By Claridad Editorial, November 7, 2024
Rally of Alianza supporters
If the results of the recent elections show anything, it is how the Puerto Rican people have been shaping, transforming and realigning their political conceptions, and becoming aware of their own power, to retake and rescue our country from the clutches of those who want to hand it over and destroy it. The resistance, astuteness, breeding and will for change of our people was manifested in different ways throughout this intense journey, and there is visible evidence of the achievements. The second place obtained by the Country Alliance, led in Puerto Rico by Juan Dalmau, and in the capital, San Juan, by Manuel Natal is a feat, considering the circumstances in which the process developed and the pitfalls that were placed in its way.
Let’s start by stating the obvious. The race was not equal in power or resources. Jenniffer González and the New Progressive Party (NPP) started out in control of the government and with an enormous advantage in economic resources, millions of dollars from Super PACS created and supported by millionaire businessmen, large government contractors, and all sorts of speculators that hover like vultures over our archipelago. At one point, the media offensive of the NPP and its candidate was so intense that it was suffocating.
Secondly, the candidate had at her feet the entire platform of the incumbent government, full of thousands of “batatas politicas” who do whatever it takes to remain in power. She had defeated Pedro Pierluisi in the primaries, and stepped on a few toes, but that internal discomfort soon dissipated as it usually happens in government parties. Together, the forces of power and the forces of fear launched an offensive of attacks and disinformation not seen in our country since the Cold War, which ended in the 90s of the last century. In their rage against change, these forces went to extremes of intimidation and threats against their own people.
Third, Jenniffer had and has at her disposal the electoral infrastructure of the State Elections Commission (SEC), under a new electoral code approved in the image and likeness of the NPP’s demands, with the votes of the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) in the Legislature, which renounced to oversee and became a “light” version of the NPP. This way, anyone can manufacture majorities to launch them against the opposition and continue “sucking” the public budget for their particular and petty interests.
The Country Alliance between the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) and the Citizen Victory Movement (MVC) faced this “monster”, which has never had the power, nor the economic resources, nor the electoral infrastructure to tie the race, but it did have the support of an avid people, of all political tendencies, who are fed up with the governments that have destroyed the country and see in the Alliance the hope to rescue Puerto Rico from the precipice. With that strength and courage as its engine, La Alianza advanced to become the second political force in Puerto Rico, and the main option to control and stop the offensive of the powerful against our country. The Popular Party had long since fallen into immobility, renouncing oversight. Trying to compete with the NPP on its own turf, it denied its identity and carved out an uncertain and lost course, as demonstrated by the results of the electoral contest, where it was reduced to a distant third place.
Let us be clear, nothing changes with the government of Jenniffer González and the NPP. It represents the continuation of the same colonial policies that have sunk Puerto Rico, and of the same corruption that have plunged us into bankruptcy, poverty and the suffocating lack of opportunities that throws our people, especially the youth, into exile or marginalization. Let us imagine this four-year term, with Jenniffer González as Governor, Thomas Rivera Schatz as Senate President, as already announced, and Carlos “Johnny” Méndez as Speaker of the House. Once again, a total banquet for them at the expense of our people.
Our people know this very well, and reject them, and that is why there was a massive outpouring of support for the candidacies of Juan Dalmau for Governor and Manuel Natal for Mayor of San Juan.
The results are impressive. Dalmau and Natal obtained unprecedented numbers of votes for political candidates outside the NPP-PPD, as well as María de Lourdes Santiago and Dennis Márquez of the PIP, for the Senate and House of Representatives, who have long been trusted by our voters for their extraordinary record of legislative action and oversight. Everything seems to indicate that they will now be joined in the House of Representatives by the winning candidate of La Alianza for San Juan’s Precinct 4, Adriana Gutiérrez, a young promise of the New Homeland.
In addition to sweeping San Juan, Dalmau and La Alianza won in 12 municipalities in Puerto Rico and there are two more in contention, demonstrating that La Alianza’s momentum and acceptance transcends the boundaries of the Capital.
Another unquestionable achievement that demonstrates how much Puerto Rico has changed is the large number of votes for independence in the status plebiscite that the NPP imposed and the other parties rejected. Millions of dollars in ads to promote statehood and the only option that grew significantly was independence, which no one advocated or announced, but obtained 31 percent of the vote, a record number in the history of these non-binding consultations. In some municipalities, the vote for independence obtained as much as 39 percent, indicating that the campaigns of fear and disinformation are increasingly ineffective among broad sectors of the population. To this result, we should add the blank ballots, which was the call of the PIP, MVC and the Popular Party, for considering the consultation as an unnecessary and unproductive expense.
However, from the negative also derive lessons, and from this extraordinary finding it can be inferred that, in the face of the poverty and lack of opportunities in the colony, a third of our voters seem willing to give independence the opportunity to build a prosperous Puerto Rico into the future.
Given the extraordinary achievements of the past electoral process, we must reflect on how to redirect this people’s movement that has never been able to turn back. From the struggles of the twentieth century, in this century it was articulated in Vieques when we kicked out the US Navy, and was retaken with strength after the bankruptcy, PROMESA, the Fiscal Control Board, the hurricanes, earthquakes and the pandemic, and the misgovernment of the NPP-PPD of the past 24 years. We still have a long way to go to achieve our goal and in this process we have demonstrated that Puerto Rico is a new country. Hope continues and so does the struggle, with La Alianza de País, until the construction of the New Homeland that we want and deserve.
Source: Claridad – Puerto Rico