Jayuya Uprising

Jayuya Uprising
Puerto Rican flag removed by a member of the National Guard after the 1950 Jayuya Uprising
Date October 30, 1950 Location Puerto Rico Result United States victory Uprising suppressed
Belligerents
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party	United States
Commanders and leaders
Blanca Canales	Luis R. Esteves
Casualties and losses
3 Nationalists dead	6 police officers injured

External audio

Newsreel scenes in Spanish of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s here

United States victory

The Jayuya Uprising, also known as the Jayuya Revolt or El Grito de Jayuya, was a Nationalist revolt that took place on October 30, 1950, in the town of Jayuya, Puerto Rico. The revolt, led by Blanca Canales, was one of the multiple revolts that occurred throughout Puerto Rico on that day against the Puerto Rican government supported by the United States. The Nationalists considered the US to be a colonial power.

The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party was formed in 1922 to work for Puerto Rican Independence. By 1930 Pedro Albizu Campos, a lawyer who was the first Puerto Rican graduate from Harvard Law School, was elected president of the party.

In the 1930s, the United States-appointed governor of Puerto Rico, Blanton Winship, and the police colonel, a former U.S. Army Colonel named Elisha Francis Riggs, applied harsh repressive measures against the Nationalist Party. In 1936, Albizu Campos and the leaders of the party were arrested and jailed at the La Princesa prison in San Juan, and later sent to the Federal prison in Atlanta. On March 21, 1937, the police opened fire on the crowd at a Nationalist parade, killing 19 people in what came to be known as the Ponce Massacre. Albizu Campos returned to Puerto Rico on December 15, 1947, after spending ten years in prison.

In 1948, the legislature, controlled by the Partido Popular Democratico de Puerto Rico and presided over by Luis Muñoz Marín, approved a bill to suppress government opposition. This bill, also known as Ley de la Mordaza (Gag Law) and Law 53, received the approval of the legislature on May 21, 1948. The bill was signed into law by U.S.-appointed governor Jesús T. Piñero on June 10, 1948. It became known as Ley 53 (Law 53).

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