Overview

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Overview

Puerto Rican political parties traditionally fall into three categories, defined according to the ideological alternatives of the island's political relationship with the United States: autonomist, annexationist, and separatist. Most autonomists approve of Puerto Rico's present status as a commonwealth of the United States, whereas others advocate for more local powers, and free association according to United Nations resolutions. The annexationists support complete integration as a state of the union. The separatists call for political independence from the United States. Following this political taxonomy, the main parties in Puerto Rico are the Popular Democratic Party (Partido Popular Democrático, PPD), the New Progressive Party (Partido Nuevo Progresista, PNP), and the Puerto Rican Pro-Independence Party (Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño, PIP).

The PPD was founded by Luis Muñoz Marín in 1938. With the Puerto Rican peasant straw hat as its symbol and the slogan pan, tierra y libertad ("bread, land, and liberty"), the PPD launched a plan of social and economic reform that included industrialization, agrarian reform, and population control. The PPD controlled most of the legislative and municipal government offices from 1940 to 1968. In 1948 Muñoz Marín became the first elected governor of Puerto Rico, a post he held until 1964. A party split caused its first electoral defeat in 1968, but the PPD came back to power in the years from 1972 to 1976 and 1984 to 1992 under the leadership of Rafael Hernández Colón. After losing the elections of 1992 and 1996, the PPD candidate Sila María Calderón became the first Puerto Rican woman governor in 2000, and Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, former resident commissioner, was elected governor in 2004. Since 1952 the PPD has become the principal supporter of local autonomy through the constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, also known as Free Associated State (Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico). Despite countless efforts, the PPD has failed to obtain the federal support necessary to transform the commonwealth status into a more autonomous entity within the United States.

The PNP evolved from the Pro-Statehood Republican Party (Partido Estadista Republicano, PER), founded in 1948. The PER dissolved in 1968 after most of its rank and file joined the PNP. Established in 1967 by Luis A. Ferré, the PNP won the gubernatorial elections of 1968, 1976, 1980, 1992, and 1996. Three PNP leaders have been elected to the governorship: Luis A. Ferré, Carlos Romero Barceló, and Pedro Roselló Gonzalez. Roselló Gonzalez, whose administration was marked by many corruption scandals, lost the elections of 2004 and faces competition for control of the party from Luis G. Fortuño Burset, PNP's resident commissioner. Committed to statehood, the PNP argues that commonwealth status makes Puerto Ricans second-class citizens and perpetuates an ambiguous colonial relationship with the United States. Despite numerous efforts, the PNP has not been able to achieve majority support within the Puerto Rican electorate for formal petition of statehood to the U.S. Congress. However, party membership and statehood support has increased substantially since the late 1980s.

The PIP, founded in 1946 by Gilberto Concepción de Gracia, is the main pro-independence group on the island. Contrary to the Nationalist Party (Partido Nacionalista) during the 1930s and 1940s, or the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Puertorriqueño, PSP) during the 1970s and 1980s, the PIP follows a moderate leftist ideology in the quest for Puerto Rican independence; it advocates political independence through a negotiated settlement with the U. S. government. Since 1948 the PIP has participated in every election, representing less than 5 percent of the electorate. Its main leader, Rubén Berríos Martínez, has emphasized democratic socialism and close ties with the international social democratic movement. After losing its electoral franchise briefly in 2004, the PIP has renewed its leadership by nominating Edwin Irizarry Mora as its candidate for governor in 2008. María de Lourdes Santiago, a senator, and Victor García San Inocencio, a house representative, are its principal elected officials.

The PPD and PNP dominate the political system. Together, the parties represent over 90 percent of the voters, share similar domestic agendas, and differ only with respect to their stands on Puerto Rico's status. Since the 1980s there has been increasing cross-voting among the electorate, making it difficult to predict winners along party lines for candidates at the local and central levels. The same holds true for the status issue: although the pro-statehood PNP won the 1992 elections, the statehood option lost to the commonwealth status in a 1993 plebiscite.

At the turn of the twenty-first century, Puerto Ricans' increasing dissatisfaction with these three traditional parties led to the creation of new political organizations. The most prominent new political parties are the Partido Acción Civil (Civil Action Party, PAC) and the Partido Puertorriqueños por Puerto Rico (Puerto Ricans for Puerto Rico Party, PPR). The PAC, under the leadership of Nelson Rosario, promotes free association and has been unable to gain an electoral franchise. In 2007 the PPR obtained official recognition, becoming the fourth electoral party for the 2008 elections. Rogelio Figueroa is the PPR's candidate for governor.