Puerto Rican Nationalist Party insurgency

Puerto Rican Nationalist Party insurgency
Part of political violence in the United States during the Cold War
DateOctober 30, 1950 – March 1, 1954
Location
Result Revolts suppressed
Belligerents
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party  United States
Commanders and leaders
Albizu Campos Luis R. Esteves
Casualties and losses
16 killed
9 wounded
8 killed
29 wounded
4 civilians killed
11 wounded
Additional PRNP paramilitary cells in Washington, D.C.

The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party insurgency was a series of coordinated insurrections for the secession of Puerto Rico led by the president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, Don Pedro Albizu Campos, against the United States government's rule over the islands of Puerto Rico. The party repudiated the "Free Associated State" (Estado Libre Asociado) status that had been enacted in 1950 and which the Nationalists considered a continuation of colonialism.

The party organized a series of insurrections to take place in various Puerto Rican cities on October 30, 1950. The insurrections were suppressed by strong ground and air military force, including forces of the U.S. military, under the command of Puerto Rico National Guard Major General Luis R. Esteves. In a related event, on November 1 of that year, two Nationalists from New York City attempted to storm the Blair House in a failed effort to assassinate U.S. President Harry S. Truman, who supported the Puerto Rican government effort to draft a constitution that would rename the local government as a commonwealth of the United States and provide some limited local autonomy.

In 1952, nearly 82% of Puerto Rican voters approved the Constitution of the Estado Libre Associado. But the Nationalists considered the outcome of the vote a political farce since the referendum offered no option to vote in favor of independence or statehood, restricting the choices to only two: a continuation of the colonial status existing at that time and the proposed new commonwealth status.[1][2]

On March 1, 1954, in another armed assault, four Nationalists fired shots from the visitors' gallery in the House of Representatives of the United States Capitol during a full floor debate, wounding five Congressmen, one seriously. The Nationalists were protesting what they perceived as a continuation of a colonial status in Puerto Rico.

  1. ^ Juan Gonzalez, Harvest of Empire, p. 63; Penguin Books, 2001; ISBN 978-0-14-311928-9
  2. ^ Manuel Maldonado-Denis, Puerto Rico: A Socio-Historic Interpretation, pp.189-209; Random House, 1972; ISBN 0-394-71787-2