Lawmaker: Support ‘in the street’ for PIP outstrips record 2024 vote

Puerto Rican Independence Party Rep. Nelie Lebrón Robles (camara.pr)

By John McPhaul

jpmcphaul1@gmail.com

Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP by its acronym in Spanish) Rep. Nelie Lebrón Robles says that while the PIP won a record 31% of the gubernatorial vote in last year’s elections, judging by the talk in the street, many more would have voted for the pro-independence party.

“The sensation in the street is that the people say they would like to have voted for the PIP, because the reality is that the majority of Puerto Ricans feel represented by the PIP: the middle class, the school teachers, the poor, ex-teachers,” Lebrón Robles said. “I can tell you as a teacher myself, my sector feels represented by the PIP.”

Still, the unprecedented vote for the PIP, with a total of five candidates elected to the two chambers of the Legislative Assembly, was a surprise for Lebrón Robles, she said, though she added that the PIP always runs to win.

Since the elections the party has not stopped working.

Should the PIP win in 2028, Lebrón Robles said, the island’s status would be decided by the people in a constitutional assembly made up of representatives of the island’s political parties.

“It won’t be like the status plebiscites, which are manipulated and end up representing just one party,” she said. “Ultimately it is Congress that is going to decide.”

“The work is for the people to understand that independence is the best formula for the country [Puerto Rico],” Lebrón Robles added.

The next challenge is to fix broken electrical infrastructure using reusable sources of energy such as batteries and solar, although that will be a challenge, she acknowledged, given that President Donald Trump is not a fan of renewable energy. Moreover, he has removed six members of the Financial Oversight and Management Board, and is expected to fill those vacancies with handpicked members based on loyalty to his policy agenda.

Trump could work in the independentistas’ favor, meanwhile, given that he has made known his antipathy toward Puerto Rico, offering to swap Puerto Rico for Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.

Should he decide to offload Puerto Rico, Lebrón Robles noted, the president would have his “rubber stamp Congress” to give him the votes to make Puerto Rico independent.

In the meantime, the PIP lawmaker is working on the creation of a four-year plan to educate the people so that it is their plan.

The plan would use the island’s own resources, Lebrón Robles said, noting that the funds the island gets from Washington are monies that come from Puerto Rico.

“FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] isn’’t a gift. We would have our own FEMA,” she said. “The funds that come from the island are sufficient.”

The plan would be one that stressed the rights of women, the rights of children and the rights of workers.

Lebrón Robles said it would be similar to the policies once seen in Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo’s Nicaragua, with which the PIP had an alliance before the events of Aug. 5, 2018, when a peaceful protest over social security turned into a bloodbath when the ruling couple’s troops turned their guns on the crowd, killing hundreds.