The United States was granted possession of Puerto Rico as part of the
Treaty of Paris of 1898, which concluded the Spanish–American War. After Puerto Rico became an American possession during the Spanish–American War in 1898,
Manuel Zeno Gandía traveled to Washington, D.C. where, together with
Eugenio María de Hostos, he proposed the idea of independence for Puerto Rico. The men were disappointed when their ideas were rejected by the US government and the island was organized as a
US territory. Zeno Gandia returned to the island and continued as an activist. A number of leaders, including a well-known intellectual and legislator called
José de Diego, sought independence from the United States via political accommodation. On June 5, 1900, President
William McKinley named De Diego, together with
Rosendo Matienzo Cintrón,
José Celso Barbosa, Manuel Camuñas, and Andrés Crosas to an Executive Cabinet under U.S.-appointed Governor
Charles H. Allen. The Executive Cabinet also included six American members. Diego resigned from the position in order to pursue independence. On 19 February 1904, he co-founded the Unionist Party, or the
Union of Puerto Rico, the first
mass party to advocate for independence for Puerto Rico in the form of a
sovereign nation, along with
Luis Muñoz Rivera, Rosendo Matienzo Cintrón and
Antonio R. Barceló. Diego was elected to the House of Delegates, the only locally elected body of government then allowed by the U.S., over which Diego presided from 1904 to 1917. The House of Delegates was subject to the U.S. President's veto power and unsuccessfully voted for the island's right to independence and self-government. It petitioned against imposition of
U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans in 1917, but the US granted citizenship to island residents. Despite these failures, Diego became known as the "Father of the Puerto Rican Independence Movement." wielding his
big stick in the Caribbean The newly created Puerto Rico Union Party advocated allowing voters to choose among non-colonial options, including annexation, an independent protectorate, and full autonomy. Another new party called the
Puerto Rico Independence Party emerged, founded by Rosendo Matienzo Cintrón in 1912, which promoted Puerto Rico's independence. That same year, Scott Colón, Zeno Gandía, Matienzo Cintrón, and
Luis Lloréns Torres wrote a manifesto for independence. The Independence Party was the first party in the history of the island to openly support independence from the United States as part of its platform. Taking Puerto Rico was seen as a part of American "
Manifest destiny". The American government supported American corporations with military force on occasion. The profits generated by this one-sided arrangement were enormous, as US corporations developed large plantations. Several years after leaving office, in 1913
Charles H. Allen, the first civilian U.S. governor of Puerto Rico, succeeded to the presidency of the
American Sugar Refining Company after serving as treasurer. He resigned in 1915, but stayed on the board. The company operated the largest sugar-refining operation in the world and was later renamed as the
Domino Sugar company. According to historian
Federico Ribes Tovar, Charles Allen leveraged his
governorship of Puerto Rico into a
controlling interest over the entire Puerto Rican economy through Domino Sugar. By 1930, over 40 percent of all the
arable land in Puerto Rico had been converted into
sugar plantations owned by Domino Sugar and U.S. banking interests. These bank syndicates also owned the insular postal system, the coastal railroad, and the San Juan international seaport.
Formation of the Nationalist Party , founder of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party In 1919, Puerto Rico had two major organizations that supported independence: the Nationalist Youth and the Independence Association. Also in 1919, José Coll y Cuchí, a member of the Union Party of Puerto Rico, left the party and formed the Nationalist Association of Puerto Rico. In 1922, these three political organizations joined forces and formed the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, with Coll y Cuchi as party president. The party's chief goal was to achieve independence from the United States. This party contended that by international law, the Spanish had no authority under the Treaty of Paris to cede the island, as it was no longer theirs. Among those who joined him in the "new" party were
Felisa Rincón de Gautier and
Ernesto Ramos Antonini. By 1932 Luis Muñoz Rivera's son,
Luis Muñoz Marín, had also joined the Liberal Party. Muñoz Marín was eventually the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico. During the 1932 elections, the Liberal Party faced the Alliance, then a coalition of the Republican Party of Puerto Rico and
Santiago Iglesias Pantin's
Socialist Party. Barceló and Muñoz Marín were both elected Senators. By 1936, differences between Muñoz Marín and Barceló began to surface, as well as between those followers who considered Muñoz Marín the true leader and those who considered Barceló as their leader. Muñoz Marín and his followers, who included Felisa Rincón de Gautier and Ernesto Ramos Antonini, held an assembly in the town of Arecibo to found the
Partido Liberal, Neto, Auténtico y Completo (Clear, Authentic and Complete Liberal Party), later named the
People's Democratic Party (PPD for Spanish name). , member of the
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, gives a cadet military salute, moments before being executed at police headquarters in 1936.During the 1930s and 1940s, Nationalist partisans/guerrilleros took part in violent incidents: • On April 6, 1932, Nationalist partisans marched into the
Capitol building in San Juan to protest the legislative proposal to approve the present Puerto Rican flag, the official flag of the insular government. Nationalists preferred the flag used during the
Grito de Lares. • On October 24, 1935, a confrontation with police at
University of Puerto Rico,
Río Piedras campus, killed four Puerto Rican Nationalist Party supporters and one policeman. The event came to be known as the
Río Piedras massacre. • On February 23, 1936, Colonel Elisha Francis Riggs, formerly of the US Army and the highest police officer in the island, was assassinated in retaliation for the Río Piedras events by Nationalists
Hiram Rosado and
Elías Beauchamp. Rosado and Beauchamp were arrested, and summarily executed without a trial at the police headquarters in San Juan. • In 1936, the U.S. Senator
Millard Tydings presented a legislative proposal to grant independence to Puerto Rico, but many people believed that it had unfavorable economic conditions. Barceló and the Liberal Party favored the Bill, because it would give Puerto Rico its independence; Muñoz Marín opposed the Bill because he wanted Puerto Rico's immediate independence but with favorable conditions. the
Jayuya Uprising, the
Utuado Uprising, the
San Juan Nationalist revolt, and other shootouts in
Mayagüez,
Naranjito, and
Arecibo. During the 1950 Jayuya Uprising,
Blanca Canales declared Puerto Rico a free republic. Two days after the creation of the Commonwealth, two Nationalists
attempted to assassinate US President
Harry S. Truman in Washington, DC. and under the orders of Governor
Luis Muñoz Marín, occupy Jayuya Acknowledging the importance of the question of Puerto Rican status,
Truman supported a
plebiscite in Puerto Rico in 1952 on the new constitution, to determine the status of the island's relationship to the U.S. The people voted by nearly 82% in favor of the new constitution and Free Associated State, or Commonwealth. Nationalists criticized the constitution because the Commonwealth was subject to US laws and to approval by the US executive and legislative branches of government, branches which Puerto Ricans did not participate in electing. As the government suppressed the Nationalist leaders, their political activities and influence waned. In the
1954 United States Capitol shooting incident, four nationalists opened fire on US Representatives during a debate on the floor of the US Congress, wounding five men, one seriously. The Nationalists were tried and convicted in federal court and sentenced effectively to life imprisonment. In 1978 and 1979, their sentences were commuted by President
Jimmy Carter to time served, and they were allowed to return to Puerto Rico. In the 1960s, the United States received international condemnation for holding onto the world's oldest colony. By the 1960s, a new phase of the Puerto Rican independence movement began. Several organizations began to use "clandestine armed struggle" against the US government. Underground "people's armies" such as
Movimiento Independentista Revolucionario en Armas (MIRA, in english: Revolutionary Independence Movement in Arms),
Comandos Armados de Liberación (CAL, in english: Armed Liberation Commands),
Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN, in english: Armed Forces of National Liberation),
Organización de Voluntarios por la Revolución Puertorriqueña (OVRP, in english: Organization of Volunteers for the Puerto Rican Revolution), The
Ejército Popular Boricua (EPB, in english: Boricua Popular Army), and others began engaging in subversive activities against the US government and military to bring attention to the colonial condition of Puerto Rico. In 1977, Rubén Berríos Martínez, then the President of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, wrote a long and detailed article in
Foreign Affairs that declared that the 'only solution' was independence for Puerto Rico. In January 2025, the CIA admitted in a declassified document that it had collected information on Puerto Rican independence groups at the request of Democratic congressmen, the Central Intelligence Agency probed for links to the Cuban government, and Puerto Rican independence movements in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
Political support A number of social groups, political parties, and individuals worldwide have supported the concept of Puerto Rican independence. On the island itself, it is a fringe but intense movement, with
The Washington Post reporting that "calls for Puerto Rico's independence have existed since the days of Spanish colonial rule and continued after the United States seized control of the island in 1898 (...) although many Puerto Ricans express deep patriotism for the island, the independence impulse has never translated in the polls." The
Democratic Party in the United States asserted in its 2012 platform that it "will continue to work on improving Puerto Rico's economic status by promoting job creation, education, health care, clean energy, and economic development on the Island." The
Republican Party asserts that it "support[s] the right of the United States citizens of Puerto Rico to be admitted to the Union as a fully sovereign state if they freely so determine," that Congress should "define the constitutionally valid options for Puerto Rico" to gain permanent non-territorial status, and said that, while Puerto Rico's status should be supported by a referendum sponsored by "the U.S. government". Neither of the
two major parties in Puerto Rico supports independence: the
Popular Democratic Party supports the current status of Puerto Rico as a self-governing unincorporated territory, and the
New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico supports statehood. Minority parties have expressed different positions: in 2005,
Communist Party USA passed a resolution about Puerto Rico, condemning
American imperialism, while stating that "the Communist Party of the USA continues its support for independence of Puerto Rico and the transfer of all sovereign powers to Puerto Rico." Their platform supported the people's "acquisition of their internationally recognized right to independence and
self-determination ..." In 2012, the
Green Party of the United States had a platform supporting independence.
Socialist Party USA does not support independence for Puerto Rico, but calls for "full representation for the U.S. territories of Guam and Puerto Rico, all Native American reservations, and the District of Columbia." During the summit of the
Community of Latin American and Caribbean States in
Havana, Cuba in January 2014, Nicolas Maduro, the President of
Venezuela, told
The Wall Street Journal that he supported Puerto Rican independence, saying that "it's an embarrassment that Latin America and the Caribbean in the 21st century still have colonies. Let the imperial elites of the U.S. say whatever they want." Also at this summit, the president of Argentina,
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, pledged to vote for independence of Puerto Rico; and
Raúl Castro "called for an independent Puerto Rico." In March 2023, Cuba reiterated its commitment to self-determination and independence of the people of Puerto Rico.
20th century to present died in a gun battle with
FBI agents in 2005 Levinson and Sparrow in their 2005 book suggest the
Foraker Act (), and the
Jones–Shafroth Act () reduced political opposition in the island, as they vested the U.S. Congress with authority and veto power over any legislation or referendum initiated by Puerto Rico. According to the U.S. Constitution, the only body that can grant independence to Puerto Rico is Congress, not the White House. Founded in 1922, the
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party worked for independence. In 1946,
Gilberto Concepción de Gracia founded the
Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP). It has continued to participate in the island's electoral process. In the mid-century, the "
Cointelpro program" was a project conducted by the United States
Federal Bureau of Investigation (
FBI) to surveil, infiltrate, discredit, and disrupt domestic political organizations which it classified as suspect or subversive. The police documented thousands of extensive
carpetas (files) concerning individuals of all social groups and ages. Approximately 75,000 persons were listed as under political police surveillance. Historians and critics found that the massive surveillance apparatus was directed primarily against Puerto Rico's independence movement. As a result, many independence supporters moved to the Popular Democratic Party to support its opposition to statehood. In the 21st century, a majority of
Independentistas seek to achieve independence either through peaceful political means or violent revolutionary actions. The Independence Party has elected some legislative candidates, but in recent elections has not won more than a small percentage of votes for its gubernatorial candidates (2.04% in 2008) or the legislative elections (4.5-5% of the island-wide legislative vote in 2008). In March 2023, a diaspora group petitioned the United States Congress to create an American-Puerto Rican Commission to promote the decolonization and independence of Puerto Rico from the United States of America. In April 2023, Puerto Rico's Status Act, which seeks to resolve its territorial status and relationship with the United States through a binding plebiscite at the federal level, was reintroduced in the House by Democrats.. In June 2025, the Puerto Ricans United in Action (PUA) organization asked the Donald Trump government to present the position of the US government on the colonial situation in Puerto Rico. In June 2025, the United Nations adopted a resolution in favor of self-determination and independence for the state of Puerto Rico.
United Nations' view Since 1953, the United Nations has been considering the
political status of Puerto Rico and how to assist it in achieving "independence" or "decolonization". In 1978, the Special Committee determined that a "colonial relationship" existed between the US and Puerto Rico. Note that the UN's Special Committee has often referred to Puerto Rico as a nation in its reports, because, internationally, the people of Puerto Rico are often considered to be a Caribbean nation with their own national identity. Most recently, in a June 2016 report, the Special Committee called for the United States to expedite the process to allow self-determination in Puerto Rico. More specifically, the group called on the United States to expedite a process that would allow the people of Puerto Rico to exercise fully their right to self-determination and independence: "allow the Puerto Rican people to take decisions in a sovereign manner, and to address their urgent economic and social needs, including unemployment, marginalization, insolvency and poverty".
2012 status referendum The main political parties in Puerto Rico have supported a continuing relationship with the United States and been supported by the electorate. By the 1940s, voters had elected a majority of
Partido Popular Democrático (
PPD) members in the legislature. In 1952, they voted by nearly 82% in support of the new constitution of the
Estado Libre Associado or Commonwealth. Sixty years later, a majority of those who voted on the second question of a 2012 referendum, to indicate what type of arrangement they preferred, voted to seek admission as a state into the United States. 61.16% voted for statehood, 33.34% voted for free association and 5.49% voted for independence. Hundreds of thousands of voters abstained from the question, so the proportion of voters for statehood was actually 45% of the total eligible electorate rather than a majority. In a status referendum in 2012, which had a two-part vote, 5.5% voted for independence. The
Washington Post reported in December 2013 that, since Puerto Ricans became US citizens in 1917, they have "been divided over their relationship with the mainland" on whether to become a US state, become independent, or a self-governing territory under US control.
2017 status referendum The previous plebiscites provided voters with three options: statehood, free association, and independence. The 2017 referendum offered three options: Statehood, Commonwealth and Independence/Free Association. If the majority vote for the latter, a second vote will be held to determine the preference: full independence as a nation or associated free state status with independence but with a "free and voluntary political association" between Puerto Rico and the United States. The White House Task Force on Puerto Rico offers the following specifics: "Free Association is a type of independence. A compact of Free Association would establish a mutual agreement that would recognize that the United States and Puerto Rico are closely linked in specific ways as detailed in the compact. Compacts of this sort are based on the national sovereignty of each country, and either nation can unilaterally terminate the association." The content of the
Compact of Free Association might cover topics such as the role of the US military in Puerto Rico, the use of the U.S. currency, free trade between the two entities, and whether
Puerto Ricans would be U.S. citizens. Former Governor
Ricardo Rosselló was strongly in favor of statehood to help develop the economy and help to "solve our 500-year-old colonial dilemma ... Colonialism is not an option . ... It's a civil rights issue ... 3.5 million citizens seeking an absolute democracy," he told the news media. Benefits of statehood include an additional $10 billion per year in federal funds, the right to vote in presidential elections, higher Social Security and Medicare benefits, and a right for its government agencies and municipalities to file for bankruptcy. The latter is currently prohibited. At approximately the same time as the referendum, Puerto Rico's legislators voted on a bill that allows the Governor to draft a state constitution and hold elections to choose senators and representatives to the federal Congress. Regardless of the outcome of the 2017 referendum and the bill, action by the
United States Congress will be necessary to implement changes to the status of Puerto Rico under the
Territorial Clause of the United States Constitution. Protests occurred in Puerto Rico in August 2025, mainly by the Independence Party, to fight for Puerto Rico's independence. ==See also==