From Sept. 25 to Sept. 28, the New Progressive Party (NPP) held a convention in San Juan’s Condado Plaza Hotel.

If one is to evaluate a convention as successful or not by how well-attended and how enthusiastic the attendants were, the convention was definitely a great success. Not only were attendance and enthusiasm beyond the expectations of organizers, but surprisingly so, even to our most vehement detractors. Yes, even the reporters and political commentators who are constantly badmouthing and denigrating statehood advocates and NPP leaders had to acknowledge that the NPP convention was very well-attended.

However, what they emphasized wasn’t the enthusiasm and the attendance, but the division campaign carried out by fanatical supporters of the aspirants to a gubernatorial nomination. Although the attitude and actions of the cheerleaders of the aspirants, particularly the group cheerleading for Ricky Rosselló, were noisy and orally aggressive, the enthusiasm of the attendants overcame the noise and aggressiveness of the cheerleaders.

The support and enthusiasm of the attendants demonstrated that no matter what happens during the competition for the gubernatorial nomination and other nominations, the NPP is solidly united behind our struggle to achieve political and economic equality, and that all party members are aware that we can’t allow our differences to affect our struggle for equality. Statehooders understand that we must all be united and work together to achieve our goal. This unity of purpose was clearly the message that the convention attendants gave to all who cared to listen.

Although the convention gave a clear demonstration of our party’s unity, we can’t take our unity for granted. We must work to strengthen and reinforce that unity. We must be aware of the reality that, in politics, an unexpected event may turn things around. We must be wary of personal confrontations, unintended offensive comments in interviews and other incidents that may seriously affect the unity we witnessed at the convention.

The NPP knows how to achieve unity after a primary contest, as it demonstrated in 2008, when Luis Fortuño defeated Pedro Rosselló. So much so, that we won by the largest margin of votes that we have ever won. However, after being elected, Fortuño seriously undermined the unity we had achieved.

After winning by such a large margin, Fortuño apparently believed that he would be governor for as long as he wanted. As a result, he became more interested in participating in national politics rather than consolidating our political control and achieving our goal of political and economic equality. In his desire to become a national political figure, he did away with the Republican-Democratic bipartisanship that our party had achieved since we were organized as a political party in 1968.

When we drafted the bylaws of the NPP, I was its secretary general and in charge of the committee designated to draft the bylaws. I convinced don Luis Ferré that our NPP shouldn’t be affiliated to either the Republican or the Democratic Party. As a matter of fact, we included a statement in the bylaws that made it clear that every NPP leader, as well as any party member, could affiliate with the national party of their choice. During don Luis’ administration, he was the president of the local branch of the Republican Party. Our legislative leadership was split. In the House of Representatives, the speaker was Viera Martínez, a Democrat. In the Senate, the NPP floor leader was Justo Méndez, and he, like don Luis, was Republican. I was the mayor of San Juan and I was a Democrat.

Don Luis and I worked together very well. He worked with the Republican leaders and I worked with the Democratic leaders to achieve things for Puerto Rico. I coined the name «Demoplicans» to indicate that we were supportive of both national parties. (In Spanish, I referred to us as Reprícratas.)

During Democratic administrations, don Luis would often ask me to help him get an appointment for one of his fellow Republicans in the federal government. Most of the time, I was able to get the appointment. In the same manner, he helped me several times when I was governor to get an appointment for a Democrat in the federal government, during a Republican administration. We were all Demoplicans.

However, when Fortuño became governor, he started to divide the NPP members into Democrats and Republicans. I don’t know of a single federal appointment made to a Democrat during Fortuño’s administration. Even in his administration, most, if not all, high executive appointments were made to local Republicans.

And why, you may ask, do I bring this issue up when I am writing about the events in the recent NPP convention? Because I believed that since Fortuño left Puerto Rico, we would no longer be subject to unnecessary division and discrimination. However, I witnessed the divisiveness being continued at the convention.

The schedule of convention events indicated that there were two activities on the subject of statehood. One was being held by Misión Estadista, which is an official party organization. The other discussion on statehood was organized by Jenniffer González. Although I wasn’t specifically invited to either one of those discussions, I was told that González’s discussion session had Ricky Rosselló and Fortuño as two of the speakers. I thought that if I went to both of those discussion groups, it would be a positive step to sending a message to our party members, that our party was united. Since both sessions were announced as statehood education sessions, I also believed that my contribution to the discussion would be positive. Who in our party has worked longer or harder for the achievement of equality?

But, lo and behold, to my surprise, when I entered the rooms where the session directed by González was to be held, I saw only signs supporting Ricky Rosselló held by loud, cheering supporters. When I arrived at the speakers’ platform, I was told by an usher to go to another area, but then, Edwin Mundo came and showed me to a seat. After a few minutes had gone by, González arrived with her cheerleaders, and shortly thereafter, Ricky Rosselló arrived with another, larger, group of cheerleaders chanting «Ricky Rosselló Governor.» When he arrived at the speaker’s platform, we greeted each other and I told him that I had come to participate in a discussion on statehood, but that the event was actually a rally for his candidacy to become governor. He claimed that he had nothing to do with the cheering. I told him that I had been in politics for too many years to accept his claim that he had nothing to do with the cheerleaders.

A little while later, González announced the names of those who would participate in the forum. Since she didn’t mention my name, I asked her if I would be asked to speak, she said that the program had already been organized; therefore, I wouldn’t be asked to speak. I thought that she and her group, including Ricky Rosselló, would be pleased that I had come to participate. Obviously, they weren’t. Why? Because this wasn’t a statehood discussion, but rather a Ricky Rosselló rally. As I was obviously not wanted, I left. This is the only time when I have left unwanted from any NPP activity.

As I was leaving, I suddenly realized that all the speakers in that activity were Republicans. Once again, I realized the ugly head of a dividing line between Republicans and Democrats had risen again. We must put a stop to that separation, which causes dissension and divisiveness.

Carlos Romero Barceló is a two-term former governor of Puerto Rico (1977-84), a two-term former resident commissioner (1993-2000), a two-term former mayor of San Juan (1969-78) and was president of the New Progressive Party for 11 years. While Governor, he became president of the Southern Governors’ Conference. While mayor of San Juan, he became president of the National League of Cities. He is now a real-estate consultant doing business as CRB Realty. His email address is rbarcelo@prtc.net. Comments on this article are welcome at caribbeanbusiness.pr. Go to the «Sign in» link on the homepage to participate. Emails also may be sent to column@caribbeanbusiness.pr.

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