info on Puerto Rico... [Archive]

Raúl Duke

25th February 2007, 16:31

Puerto Rico was taken over during the Spanish-American War in the late 1800s. American soldiers did invade Puerto Rico from the South (they tried to from the North; However, San Juan survived the artillary and basically little damage was done. The fort at San Juan, "El Morro", and the small island it was in was only captured once in the entire history of Puerto Rico. So it's considered impenetrable, before the advent of the airplane that is.)

Spanish armies most likely composed of Puerto Ricans fought back, in some areas I heard that militias formed (but not sure of this) to fight, and in other places the Puerto Ricans accepted the Americans thinking they would either become independent or, which most of them thought, become a state of what was considered the most progressive nation on earth (well, the other nations were mostly monarchies and such).

Basically, the reason why they invaded Puerto Rico was that, since the war was ending, the Americans thought that invading the island would make it likely that Spain would give it to them during the negotiations over the treaty at Paris.

However, this is history; things have changed.

During the early 19th century, the spectrum was either between Independence or Statehood. During these times the Statehood political elements were somewhat more to the working class than most of the Independence elements (which mostly was under the umbrella of the nationalist party, who's famous member was Pedro Albizu Campos), which appealed the disenfranchised native elite which at the beginning had hopes that Puerto Rican economy was to become part of the booming American economy however noticed that the US instead subjugated the PR economy to the American one. The party talked about returning to the "times of Spain"; I.E. during the Spanish colonial era the native elite were quite content with their plantations. They however are one of the first to switch from using the ballot to using the bullet in the Puerto Rican political landscape during American colonialism. (My source for this claim was either the essay book Pais de Cuatro Pisos y otros ensayos written by Jose Luis Gonzalez, who I think was a socialist or the other book called Insularismo; However, I think its the first book which mentions it and also I recommend the first book more than the 2nd one) However, there were socialist or labor parties such as:Partido Socialista 1900-1956 (use to be known as Partido Obrero; and over it's existence became more in favor of statehood) and the Partido Communista Puertorriqueno 1930s-1990s (this party has always been small, because of the Socialist party's prescence and FBI repression.)

However, today los independentistas are more left wing than before (or considered left-wing); however, the biggest independence party, PIP (Partido Independentista Puertorriqueno), is not explicitly socialist. There are 3 currents that I know of: The PIP and it's supporters, The Movimiento Independentista Nacional Hostosiano (Hostos was one of the people who wanted independence for Puerto Rico during the Spanish colonial era) and the Movimeinto Socialista de los Trabajadores (MST;socialist worker's and student's movement). My Puerto Rican History teacher from Puerto Rico was a member of the Movimiento Independentista Nacional Hostosiano and I think she said the difference from them and the PIP is that they want to eliminate American influences like all the millitary bases, etc while the PIP just wants normal independence. There is also a Fronte Socialista formed by the MST with other smaller groups. There are also more militant groups like los Macheteros (Ejercito Popular Boricua, the group which Filiberto Ojeda belonged to) whose political arm was el Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores Puertorriquenos; yet, the Macheteros broke off there connection with this arm and now the PRTP is part of the Fronte Socialista.

(below is mostly what I have seen through my experience, in other words my opinion, formed through the 16 years I lived in PR)
So yes there are groups that want to seperate from the US as there are groups that want to continue being a commonwealth (PPD, Partido Popular Democratico) and those that want to be a state (PNP, Partido Nuevo Progresista)
The biggest tendencies are for the commonwealth and for statehood, one reason being is fear of big changes. The Pro-Commonwealth position represents no to little change at all, the Pro-Statehood position represents some small to moderate change while independence represents a huge change. Also a considerable amount of the population (like around half) is on welfare that comes from the US and their are also other US benefits. People feel that if we reached independence they would lose all these benefits. Most people who support the PPD feel that if they become a state they would lose their national identity, etc. Also, they feel they would lose such things of national pride such as the Miss Universe, Olympic Teams, etc (Miss Universe being the most important, since Puerto Rico has won many times.) Also, their are people who support independence yet vote PPD, either because they don't want to be a state (since the other majority party represents statehood) or because they have all this nationalistic bluster yet don't want to lose their commonwealth benefits.

I really can't say if its is a good idea or a bad idea, the political landscape in Puerto Rico is much more complicated (most likely more than the American one!). I could tell you that there is alot of apathy towards the commonwealth government
(maybe thats why I turn anarchist! :D ) yet the population like to criticize much yet they do little because of fear of change, in my opinion. However, last year (2006) there was a big protests during the month of may that seem to feature a small spark of class conscious as the government shut down many of the branches, leaving workers in the streets temporarily, because of lack of funds. In this month people protested against the government and against the banks (Banco Popular de Puerto Rico especially) During the bank protests the protestors got a taste of state oppression as police defended the bank HQ (yet none of the other buildings. Also during the last 2 years (or was it only in 2006?) there has been a some important events centering around independentistas such as the death of Filiberto Ojeda and a protest at the Senate against an eulogy to some cuban guy which the protestors considered an anti-castro terrorist.

So things might be heating up in PR; however, during the last part of 2006 and during the current year nothing that interesting as happened.

This is all the info I could get out of the top of my head right now; so I don't think its completly complete. I might post more later

However I have a small sidenote question: Are there any anarchist or libertarian socialist groups in Puerto Rico?