Carlos Romero Barceló

Infobox Governor
name= Carlos Romero Barceló


caption=
order= 5^th
office= Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
term_start= January 2, 1977
term_end= January 2, 1985
lieutenant=
predecessor= Rafael Hernández Colón
successor= Rafael Hernández Colón
state3= Puerto Rico
district3 = At-large
term3 = January 2,1993 – January 2, 2000
preceded3 = Antonio Colorado
succeeded3 = Aníbal Acevedo Vilá
order2 =
office2= Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico
term_start2= January 2, 1969
term_end2= January 2, 1977
predecessor2= Felisa Rincón de Gautier
successor2= Hernán Padilla
party2 = New Progressive Party, Democratic Party
birth_date= Birth date and age|1932|9|4|mf=y
birth_place= San Juan, Puerto Rico
death_date=
death_place=
spouse= Kate Donnelly
profession= Lawyer
party= New Progressive Party
Democratic Party
footnotes=

Carlos Antonio Romero Barceló "El Caballo" (born September 4, 1932) is a Puerto Rican politician who was the fifth Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the second governor to be elected from the New Progressive Party (PNP) and also Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico from 1993 to 2001, making him one of the more successful politicians in the island's history.

Romero Barceló is the grandson of Antonio R. Barceló, a former Union Party leader and advocate of Puerto Rican self-determination during the early 20th century.

Education

Carlos Romero Barceló attended Phillips Exeter Academy in the state of New Hampshire, graduating in 1949. Later he attended Yale University, obtaining a B.A. in Political Science and Economics in 1953. That same year, at age 20, he returned to Puerto Rico and enrolled at the University of Puerto Rico Law School, becoming a licensed lawyer in 1956. In 1977, he received a doctorate Honoris causa from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut.

Political career

Romero Barceló, an avid supporter of Puerto Rico statehood with the United States of America, became involved in with the "Partido Estadista Republicano", the forerunner of the New Progressive Party, which at the time was led by Miguel Angel Garcia Mendez. He formed part of "Ciudadanos pro Estado 51" (Citizens for the 51st State) in 1965. Later, he became involved with the political group "Estadistas Unidos", founded by Luis Ferre.

Barceló was one of the founding members of the New Progressive Party in 1967. The following year he was elected Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 1973, he became the first Hispanic to become vice-president of the National League of Cities and in 1974 became president. He served as mayor until 1976 when he defeated incumbent Governor Rafael Hernández Colón.Romero Barceló is frequently associated with the “Cerro Maravilla Incident” of 1978 in which two young pro-Independence activists at Cerro Maravilla were killed at the hands of rogue members of the Puerto Rican Police. The tragic incident was investigated several times by the P.R. Justice Department, the U.S. Justice Department and the F.B.I., and was widely reported on by the local press. In the end (and after some reversals), ten officers were indicted and found guilty of perjury, destruction of evidence, and obstruction of justice, of whom four were convicted of second-degree murder during 1984 [http://home.coqui.net/ciales15/m7.html "10 From Puerto Rico Police Indicted on Cover-Up of '78 Killings"] by Reginald Stuart, The New York Times, February 7, 1984, retrieved August 2, 2006] .In 1984, Barcelo was defeated in his re-election bid in 1984 by Hernandez-Colon.

Governor

Romero Barceló brought well-received economic resolutions to the island during his terms in office, emphasizing the island's tourism potential. However, the island's government services deteriorated during his term in office and his statements declaring the cops that carried out the Maravilla murders to be heroes hurt his image.

In 1980 he was elected for a second term as governor by a margin of 3,037 votes over again PPD-candidate Rafael Hernández Colón. The 1980 gubernatorial elections where among the closest in Puerto Rican history, requiring the intervention of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico to rule whether improperly cast ballots should be counted. In particular, the Puerto Rico Statehood Students Association under Luis Fortuño generated over 1,500 absentee ballots for Romero Barceló that proved an important factor in his reelection. However, the New Progressive Party lost control of the legislature, and party-affiliated mayors won in 28 of the 78 municipalities on the island.

He sought re-election for a third term in 1984 but was defeated by Rafael Hernández Colón. After the elections, Barceló's reaction to the defeat, in response to TV news reporter Rafael Bracero, was "Que Derrota?" ("What defeat?"). For him, he said, what had occurred was not a defeat, but simply an "electoral loss". The comment has become legendary in Puerto Rican politics.

In 1986, he was elected by his party to fill in a vacancy in the Senate of Puerto Rico.

Resident Commissioner

In the 1992 elections, Romero was elected Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico, and relocated to Washington D.C.. He would later on be reelected in the elections of 1996.

During his tenure as Resident Commissioner he campaigned for Puerto Rican statehood and endorsed the Young Project, which sought to call a referendum to resolve Puerto Rico's political status. In 2000, he sought a third term but was defeated by PPD's Aníbal Acevedo Vilá. He once again sought his party's nomination for the post of Resident Commissioner in 2003, but was defeated by Luis Fortuño. Although he has retired from electoral politics, he has remained active in PNP political gatherings and is a member of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).

Legacy

Romero Barceló is married to Kate Donnelly. His daughter, Melinda Romero Donnelly, was an NPP member of the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico for 8 years. He is a boxing fan, and advocated for holding world championship bouts in San Juan during his terms in office.

The federal charges Puerto Rico's current governor faces stem from a tip brought to the federal court by Romero Barcelo. Romero has openly admitted to being the catalyst of the federal investigation against Anibal Acevedo Vila. In 2000, Acevedo accused Romero Barcelo of receiving 175,000 dollars of illegal contributions to fund his campaign bid for Resident Commissioner. The witness Acevedo Vila presented to authorities to validate his claims later recanted, but Vila's comments hurt Romero's in the court of public opinion, contributing to his loss that November.

Publications

* "Puerto Rico, U.S.A.: The Case for Statehood." "Foreign Affairs" 59 (Fall 1980): pp. 58–81.
* "Statehood Is For the Poor". N.P.: Master Typesetting of P.R. Inc., 1978. Originally published as "La Estatidad es para los Pobres", 1973.
* The book titled Two Lynchings on Cerro Maravilla: The Police Murders in Puerto Rico and the Federal Government Coverup by then San Juan Star journalist Manuel 'Manny' Suarez.

References

See also

* List of famous Puerto Ricans - Governors
* Voting rights in Puerto Rico

External links

* [http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/congress/romerobarcelo.html Hispanic Americans in Congress: Carlos Romero-Barceló]
* [http://www.nlc.org The National League of Cities]
* [http://www.lulac.org League of United Latin American Citizens]