Pedro Rosselló
Pedro Rosselló | |
---|---|
Ángel Martínez Santiago | |
Governor of Puerto Rico | |
In office January 2, 1993 – January 2, 2001 | |
Preceded by | Rafael Hernández Colón |
Succeeded by | Sila María Calderón |
Personal details | |
Born | Pedro Juan Rosselló González[1] April 5, 1944 San Juan, Puerto Rico, U.S. |
Political party | New Progressive |
Other political affiliations | Democratic |
Spouse | |
Children | 3, including Ricardo |
Education |
|
Pedro Juan Rosselló González (Latin American Spanish:
In 1988 Rosselló ran for
In 2003 Rosselló made a comeback, winning the NPP's 2004 gubernatorial nomination in primaries against then-NPP President Carlos Pesquera. He then lost the 2004 gubernatorial race to Anibal Acevedo Vilá by an unprecedented and a vigorously disputed razor-thin margin. Soon after an elected NPP Senator from Arecibo resigned his seat and Rosselló filled the vacancy. From 2005 to 2006 Rosselló unsuccessfully sought to remove Senate President Kenneth McClintock from that position and replace him. In 2008 Rosselló lost the NPP's 2008 gubernatorial nomination to then-Resident Commissioner and future Governor Luis Fortuño. Thereafter he completed his term as Senator and retired from electoral politics.
As of 2024, Rossello is the most recent Governor of Puerto Rico to serve more than one term.
Early life and education
Rosselló González [3] was born in San Juan on April 5, 1944, to Juan Antonio Rosselló Matanzo (1913–2001) and Iris M. González Paz (1919–2012).[4] Rosselló's paternal grandfather Pedro Juan Rosselló Batle migrated in 1902 at the age of 23 from Lloseta, Mallorca, in the Balearic Islands, Spain; his brother Juan had also left for Puerto Rico a year earlier.[5]
After completing his elementary and secondary education at Academia Santa Teresita and
Early career
Rosselló started his professional career alternating as an instructor at Harvard Medical School and as an assistant professor at the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus, where he would later become an associate professor.
He became chief of pediatric surgery and later chief surgeon at the University of Puerto Rico Children's Hospital. In 1985, Rosselló was named Health Services Director for the city of San Juan by then Mayor Baltasar Corrada del Río.
Political career
Run for resident commissioner
Rosselló began his political career in 1988 when he ran for the office of
After leading a "Statehood Crusade" throughout the islands of Puerto Rico, in 1991 he became president of the PNP, successfully leading an opposition to a
Governor (1993–2001)
As governor, Rosselló launched an anti-crime campaign known as "Mano Dura Contra el Crimen" (literally, "Strong hand against crime") in which the
Under his administration, a
In the 1996 elections he defeated rivals
In 1998, a 45% stake of the state-owned
Rosello's last term as governor (1998-2001) was plagued with numerous political scandals, many of them related to the use of public funds for personal gain by government officials as well as by members of Rosello's PNP political party. Among the charges was the use of government funds that had been allocated for treating Puerto Ricans suffering from
Vieques controversy
In April 1999, a
After finishing his term, amid controversy over the growing number of corruption cases involving members of his party and administration, Rosselló moved to the Boston area where he taught on the faculty of the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University. He later moved to Virginia, where he first served as a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and later taught public health at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
In 2003, Rosselló returned to politics and won his party's nomination for the gubernatorial candidacy in a primary election against his successor as PNP leader,
Senator (2005–09)
Prior to assuming office as Senator, Rosselló had announced his intention to remove Senate President Kenneth McClintock and be elected to replace him. An internal power struggle within the New Progressive Party between Rosselló and McClintock led to a split within the NPP Senate delegation in May 2005. After a caucus meeting, eleven of the seventeen senators elected by the New Progressive Party voted for Rosselló, with the other six boycotting the meeting. McClintock and five other senators, Orlando Parga, Luz Arce, Migdalia Padilla, Carlos Díaz, and Jorge de Castro Font, refused to follow the caucus' decision, denying the unanimous consent required by Senate Rules 2 and 6 to remove a president, thus permitting McClintock to remain as Senate president. The party directorate subsequently recommended that McClintock, Parga, and de Castro Font be expelled from the Party, and that Arce, Padilla, and Díaz be censured and prohibited to run for re-election under the party's flag or logo. However, in August 2005 the party's General Assembly only took action to expel de Castro Font, leaving the status of McClintock and the other four senators in limbo after approving in August 2006 a generic censure resolution that did not name any officeholders by name. The sanctions were nullified by San Juan Superior Court Judge Oscar Dávila Suliveres on May 8, 2007. The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, in a 5-to-1 decision, affirmed the lower court decision. Three of the disciplined senators (De Castro, Arce, Padilla) who ran for renomination, except for Díaz Olivo, were renominated in the March 2008 primary and were re-elected in the general elections.
Rosselló was able to gain a seat in the
On January 16, 2007, Rosselló led the party caucus in the Senate to a reprimand of two more NPP senators, fellow Arecibo senator José Emilio González and Bayamón senator Carmelo Ríos for voting in favor of a concurrent resolution proposing a constitutional amendment that would turn Puerto Rico's bicameral legislature into a unicameral legislative system, increasing the number of reprimanded caucus members to eight of the total of sixteen elected in 2004. Both González and Rios expressed their lack of concern over the reprimand and were handily renominated in the March 2008 primary and reelected in the November 2008 general election.
March against U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico
On February 21, 2006, Pedro Rosselló set out to denounce "U.S. persistent colonialism in Puerto Rico" by organizing a march for the end of US colonialism in Puerto Rico (La Marcha por el Fin de la Colonia). The stated purpose of the march was to expose the colonial status of Puerto Rico, and exhort the United States Congress to pass a bill that would allow the self-determination of the people of Puerto Rico, with congressionally mandated non-territorial, non-colonial options. Rosselló is a vocal and prominent supporter of statehood for the island, wanting Puerto Rico to become the 51st state of the (United States). The march covered the complete perimeter of Puerto Rico, tracing its coastline for 16 days and 271.3 miles. The United States Congress has not acted on any requests from the march's organizers.
NPP presidency
On June 7, 2007, Senator Rosselló officially ended his bid for the Senate presidency, stating in an article in El Vocero newspaper that he was no longer interested in the post, held since 2005 by fellow party member Kenneth McClintock. On April 19, 2007, he published a third book, El Triunvirato del Terror, (The Triumvirate of Terror) on the power centers that he believes control Puerto Rico's economy and government.
On April 28, 2007, Rosselló revealed to various party leaders that in March, 2006, he had signed a sworn statement assuring that he would not make a fourth run for the governorship in 2008, and that he intended to abide by the result. During the April 25, 2007, U.S. House Subcommittee on Insular Affairs hearing on Puerto Rico's political status, he was seen treating McClintock very cordially, which suggests that the tension levels between them had eased somewhat, suggesting he may have wanted to help reunite the party as it prepares for the 2008 electoral campaign against incumbent Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá and assume a different non-elective role within the statehood movement to which he has devoted nearly two decades of his life.
2008 NPP governor's candidacy primary
During a PNP assembly on May 22, 2007, a large group of delegates unanimously acclaimed him as the party's candidate for governor. However, given his original intention NOT to run, he officially announced that he would allow his name to be placed on the ballot, but he would not carry out a campaign for reelection. His candidacy papers were filed at the State Elections Commission on June 1, 2007. His candidacy was contested by Luis Fortuño, the current Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico, with whom he had shared the ballot in 2004. Fortuño had also announced officially his pre-candidacy for the party's nomination for governor.
On March 9, 2008, Rosselló conceded the victory to
Personal life
Rosselló married
One of Rossello's nephews,
Publications
- Campos, Cielos y Flamboyanes: Con Pedro Rosselló de 1988 a 1997 – ISBN 1-881714-09-8. Published in 1997.
- El Status es el Issue – biography written by Alberto Goachet and authorized by Rosselló. Published on January 12, 2005.
- The Unfinished Business of American Democracy – published on October 27, 2005.
- El Triunvirato del Terror – published on April 19, 2007
See also
- Voting rights in Puerto Rico
References
- ^ Madonna flag antics outrage Puerto Rico governor, chamber. United Press International. 28 October 1993. Accessed 4 February 2021.Archived
- ^ Madonna flag antics outrage Puerto Rico governor, chamber. United Press International. 28 October 1993. Accessed 4 February 2021.Archived
- ^ "Se Casó "Ricky" Rosselló". El Vocero. issuu. November 12, 2012. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
- ^ Pedro Rosselló Biography, www.biografiasyvidas.com/
- ^ "A new prescription for Puerto Rico" (PDF). Retrieved May 15, 2022.
- ^ "What the data says (And doesn't say) about crime in the United States".
- ^ "Centro de Convenciones ya lleva el nombre de Pedro Rosselló González- Primerahora.com". Archived from the original on June 11, 2011. Retrieved October 3, 2010.
- ^ CEEPR Plebiscito de 1998 Archived August 15, 2008, at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
- ^ Puerto Rico, pueblo a pueblo. Accessed 5 August 2019.
- ^ Primarias 2008 Escrutinio PNP Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine on CEEPUR.org
External links
- Rosselló's achievements in office 1993–2000 (in Spanish)
- Rosselló's official senate profile webpage (in Spanish)
- Yale Medical Review article on Pedro Rosselló (former alum of the school) (in English)
- The Puerto Rican Senate official site (in Spanish)
- The Puerto Rican Senate official site (in English)
- Proof of the recent survey
- Biography by CIDOB (in Spanish)
- Appearances on C-SPAN