Education, the Interstate Compact for the Supervision of Parolees and Probationers, the Southern States Energy Board, and the Southern Growth Policies Compact. In its relations with the US government, the commonwealth is in most respects like a state, except in the key areas of taxation and representation. US laws are in effect, federal agencies regulate aviation and broadcasting, and Puerto Ricans participate in such federally funded programs as Social Security and food stamps. US grants to Puerto Rico totaled almost $5.3 billion in fiscal year 2004.

ECONOMY

The island's most important industrial products are pharmaceuticals, electronics, apparel, and food products. The sugar industry has gradually lost ground to dairy production and other livestock products in the agricultural sector. Tourism is the backbone of a large service industry, and the government sector has also grown. Tourist revenues and remittances from workers on the US main-land largely counterbalance Puerto Rico's chronic trade deficit. Federal funds to the government and directly to the people have been important to the Puerto Rican economy.

Puerto Rico's major problem is lack of jobs for an expanding population, a problem exacerbated when rising unemployment in the United States persuades Puerto Ricans to return to the island. From its former dependence on subsistence agriculture, Puerto Rico became a center for low-wage textile manufacturing, then a home for refining cheap crude oil from abroad—mainly Venezuela. The sharp rise of overseas oil prices that began in 1973 devastated this economic sector. Since then, high-technology industries, such as pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, have become a major presence on the island.

Section 936 of the US internal revenue code, passed in 1976 and discontinued in 1996, established a substantial tax credit for US corporations doing business in Puerto Rico and possessions of the United States. Some corporations were also allowed to import their products into the United States duty-free. Section 936 was replaced with Section 30A, which allowed companies to claim 60% of wages and capital investment as non-taxable income. Pharmaceutical companies and high-tech industries based in Puerto Rico were to have an advantage over NAFTA member Mexico, whose low wages in low-skill labor-intensive jobs competed with Puerto Rican jobs. Due to the elimination of Section 936, however, many companies in Puerto Rico closed.

The downturn in the US economy that began in 2001 negatively impacted the Puerto Rican economy more severely than the mainland economy. The 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States also had an adverse effect on the Puerto Rican tourist industry. By 2003, the economy was beginning to show signs of stabilizing: unemployment stood at 11.9% in the first quarter of 2003, down from over 13% in 2002. However, some of the same factors affecting the US economy, such as the ongoing war with Iraq and rising oil prices, continue to impact the Puerto Rican economy as well. In May 2006, the unemployment rate was at 19.5%. Gross national product (GNP) in 2004 was at about $50.3 billion with an annual growth rate of 6.1%. GDP the same year was $78.8 billion with an annual growth rate of 5.4%. In 2004, the overall sales of goods and services totaled about $66.3 billion while the purchase of goods and services totaled $80.2 billion. Government net recurrent revenues were totaled at $11.2 billion.

INCOME

The minimum wage laws of the Untied States apply to Puerto Rico as well. In 2004, the mean hourly wage was $10.38, lower than the US national mean of $17.80. One of the highest mean hourly wages ($24.45) was paid to those in legal occupations, while those in the food service industry received one of the lowest mean hourly wages ($6.55). Per capita personal income in Puerto Rico was $12,031 in 2004. The average family income was about $37,990 per year. Government jobs accounted for 30% of payroll employment as of 2004. The next largest sector was trade, transportation, warehouse, and utilities, which accounted for 18% of payroll employment.

LABOR

Puerto Rico's civilian labor force as of May 2006 numbered 1,417,300. The unemployment rate in May 2006 averaged 19.5%.

In 2003, services accounted for 28% of employment; government, 21%; trade, 21%; manufacturing, 11%; construction and mining, 7%; transportation and other public utilities, 5%; finance, insurance, and real estate, 4%; and agriculture, 2%. In 2004, approximately 62,124 people were employed in construction, natural resources, and mining; 118,597, manufacturing; 182,037, trade, transportation, warehouse, and utilities; 22,067, information; 46,402, finance; 102,102, professional and business; 97,951, educational and health; 70,512, leisure and hospitality; 303,137, government; and 20,643, other services.

Less than 10% of the labor force belongs to trade unions. There are four main Puerto Rican unions represented on the island, the largest of which is the General Confederation of Puerto Rican Workers. Wages tend to adhere closely to the US statutory minimum, which applies to Puerto Rico.

AGRICULTURE

In 1940, agriculture employed 43% of the work force; by 2000, about 3% of the Puerto Rican labor force had agricultural jobs. Nowhere is this decline more evident than in the sugar industry. Production peaked at 1,300,000 tons in 1952, when 150,000 cane cutters were employed; by 1978, however, production was 300,000 tons, fewer than 20,000 cutters were in the fields, and the industry was heavily subsidized. By 2000, only 2,500 people were employed in the sugar industry, mostly in the fields, and Puerto Rico was importing most of its sugar from the US mainland and the Dominican Republic. The hilly terrain makes mechanization difficult, and manual cutting contributes to production costs that are much higher than those of Hawaii and Louisiana. In 2002, out of 17,659 farms sugarcane accounted for 21; vegetables and melons, 337; coffee, 7,167; fruits and coconuts, 4,544; and grains, 102. Despite incentives and subsidies, tobacco production has practically ceased, and coffee production—well adapted to the highlands—falls far short of domestic consumption, although about 10% of the best quality crops are exported to Asia, Europe, and the United States. Plantains are an important crop as well as ornamental plants. As of 2006, other important agricultural products included sugarcane, coffee, pineapples, and bananas, which are also grown on plots and on former sugarcane fields.

ANIMAL HUSBANDRY

In 2002 there were 281,371 cattle (down from 386,980 in 1998) and 87,490 hogs and pigs (down from 101,619 in 1998) on 4,000 cattle and 1,200 hog and pig farms and ranches. Sales of cattle and calves amounted to $36.5 million in 2002 (down from $53.4 million in 1998); hogs and pigs, $9.7 million (down from $11.4 million in 1998).

Dairy cattle numbered 153,097 in 2002 (down from 163,537 in 1998); poultry for meat numbered 7.7 million (down from 10.9 million in 1998); and chickens for egg production numbered 1.9 million in 2002 (up from 1.6 million in 1998). Puerto Rican dairy farms produced 373.3 million quarts of milk products valued at $194.2 million in 2002; egg production that year reached 17.6 mil-lion dozen. Sales of dairy products and poultry products in 2002 totaled $194.2 million and $78.7 million, respectively.

Meat and dairy production did not meet domestic demand in the early 2000s, so these products were being imported.

FISHING

Although sport fishing, especially for blue marlin, is an important tourist attraction, the waters surrounding Puerto Rico are too deep to lend themselves to commercial fishing. Tuna brought in from African and South American waters and processed on the western shore provided much of the canned tuna sold in eastern US markets until the late 1990s, when many tuna processing plants were closed in favor of lower-cost production elsewhere in the world. Approximately 4,497,000 lb of fish were produced in 2002, for a total value of $10.3 million.

Fifty aqua cultural farms were operating in 2002, up from 44 in 1998; aquaculture accounted for $2.9 million in sales that year. Products include prawns, saltwater shrimp, red tilapia fish, and ornamental species.

FORESTRY

Puerto Rico lost its self-sufficiency in timber production by the mid-19th century, as population expansion, increasing demand for food, and extraction of native and endemic woods for export led to massive deforestation. Puerto Rico must import nearly all of its wood and paper products. The public forest system covers 86,095 acres (34,842 hectares), of which 58,249 acres (23,573 hectares) are part of the Puerto Rico State Forest system and 27,846 acres (11,269 hectares) are part of the Caribbean National Forest.

MINING

The estimated value of nonfuel mineral commodities produced in Puerto Rico was $159 million in 2000; Puerto Rico, when compared to the 50 US states, ranked 42nd in nonfuel mineral production. Portland cement was the leading nonfuel mineral commodity. To protect proprietary data, statistics on specific nonfuel mineral products were not reported as of the early 2000s.

A multiyear study of the island's known and undiscovered mineral resources indicated that at least 11 different types of metallic mineral deposits, including copper, iron, gold, manganese, silver, molybdenum, zinc, lead, and other minerals, occur on the island in addition to the industrial minerals (cement, stone, clay, and sand and gravel) currently being produced.

Approximately 1,500 people were employed in mining, which was limited to quarry operations, in 2002.

ENERGY AND POWER

Puerto Rico is almost totally dependent on imported crude oil for its energy needs, particularly electricity generation. Oil accounted for 93% of total primary energy consumption in 2001. The island has not yet developed any fossil fuel resources of its own, and its one experimental nuclear reactor, built on the south coast at Rincon in 1964, was shut down after a few years. Solar- powered hot-water heaters have been installed in a few private homes and at La Fortaleza. Inefficiency in the public transport system has encouraged commonwealth residents to rely on private vehicles, thereby increasing the demands for imported petroleum. In 2003, Puerto Rico consumed an estimated 218,000 barrels per day of oil; the vast majority of its imports came from American and Caribbean suppliers.

As of January 2004, the commonwealth's refining capacity was 114,400 barrels per day, from two operating refining facilities, the Caribbean Petroleum Refining facility on Bayamon, and the Shell Chemical's facility in Yabucoa. A third refinery at Guayama is used for storage. Puerto Rico also has petroleum storage at its Proterm facility.

Puerto Rico began importing liquefied natural gas in 2000 to feed its 540-MW EcoEléctrica gas-fired plant in Peñuelas. In 2003, an estimated 740 million cu m was consumed.

As of 2002, Puerto Rico consumed 176,370 short tons of coal each year, all of it imported. Since becoming operational in 2002, a new 454-MW coal-fired plant in Guayama increased the use of coal. The plant was recognized as one of the cleanest coal-fired plants in the world.

The commonwealth generated approximately 23.0 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2003, mostly from five oil-fired generators, but a fraction came from small hydroelectric dams. The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) is Puerto Rico's only distributor of electric power.

The first non-incineration waste-to-energy power plant in the United States was being developed as of 2003 in Caguas. The proposed plant is to use a gasification process that will break down approximately 3,300 tons of waste per day into basic elements and electricity.

INDUSTRY

Value added by manufacture surpassed $8.6 billion in 1982, more than double the total for 1977. In 1949, about 55,200 Puerto Rican workers were employed in industrial jobs, 26% of them in sugar refining. By 1992, despite the loss of many jobs in the sugar industry, the number was 158,181 with a total payroll of $2.7 billion. The leading employment categories in 1992 were apparel and textiles, 30,700; chemicals and allied products, 25,400; food and kindred products, 21,000; electric and electronic equipment, 18,400; and instruments, 15,900. The growth areas were electric and electronic equipment, up 47% from 1977, and instruments and related products, up 60%.

According to the 1992 Census of Manufactures, the value of shipments amounted to $31 million, of which chemicals and allied products accounted for $13.3 billion; food and kindred products, $5.2 billion; and electronic and electric equipment, $2.8 billion.

There were more than 90 pharmaceutical plants representing 20 of the world's leading drug and health companies. The largest included Johnson & Johnson (Rio Piedras), Abbott Chemicals (Barceloneta), Bristol-Myers Squibb (Humacao), Warner-Lambert (Vega Baja), and Schering-Plough (Manati). In 1991, Baxter International (medical devices) was one of the commonwealth's largest non-locally based manufacturers, with 10 plants; Westinghouse Electric (electric components) had 15; Sara Lee (men's underwear), 6; and Motorola (radio equipment), 4.

In addition to the production of pharmaceuticals, electrical and electronic products, and textiles, other industries include: bottling, chemicals, clay and glass, distilling, leather, metal (including precision instruments), printing, publishing, and software manufacturing.

Industries tend to be labor intensive. The construction industry has been a growth area in recent years; in 1997, construction growth was estimated at around 15%. By 2003, however, the construction sector saw a downward trend. Manufacturing in 2003 accounted for 42.1% of GDP, more than double the percentage share of the US mainland. In 2002, employment in manufacturing declined by 8.5%, compared with a decline of 6.9% on the mainland. And, in 2005, there was an annual decline of 2.3% in manufacturing employment. However, in the face of the phase-out of federal tax incentives for U.S. firms the pharmaceutical industry continued to thrive. In 2005, the pharmaceutical industry employed over 30,000 people, approximately 26% of GDP, compared with less than 2% in the United States.

Puerto Rico has two foreign free-trade zones, in Mayagüez and San Juan. In January 1987, the Puerto Rico Industrial Incentives Act was passed to make more manufacturing and export service industries eligible for tax exemptions.

COMMERCE

Wholesale trade in Puerto Rico in 2002 involved about 2,313 establishments and major distributors, with sales of over $16.1 billion. Merchant wholesalers accounted for 94.3% of establishments and 97% of wholesale trade. Durable goods accounted for only 34.2% of sales. E-commerce accounted for about $71 million of the wholesale trade. There were approximately 39,316 employees engaged in wholesale trade in 2002.

Retail trade during 2002 involved 11,465 establishments; total retail trade amounted to over $20.4 billion. There were about 122,435 paid employees involved in retail trade. Motor vehicles and parts dealers accounted for the largest portion of retail trade sales at about $4.6 billion, followed by food and beverage stores at $3.5 billion. E-commerce accounted for about $115.7 million in retail trade sales.

Two large shopping centers, Plaza las Americas and Plaza Carolina, are in the San Juan area. The San Juan area alone had retail sales of nearly $3.3 billion in 1992, or over 28.1% of the total. Radio Shack announced at the end of 2002 that its best selling store in the world was the one at Plaza las Americas, with $6 million in revenue for fiscal year 2002.

Foreign trade is a significant factor in Puerto Rico's economy. Trade between the United States and Puerto Rico is unrestricted. In 2003, the islands' imports totaled about $33.7 billion and exports $55.2 billion. The primary import commodities were chemicals, machinery and equipment, clothing, food, fish, and petroleum products. Major exports included pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, electronics, apparel, canned tuna, rum, and beverage concentrates.

During 2001, the United States received $41.4 billion of Puerto Rico's exports and supplied about $15.6 billion of its imports. In 2003, the primary export partners were the United States (86.4%), the Netherlands (2.1%), and Belgium (2%). The primary import partners were the United States (48.9%), Ireland (20.7%), and Japan (3.9%). More than 100 of the US Fortune 500 multinational companies have industrial plants located in Puerto Rico.

CONSUMER PROTECTION

Consumer protection is the responsibility of Puerto Rico's cabinet-level Department of Consumer Affairs.

BANKING

Puerto Rico's first bank began operations in 1850. As of 2006, there were 19 commercial banks in Puerto Rico (most are local corporations, with the rest being US branches and foreign interests). The government owns and operates two banks, the Government Development Bank (GDB—founded in 1948) and the Economic Development Bank (EDB—created in 1985). The EDB fosters the development of local businesses engaged in agriculture, manufacturing, commerce, and other services, thus decreasing the need to import goods and services. The Economic Development Bank's loan portfolio was $128.7 million in 2003, and loan disbursements amounted to $82.7 million. The average of loan principal by sector in 2003 was: agriculture, 30%; services, 27%; business, 23%; manufacturing, 14%; and tourism, 6%. The Government Development Bank's liquidity increased 69.4% in fiscal year 2002, with $2.2 billion in reported capital.

Banco Popular de Puerto Rico continues to be the largest domestic bank in Puerto Rico, with more than 100 branches (2006). The second-largest bank, Banco Santander Puerto Rico, and Banco Bilbao-Vizcaya, are foreign banks.

Since 1992, a new type of institution has flourished in Puerto Rico, promoted by the government: the international banking entity. International banking entities are completely tax-exempt but can only receive deposits from non-residents. As the end of 2002, there were 34 international banking entities in Puerto Rico with total combined assets of $50 billion. Citibank controls 40% of these assets.

The credit union industry is also thriving in Puerto Rico. There were 144 credit unions throughout the island in 2002.

US corporations no longer operate tax-free in Puerto Rico. Amendments made to the US Internal Revenue Code tax laws require the payment of federal taxes on a portion of their income.

Banks in Puerto Rico are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Automatic teller machines are located all across the island.

INSURANCE

Due to Hurricane Hugo, the insurance industry suffered underwriting losses of $19.5 million in 1989. The largest life insurance company in 1990 was Seguro de Service de Salud de Puerto Rico, Inc., with written premiums exceeding $275 million. More than 200 Puerto Rican insurance companies collected revenues of $82.4 million (life insurance companies, $18.1 million; property and casualty, $64.3 million) in 1990/91, enforcing policies exceeding $1.5 billion. Hurricane Georges in 1998 caused $1 billion in insured property losses in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

In 2003, there were 21 property and casualty and 15 life and health insurance companies domiciled in Puerto Rico. In 2004, approximately 60,995 flood insurance policies were in force with an estimated value of over $4.2 billion.

SECURITIES

There are no securities exchanges in Puerto Rico. Bonds issued by the Government Development Bank, exempt from federal income taxes and from the income taxes of all US states and cities, are offered for sale on the world securities market. The Puerto Rico Stock Index (PRSI) is a market-value-weighted index composed of eight businesses with their main headquarters or main places of business in Puerto Rico. The companies included in the index are traded on national stock markets, such as the NYSE and AMEX, and in the over-the-counter market (NASDAQ). There are several hundred broker-dealer firms registered to do business in Puerto Rico. Approximately 100 organizations providing security investment advice are registered in Puerto Rico.

PUBLIC FINANCE

Puerto Rico's annual budget is prepared by the Bureau of Budget and Management and submitted by the governor to the legislature, which has unlimited power to amend it. The fiscal year extends from 1 July to 30 June.

In 1959/60, transfers from the US government amounted to $44 million, or less than 13% of all revenues. By 1972/73, receipts from the US government represented 23% of all revenues; by 1977/78, more than 29%. In 1995/96 intergovernmental transfers from the US government amounted to $2.9 billion, or 30.0% of the commonwealth government's receipts.

Puerto Rico's revenues were $6.7 billion, with expenditures of $9.6 billion during fiscal year 2000, the most recent year for which data was available.

Of expenditures, 3.3% were assigned to economic development and 26.2% to public housing and welfare; education accounted for 25.4% of the central government's expenditures.

TAXATION

The Puerto Rican Federal Relations Act stipulates that the commonwealth is exempt from US internal revenue laws. The US federal income tax is not levied on permanent residents of Puerto Rico, but federal Social Security and unemployment taxes are deducted from payrolls and the commonwealth government collects an income tax. Corporations in Puerto Rico are also taxed.

The commonwealth internal revenue tax system is a self-assessment system modeled on that of the United States. In 2004, the treasury reported total tax revenues of $7.24 billion. About $97.8 million was collected in property taxes. Income tax provided revenues of about $5.3 billion, with $2.7 billion from individual income tax and $1.8 billion from corporations and partnerships.

Section 936 of the Internal Revenue Code exempted certain corporations from paying taxes for periods ranging from 10 to 25 years, allowing subsidiaries of US corporations virtual exemption from US corporate income taxes. The exemption was passed in 1976 to encourage economic development on the island. At the time of repatriation of profits to the US stockholder, the Puerto Rican government imposed a "tollgate" of 5-10%. Section 936 was replaced with Section 30A in 1996, which reduced the amount of income companies could claim as non-taxable to 60% of wages and capital investment. In 2004, the tollgate tax revenues totaled about $31.6 million.

The government in 2001 also enacted a series of 27 laws to further economic development and foreign investment, primary among them Laws 145, 169, and 225. These provide incentives or tax credits that could in effect reduce corporate income tax to as low as 2%; a 10% income tax credit for companies that purchase locally produced goods for export, or to be used in local manufacturing for local consumption; and lower tax rates directed to businesses that establish hemispheric, global, or Latin American headquarters in Puerto Rico.

There is no general sales tax, but there is a 5% tax on jewelry. There are also taxes on room charges levied at 11% for hotels with casinos, 9% for those without casinos, and 7% for rooms at small inns. An excise tax applies for all inbound shipments and there are taxes on alcohol and motor vehicles as well. Merchandise arriving from the United States is subject to a tax of about 6.6%. In 2004, excise taxes brought in revenues of about $1.7 billion. US excises on off-shore shipments totaled over $328 million.

ECONOMIC POLICY

Inaugurated during the 1940s, Operation Bootstrap had succeeded by 1982 in attracting investments from more than 500 US corporations. The principal Puerto Rican agencies responsible for this transformation are the Administración de Fomento Económico, known as Fomento (Development), and its subsidiary, the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Co. (PRIDCO), which help select plant sites, build factories, hire and train workers, and arrange financing. Fomento reorganized certain industries, taking a direct role, for example, in promoting export sales of Puerto Rican rum. At first, Fomento brought in apparel and textile manufacturers, who needed relatively unskilled workers. More recently, with the improvement in Puerto Rico's educational system, Fomento has emphasized such technologically advanced industries as pharmaceuticals and electronics. Industrialization has also required heavy investment in roads, power, water facilities, and communications systems.

PRIDCO reported that 253 new businesses were established in 2002 with 11,296 new jobs created with $1.1 billion in investment. Approximately 5,200 jobs were retained with a $170 million investment. In 2002, the government invested $2 billion in public works, with $2 billion budgeted for 2003. In 2001–03, $4.3 billion was offered for six economic development regions, including the Mayaguez-Ponce Expressway and the Santiago Channel.

The Puerto Rico Manufacturers' Association and the Puerto Rico Technoeconomic Corridor (PRTEC) also work to encourage and sustain industrial activities on the island. PRTEC is a non-profit organization public and private entities working to facilitate economic development. This organization has been instrumental in implementing six major strategies for economic development, including an industrial cluster concept, which promotes networking and competition among similar industries.

The primary incentives to investment in Puerto Rico have been lower wage scales than in the continental US and the exemption of up to 90% of corporate profits from island corporate and property taxes for five years, with a descending rate of exemption that could last as long as 235 years in some regions. The commonwealth government created a 218-acre (88-hectare) free- trade zone in the San Juan area that allows companies to assemble imports duty-free in government-built warehouses for export from the island.

The government's plans for urban center rehabilitation in 2003 included $165.5 million for 80 revitalization projects in 18 municipalities. Economic development was being geared toward five sectors: pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical instruments, communication and information technology, and health services. The government has also launched "Puerto Rico 2025," a long-term economic and social development plan directed to ensuring the commonwealth's competitiveness in the global economy.

HEALTH

Health conditions in Puerto Rico have improved remarkably since 1940, when the average life expectancy was only 46 years. A resident of Puerto Rico born in 2006 is expected to live 78.4 years (74.46 years for males, 82.54 years for females). The infant mortality rate has declined from 113 per l,000 live births in 1940 to 9.38 in 1999 to an estimate of 9.14 in 2006. As of 2003, about 82.4% of all mothers received prenatal care within the first trimester of pregnancy.

In 2002, about 59.5% of the population was considered to be overweight or obese; the US national average was at 56%. As of 2004, about 12.6% of the adult population were smokers. The leading causes of death in 1940 were diseases brought on by malnutrition or infection: diarrhea, enteritis, tuberculosis, and pneumonia. In 2002, the most common causes of death, in order of prevalence, were heart disease (154.2 per 100,000 population); cancer (120.9 per 100,000); and diabetes mellitus (63.9 per 100,000). That year, the diabetes death rate was higher than that of any state in the United States. Cardiovascular diseases claimed a death rate of 40.8 per 100,000 and death by homicide was rated at 19 per 100,000 population (higher than any state, but lower than Washington, DC, which had a rate of 40 per 100,000).

At the end of 2004, there were an estimated 10,079 residents with AIDS. The same year, new AIDS cases were reported at an estimated rate of 23.4 per 100,000 population; a total of 2,049 new cases of HIV infection were reported as well. In 2003, the death rate for HIV was estimated at 13.6 per 100,000 population.

In 2002, Puerto Rico had 45 private hospitals and 13 public hospitals. There were 12,178 hospital beds available. In 2004, there were 254 physicians and 1,552 dentists per 100,000 people. In 2004, about 70% of the population had received dental care within the year. In 2005, there were 383 registered nurses per 100,000 population.

Annual national health expenditure as a percentage of GDP was 6.03% in 2002. The budget for health in 1999/00 was $993.3 million; of that amount, $570.3 came from federal contributions. As a result of health reform, the government now finances a medical insurance program contracted to the private sector. As of late 2000, all 78 municipalities had been incorporated into the health insurance plan, with 99% insured and 1.8 million participants in the plan.

SOCIAL WELFARE

Since the mid-1960s, residents of Puerto Rico have been eligible for most of the social welfare programs that apply throughout the 50 states. About one-fourth of the commonwealth's budget is appropriated for public housing and welfare. Federal grants, transfers, and expenditures in Puerto Rico amounted to nearly one-quarter of the GNP in 1990.

In 2004, Nutrition Assistance Grants, a program similar to the US Food Stamp Program, were offered through the US government to provide $1.3 billion in benefits to 1.01 million low-income residents. In FY 2005, there were 369,889 students participating in the national school lunch program.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the system of US federal welfare assistance that officially replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) in 1997, was reauthorized through the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. TANF is funded through federal block grants that are divided among the states based on an equation involving the number of recipients in each state. In 2004, the program in Puerto Rico had 49,000 recipients.

Because unemployment is high and wages are low, Social Security benefits are below the US average. In 2004, 704,880 residents received social security benefits, including 327,620 retired workers, 81,610 widows and widowers, 134,540 disabled workers, 63,480 spouses, and 97,630 children. Retired workers received an average monthly payment of $635; widows and widowers, $555; disabled workers, $767; and spouses, $283. Payments for children of retired workers averaged $287 a month, children of deceased workers received $422 a month, and children of disabled workers received $205 per month. Monthly benefits for December 2004 totaled at about $404 million dollars. Approximately 96,000 workers received unemployment benefits in 2004, with the average weekly benefit at $107.

HOUSING

In 2000, there were a total of about 1,418,476 housing units, up from 1,184,382 units in 1990. About 1,261,325 units were occupied that year; 72.9% of occupied units were owner-occupied. About 68% of all units were single-family detached homes and just over 25% of all units were built between 1970 and 1979. About 58% of all households did not have modern heating systems; 31.1% had electric heating systems. Nearly 24% of all units had no telephone service, 5.2% lacked complete plumbing facilities, and 1.5% lacked complete kitchen facilities. The median home value was $75,100. The median monthly cost for a mortgage was $625 and the median monthly cost for rent was $297. The average household size was 2.98 persons.

In 2001, the Puerto Rico Housing Bank and Finance Agency was reorganized as the Puerto Rico Housing Finance Authority. One of the goals of the new agency was to build and renovate at least 50,000 units for low and moderate income families by 2005. Between 2001 and 2003, about $1.35 million was spent to renovate 139 public housing projects. Investment in elderly housing was $105 million for 994 units in 22 public housing projects. There were 15,985 housing units constructed during this period.

For those who have a gross annual income of up to $45,000 a year, the authority offers home loans of up to $90,000 with a 6.5% annual interest rate.

EDUCATION

Puerto Rico has made enormous strides in public education. In 1900, only 14% of the island's school-age children were in school; the proportion had increased to 50% by 1940 and 85% by the late 1970s. The government encouraged school attendance among the poor in the 1940s and 1950s by providing inexpensive shoes, free lunches, school uniforms, and small scholarships. Education is compulsory for children between 6 and 16 years of age, and nearly two out of ten commonwealth budget dollars goes to education. About 94.1% of the population is literate (2002).

In 2004, there were 584,916 students attending public school. Instruction is carried out in Spanish, but English is taught at all levels. In 2004, there were 1,489 public schools and 545 private schools in Puerto Rico.

The main state-supported institution of higher learning is the University of Puerto Rico, with its main campus at Rico Piedras. The system also includes doctorate-level campuses at Mayagüez and San Juan (for medical sciences), and four-year colleges at Aguadilla, Arecibo, Bayamon, Carolina, Cayey, Humacao, Ponce, and Utuado. The 39 private institutions in 2002/03 included Interamerican University, with campuses at Hato Rey, San German, and other locations, and the Catholic University of Puerto Rico, at Ponce. In 2002/03, 191,552 students were enrolled at higher education institutions in Puerto Rico.

ARTS

The Tapia Theater in Old San Juan is the island's major showcase for local and visiting performers, including the Taller de Histriones group and zarzuela (comic opera) troupes from Spain. Claimed as one of the oldest theaters in the Western Hemisphere, Tapia Theater (Teatro Tapia) was built in 1832. The Institute of Puerto Rican Culture is headed by ASPIRA Association, Inc., a nonprofit organization focused on developing education and leadership in the communities. The Fine Arts Center (Centro de Bellas Artes) is the largest center of its kind in the Caribbean. The Fine Arts Center features entertainment ranging from ballet, opera, and symphonies to drama, jazz, and popular music.

Puerto Rico has its own symphony orchestra and conservatory of music. Both were formerly directed by Pablo Casals, and the annual Music Festival Casals, which he founded, still attracts world-renowned musicians to the island each year. In 2006, the festival celebrated its 50th anniversary with one full month of concerts, including the first performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra in Puerto Rico. The Opera de Camara tours several houses. Puerto Rico supports both a classical ballet company (the Ballets de San Juan) and the Areyto Folkloric Group, which performs traditional folk dances. Salsa, a popular style pioneered by Puerto Rican musicians like Tito Puente, influenced the development of pop music on the US mainland during the 1970s. In 2002, the Puerto Rican government devoted $25 million to a public arts project, developing 97 works of art in 18 municipalities as part of an urban revitalization program. Puerto Rico was awarded seven grants totaling $654,898 in 2005 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). That same year the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) contributed five grants totaling $662,100. The NEA has also contributed to the arts education programs developed by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, and supported the Opera de Camara in Old San Juan, and the Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico. The Puerto Rican Community Foundation, Inc., has received funding through the NEA's challenge grant program.

LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS

In 1996–97, Puerto Rico's public libraries contained about 609,391 volumes and had a combined circulation of 479,133. The University of Puerto Rico Library at Rio Piedras held 1,804,010 books in 2003; the library of the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music, in San Juan, has a collection of music written by Puerto Rican and Latin American composers. Also in San Juan are La Casa del Libro, a library-museum of typographic and graphic arts, and the Museo del Indio, a museum dedicated to the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. There were some 50 museums in Puerto Rico in 2003, among them the Museo de Arte de Ponce (Luis A. Ferre Foundation), which has paintings, sculptures, and archaeological artifacts, as well as a library. The Marine Station Museum in Mayagüez exhibits Caribbean marine specimens and sponsors research and field trips.

COMMUNICATIONS

Puerto Rico is one of the most advanced and fastest growing telecommunications markets in the Caribbean region. The Puerto Rico Telephone Co. was founded in 1914 by two German sugar brokers, Sosthenes and Hernand Behn, best known today as the creators of International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT). In 1974, the Puerto Rican government bought the phone company from ITT. In 2004, there were an estimated 1.112 million telephone lines on the island. That same year there were an estimated 2.682 million cellular phone subscribers.

On 12 September 1996, Law 213 (known as Puerto Rico's Telecommunications Act of 1996) was enacted. The act created the Puerto Rico Telecommunications Regulatory Board with jurisdiction over all telecommunications companies providing services on the island. As of 2003, as a result of the 1996 law, 233 telecommunications companies had begun operations on the island. The Puerto Rico Telephone Co. has a 93% market share of the local telecommunications market and Centennial of Puerto Rico holds the remaining 7%. However, the Puerto Rico Telecommunications Regulatory Board, as of 2003, was attempting to promote competition within the telecommunications industry.

WKAQ, the island's first radio station, came on the air in 1923 and the first television station, WKAQ-TV, began broadcasting in 1954. As of 2006, there were 74 AM and 53 FM radio stations. In 2003, there were four commercial television channels/networks with six affiliates, one public broadcast television channel/network, three cable television service companies (with 360,579 subscribers), and four satellite television providers. The total number of television broadcast stations reached 32 in 2006.

There were 132 internet hosts in 2005, servicing approximately 1 million internet users.

PRESS

Puerto Rico has four major dailies: El Nuevo Dia, El Vocero, Primera Hora, and the San Juan Star. There are 22 weekly newspapers, including El Estrella de Puerto Rico and Caribbean Business, Puerto Rico's leading business publication. There are also eight monthly newspapers. The 2005 circulation for El Nuevo Dia (Puerto Rico's daily with the largest circulation), was 203,153 mornings and 245,500 Sundays. The English-language San Juan Star won a Pulitzer Prize in 1961.

ORGANIZATIONS

Important organizations on the island include the Puerto Rico Medical Association, Puerto Rico Manufacturers' Association, and Puerto Rico Bar Association. Also maintaining headquarters in Puerto Rico are the Association of Island Marine Laboratories of the Caribbean, Puerto Rico Rum Producers Association, Caribbean Hotel Association, and Caribbean Studies Association.

Some American professional organizations have chapters in Puerto Rico, including the American Physical Therapy Association and the American Library Association. Fondos Unidos is the local branch of Untied Way of America. Puerto Rico has chapters of Caritas and Amnesty International. There are also chapters of the YWCA/YMCA and the Young Democrats.

US-based agencies such as the National Puerto Rican Forum and the Puerto Rican Community Development Project assist Puerto Ricans living on the mainland. "Hometown clubs" consisting of "absent sons" (hilos ausentes) of various Puerto Rican towns are a typical feature of the barrios in New York and other cities in the continental United States.

TOURISM, TRAVEL, AND RECREATION

Only government and manufacturing exceed tourism in importance to the Puerto Rican economy. The industry has grown rapidly, from 65,000 tourists in 1950 to 1.1 million in 1970 to over 3 million in 2003. Tourism employs approximately 60,000 workers. Many hotels are located in San Juan, though the eastern part of the island also features hotels and resorts. Most tourists come for sunning, swimming, deep-sea fishing, and the fashionable shops, night clubs, and casinos of San Juan's Condado Strip. Attractions of old San Juan include two fortresses, El Morro and San Cristobal, San Jose Church (one of the oldest in the New World), and La Fortaleza, the governor's palace. The government has been encouraging tourists to journey outside of San Juan to such destinations such as the Arecibo Observatory (with its radio telescope used for research astronomy, ionospheric studies, and radar mapping), the rain forest of El Yunque, Phosphorescent Bay, colonial-style San German, and the bird sanctuary and mangrove forest on the shores of Torrecilla Lagoon. The 53-acre (21-hectare) San Juan harbor fortifications are a national historic site.

As of 2003, there were 3,238,300 total arrivals of non-resident tourists, including 2,454,300 from the United States. In that same year, 1,304,610 of the total non-resident tourists arrived at hotels and paradores. The occupancy rate of tourist hotels was 66.7% as of December 2005. During 2000/01, visitors spent $2.7 billion in Puerto Rico, a 14.2% increase over 1999/00. The 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States had a negative impact on the Puerto Rican tourist industry, as did the 2003 US-led war in Iraq. The World Travel and Tourism Council estimated that the war in Iraq cost Puerto Rico $262 million in lost tourism revenue and 3,800 jobs. Although industry growth decreased in 2001–03 in response to the slowdown in the US economy, Puerto Rico's tourism began to recover in 2004–05. There was an estimated tourist arrival total of almost five million for 2004.

SPORTS

Baseball is very popular in Puerto Rico. There is a six-team professional winter league, in which many ball players from American and National League teams participate. There were 50 games played in the league's six ballparks in 2002. Horse races are held every Sunday at El Nuevo Comandante, along with the annual Clasico del Caribe. Cockfighting, boxing, and basketball are also popular. Puerto Rico, which has its own Olympic Committee, sent a delegation to the 1980 Olympics in Moscow despite the US boycott. Other annual sporting events include the Copa Velasco Regatta, the Maraton de San Blas, the International Cycling Competition in Sabana Grande, the first leg of the Caribbean Ocean Racing Triangle, and the International Billfish Tournament in San Juan.

FAMOUS PUERTO RICANS

Elected to represent Puerto Rico before the Spanish Cortes in 1812, Ramón Power y Giralt (1775–1813), a liberal reformer, was the leading Puerto Rican political figure of the early 19th century. Power, appointed vice president of the Cortes, participated in drafting the new Spanish constitution of 1812. Ramón Emeterio Betances (1827–98) became well known not only for his efforts to alleviate a cholera epidemic in 1855, but also for his crusade to abolish slavery in Puerto Rico and as a leader of a separatist movement that culminated in 1868 in the "Grito de Lares." Eugenio Maria de Hostos (1839–1903), a writer, abolitionist, and educator, spent much of his adult life in Latin America, seeking to establish a free federation of the West Indies to replace colonial rule in the Caribbean. Luis Muñoz Rivera (1859–1916), a liberal journalist, led the movement that obtained the Autonomic Charter of 1897 for Puerto Rico, and he headed the cabinet that took office in 1898. With the island under United States rule, Muñoz Rivera served between 1911 and 1916 as Puerto Rico's resident commissioner to the US Congress. Other important Puerto Rican historical figures include Juan Alejo Arizmendi (1760?–1814), the first Puerto Rican-born bishop, appointed to the See of San Juan; José de Diego (1866–1918), a noted poet and gifted orator who, under the Foraker Act, became the first speaker of the island house of delegates and was a champion of independence for Puerto Rico.

The dominant political figure in 20th-century Puerto Rico was Luis Muñoz Marin (1898–1980), founder of the Popular Democratic Party in 1938 and president of the Puerto Rico senate from 1940–48. Muñoz, the first native-born elected governor of the island (1948–64), devised the commonwealth relationship that has governed the island since 1952. Another prominent 20th-century figure, Antonio R. Barceló (1869–1939), who led the Unionista Party after Muñoz Rivera's death, was the first president of the senate under the Jones Act, and was later the leader of the Liberal Party. In 1946, Jesùs T. Pinero (1897–1952) became the first Puerto Rican appointed governor of the island by a US president; he had been elected as resident commissioner of Puerto Rico to the US Congress two years before. Pedro Albizu Campos (1891–1965), a Harvard Law School graduate, presided over the militant Nationalist Party and was, until his death, the leader of forces that advocated independence for Puerto Rico by revolution. In 1945, Gilberto Concepción de Gracia (1909–68), also a lawyer, helped found the more moderate Puerto Rican Independence Party. Herman Badillo (b.1929) was the first person of Puerto Rican birth to be a voting member of the US House of Representatives, as congressman from New York, and Maurice Ferré (b.1935), elected mayor of Miami in 1973, was the first native-born Puerto Rican to run a large US mainland city. Hernán Padilla (b.1938), mayor of San Juan, became the first Hispanic American elected to head the US Conference of Mayors (1984).

Women have participated actively in Puerto Rican politics. Ana Roqué de Duprey (1853–1933) led the Asociación Puertorriquena de Mujeres Sufragistas, organized in late 1926, while Milagros Benet de Mewton (1868–1945) presided over the Liga Social Sufragista, founded in 1917. Both groups actively lobbied for the extension of the right to vote to Puerto Rican women, not only in Puerto Rico but also in the United States and other countries. Felisa Rincón de Gautier (1897–1994), mayor of San Juan from 1946 to 1968, was named Woman of the Americas in 1954, the year she presided over the Inter-American Organization for Municipalities. Carmen Delgado Votaw (b.1935) was the first person of Puerto Rican birth to be elected president of the Inter-American Commission of Women, the oldest international organization in the field of women's rights. Sila María Calderón, elected in 2000, became the commonwealth's first female governor.

Manuel A. Alonso (1822–89) blazed the trail for a distinctly Puerto Rican literature with the 1849 publication of El Gibaro, the first major effort to depict the traditions and mores of the island's rural society. Following him in the development of a rich Puerto Rican literary tradition were, among many others, that most prolific of 19th century Puerto Rican writers, Alejandro Tapia y Rivera (1826–82), a writer adept in history, drama, poetry, and other forms of literary expression; essayist and critic Manuel Elzaburu (1852–92); novelist Manuel Zeno Gandia (1855–1930); and poets Lola Rodriguez de Tió (1843–1924) and José Gautier Benitez (1848–80). Tió's patriotic lyrics, popularly acclaimed, were adapted to become Puerto Rico's national anthem. Among 20th century Puerto Rican literary figures are poets Luis Lloréns Torres (1878–1944), Luis Palés Matos (1898–1959), and Julia de Burgos (1916–53); and essayists and critics Antonio S. Pedreira (1898–1939), Tomás Blanco (1900–75), José A. Balseiro (1900–62), Margot Arce de Vázquez (1904–90), Concha Meléndez (1904–83), Nilita Vientós Gastón (1908–89), and Maria T. Babin (1910–89). In the field of fiction, René Marqués (1919–79), Abelardo Diaz Alfaro (1919–99), José Luis González (b.1926), and Pedro Juan Soto (b.1928) are among the best known outside Puerto Rico.

In the world of entertainment, Academy Award winners José Ferrer (1912–92) and Rita Moreno (b.1931), and two-time Tony winner Chita Rivera (b.1933) are among the most famous. Notable in classical music are cellist-conductor Pablo Casals (b.Spain, 1876–1973), a longtime resident of Puerto Rico; pianist Jesùs Maria Sanromá (1902–84); and opera star Justino Diaz (b.1940). Well-known popular musicians include Tito Puente (b.New York, 1923–2000) and José Feliciano (b.1945).

Roberto Clemente (1934–72), one of baseball's most admired performers and a member of the Hall of Fame, played on 12 National League All-Star teams and was named Most Valuable Player in 1966.

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