The 2024 elections on the U.S. mainland are basically a matter of Democrats vs. Republicans, and media coverage tends to center the presidential race. But the political situation in the U.S. colony of Puerto Rico is very different, and is can be confusing to those not directly involved or affected by island politics.
What complicates this situation further is the fact that news about Puerto Rican elections—whether on social media, in print, or broadcast—is almost always in Spanish, which excludes non-Spanish speakers. Spanish-only print sources also exclude many Puerto Ricans in the diaspora; while many can speak Spanish, that doesn’t necessarily mean they can read the language. There are also, of course, many stateside Puerto Ricans who don’t speak Spanish.
Things are changing on the island, where there is an upsurge in support for progressive candidates like Juan Dalmau Ramirez, a member of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (el Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño in Spanish, or PIP) who is running for governor. While these shifts may not be enough to stop deeply embedded traditional conservative candidates from winning this year, the changes do bode well for the future.
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Dalmau’s campaign website offers his biography in Spanish. The 50-year-old attorney studied at the Universidad de Puerto Rico and Harvard. He was arrested in 2000, along with other PIP members, for protesting the presence of the U.S. Navy in Vieques, and was incarcerated for 33 days. A former secretary general of the PIP and twice-unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate, he also previously served in the Puerto Rican Senate.
PIP candidate sees ‘deep changes’ in Puerto Rico’s future
Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) gubernatorial candidate Juan Dalmau Ramírez says he is finding a new feeling on the campaign trail.
Dalmau, who has been the PIP’s candidate for governor on two occasions before, says he’s feeling a different kind of enthusiasm this time around, “as if there is hope for change; that there is a possibility that the unimaginable is possible; that it’s possible that there is a new political force that can displace the bipartisanship that has ruled Puerto Rico.”
The feeling, Dalmau told the STAR in an exclusive interview, comes from the alliance the PIP has forged with the Citizen Victory Movement (MVC by its Spanish initials), an upstart party of independence advocates and other left-leaning leaders, which garnered nearly 14% of the vote in 2020 elections, and which when combined with the more than 13.5% received by the PIP in those elections puts the alliance within striking distance of the 32% recorded by the winner of that year’s elections, the New Progressive Party.
In the interview, Dalmau outlines his positions on health care, education, and the appointed U.S. Financial Oversight and Management Board, known on the island as “La Junta.”
This recent post to X, formerly known as Twitter, looks at polling on the governor’s race. It may indicate why Dalmau and others on the left are feeling hopeful.
Cross tabulations are available in Spanish Most polling this far out probably holds little meaning, but if the indicators are valid, the youth vote is significant. Young people on the island played a key role in getting the previous governor elected.
Back in January, policy researcher Paul Figueroa wrote a story on current political changes in Puerto Rico in English.
‘Bringing Hope to Power’ in Puerto Rico
An historic progressive coalition looks to change the course of politics on the island.
Since the 1960s, Puerto Rican politics has been dominated by the New Progressive Party and the Popular Democratic Party. Despite their names, both have governed from the center and failed to live up to their supposed ideals. Over the last 15 years, their neoliberal policies have triggered a severe economic crisis that they’ve used to justify harsh austerity measures such as the privatization of crucial services like healthcare, education, transportation, highways and electricity. After Hurricane Maria hit in 2017, their response prioritized profits over the well-being of the people, accelerating the staggering loss of a quarter of the island’s population in the last decade due to outmigration.
Understandably, this has led to a profound disillusionment among the Puerto Rican populace towards the two traditional parties. This is reflected in significantly decreased voter turnout over the past decade.
Amid these dire circumstances, the left in Puerto Rico has slowly been gaining traction. A significant turning point arrived in 2020, when the progressive Puerto Rican Independence Party and the emergent Citizen’s Victory Movement garnered approximately one-third of the total vote — just shy of the 33% of the popular vote that reelected Puerto Rico’s sitting-governor, Pedro Pierluisi. This surge in support for the two left parties sparked a question among party leaders: Why not join forces to implement progressive policies and pursue decolonization?
And in December, the North American Congress on Latin America published social scientist and Latin American politics professor Jenaro Abraham’s perspective.
Puerto Rico’s New Leftist Alliance Poses a Threat to US Imperialism
The Puerto Rican Independence Party’s (PIP) latest assembly marks a turning point in electoral strategy and a challenge to the colonial paradigms that have long held the archipelago hostage.
On December 10, more than 4,000 people filled the main hall at the Puerto Rico Convention Center in San Juan for the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP)’s annual general assembly, with thousands more attending virtually. A latent sense of hope filled the air. Kicking off with two hours of pro-independence protest songs performed by musicians and artists from across the nation, the event’s main purpose was the ratification of the party’s 2024 electoral candidates.
“We have to lead with truth, with the message that we the government want to return to the people the dignity they deserve,” said Juan Dalmau, making a heartfelt case for ratifying his political program. “And that government is the Patria Nueva.” Dalmau, Puerto Rico’s most visible political figure, received support from the assembly to run for governor in the November 2024 election.
The 2023 assembly represented a change in the PIP’s strategy compared to previous electoral exercises: for the first time in Puerto Rican history, the PIP set aside its ideological differences with other sectors of the nation’s progressive left to form an electoral alliance with the Citizens Victory Movement (MVC), a relatively new left-wing/progressive coalition. La Alianza—as the alliance, ratified by the assembly, is known—seeks to overcome the ills of the colonial duopoly rule by which the pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP) and the pro-status quo Popular Democratic Party (PPD) have historically shared power. La Alianza’s eventual horizon, however, is much greater: both parties seek the nation’s eventual decolonization.
What tends to confuse outsiders to Puerto Rican politics is that one of the two largest parties, the Partido Nuevo Progresista (The New Progressive Party) isn’t progressive, like its name promises. Its current nonvoting resident commissioner to Congress, Jenniffer González-Colón (who is also running for governor), is a Republican. It might be easier to just think of them as “The Pro-Statehood Party.”
Nor is the “Popular Democratic Party” particularly democratic; it supports the status quo, and aligns itself with the island’s elites.
One candidate for nonvoting resident commissioner this year is Puerto Rican Sen. Ana Irma Rivera Lassén. She’s a member of the Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana (Citizens' Victory Movement) who was featured in “Caribbean Matters” last month.
I discuss Puerto Rico every day in the comments of the Daily Kos “Abbreviated Pundit Roundup,” and folks often ask me about statehood. There are three stances: statehood, status quo, or independence, and for many years there have been nonbinding referendums passed, where independence has not been the winning vote.
In order to understand these outcomes, one needs an understanding of Puerto Rican history. Take the time to watch this trio of explainers. Produced by Puerto Rican independent journalist Bianca Graulau, each video focuses on one stance: statehood, status quo, or independence.
The first video in the 2021 series tackles the independence movement and features this statement in the notes:
“Only a minority of Puerto Ricans support independence today. But those who still support that option say that's because the U.S. persecuted independence supporters for decades. This series of videos will take a look at the status options for Puerto Rico.”
Next, Graulau covers the “ELA” status quo. From the video notes:
“The United States announced to the world that Puerto Rico was no longer a colonial possession. But almost 70 years later, the island is at the mercy of Congress. How did we get here? And how do we solve it?”
Finally, Graulau tackles the push for statehood.
To clarify for new readers: I am not Puerto Rican. My husband is. I have very strong feelings about the island’s present and future, however. I’ve been an activist for Puerto Rican independence since the late 1960s, which was only reinforced by my membership in the Young Lords Party.
As a pragmatic Black American, my politics are aligned with electing Democrats, but where Puerto Rico is concerned, I have very different perspectives. I do think it’s possible to have both.
Join me in the comments for more on Puerto Rico, and for the weekly Caribbean News Roundup.
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