Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s

A Puerto Rican flag removed by a National Guardsman after the Jayuya Uprising in 1950.

Date	October 30, 1950 – March 1, 1954
Location	Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.
Result	Revolts suppressed

Belligerents

Puerto Rican Nationalist Party

United States

Commanders and leaders

Albizu Campos

Luis R. Esteves

Strength

106

5,000+

Casualties and losses

16 Nationalists killed
9 Nationalists wounded

1 soldier killed
7 policemen killed
6 soldiers wounded
23 policemen wounded

4 civilians killed
11 civilians wounded

Additional PRNP paramilitary cells in Washington, D.C.

External video
You may watch newsreel scenes of the Ponce massacre here

External audio
Newsreel scenes in Spanish of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s
Newsreel scenes in Spanish and in English of the attack on the U.S. Capitol led by Lolita Lebrón
Newsreel scenes in English of the assassination attempt on U.S. President Harry S Truman

The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s were a series of coordinated armed protests for the independence of Puerto Rico led by the president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, Don Pedro Albizu Campos, against the United States Government rule on the Island. The Party repudiated the "Free Associated State" (Estado Libre Asociado) status that had been enacted in 1950 and which the Nationalists considered a continuation of colonialism.

The Party organized a series of uprisings to take place in various Puerto Rican cities on October 30, 1950. The uprisings were suppressed by strong ground and air military force under the command of Puerto Rico National Guard Major General Luis R. Esteves. In a related event, on November 1 of that year, two Nationalists from New York City attempted to storm the Blair House in a failed effort to assassinate U.S. President Harry S. Truman, who supported the Puerto Rican government effort to draft a constitution that would rename the local government as a commonwealth of the United States and provide some limited local autonomy.

In 1952, nearly 82% of Puerto Rican voters approved the Constitution of the Estado Libre Associado. But the Nationalists considered the outcome of the vote a political farce since the referendum offered no option to vote in favor of independence or statehood, restricting the choices to only two: a continuation of the colonial status existing at that time and the proposed new commonwealth status.

On March 1, 1954, in another armed assault, four Nationalists fired shots from the visitors' gallery in the House of Representatives of the United States Capitol during a full floor debate, wounding five Congressmen, one seriously. The Nationalists were protesting what they perceived as a continuation of a colonial status in Puerto Rico.

After 400 years of colonial domination under the Spanish Empire, Puerto Rico received sovereignty in 1898 through a Carta de Autonomía (Charter of Autonomy). This Charter of Autonomy was signed by the Spanish Prime Minister Práxedes Mateo Sagasta and ratified by the Spanish Cortes. However, at the conclusion of the Spanish–American War, it was still the age of imperialism and Manifest Destiny. The United States claimed rule over the island under the Treaty of Paris, and the US demanded cessions from its defeated foe, Spain. The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party arose among opponents to this action, who said that, as a matter of international law, the Treaty of Paris could not empower the Spanish to give what was no longer theirs. The US administered Puerto Rico as a territory, initially with a military government.

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Wikipedia