Skip to content
Learn More → State by State

Puerto Rico

Political repression plays out state by state — shaped by local institutions, prosecutors, and movements for defense. These are the documented political prisoners and cases the census holds for Puerto Rico.

478Documented
1In custody
334Released
1Awaiting trial

Eras of repression in Puerto Rico

Where Puerto Rico’s entries fall across the census’s historical eras.

2000s 274 1950s 91 1930s 33 1980s 24 1970s 22 1940s 20

Documented cases

478 entries in the census — every one stays in the record, whether the case is open or closed.

E
Emilio Figueroa Guadalupe
Emilio Figueroa Guadalupe is identified among young Vieques residents who were tried and imprisoned during the...
M
Manuel Flores
Released
One of approximately 1,500 activists arrested between 1999 and 2003 for civil disobedience at the U.S. Navy's...
P
Pedro Angel Flores
Pedro Angel Flores was arrested during the investigation following the March 21, 1937 Ponce massacre in Puerto...
J
José E. Flores Arriaga
Released
José E. Flores Arriaga was arrested during the 2000 civil-disobedience campaign against U.S. Navy training on...
E
Erika Fontánez Torres
Released
Erika Fontánez Torres was arrested during the 2000 civil-disobedience campaign against U.S. Navy training on V...
J
Jaime Francisco Diaz
Released
One of approximately 1,500 activists arrested between 1999 and 2003 for civil disobedience at the U.S. Navy's...
A
Alberto Fuentes
Released
One of approximately 1,500 activists arrested between 1999 and 2003 for civil disobedience at the U.S. Navy's...
P
Pedro Félix Vélez
A pastor who had left the Nationalist Party seventeen years earlier was deprived of liberty during the 1950 re...
J
Juan Galloza Acevedo
Released
Juan Galloza Acevedo was a former member of Los Macheteros who took part in the December 3, 1979 Sabana Seca a...
P
Pelegrín García
A leader of the 1948 university strike detained for two months during the repression after the 1950 uprising....
L
Liliana García Arroyo
Released
Liliana García Arroyo was arrested during the 2000 civil-disobedience campaign against U.S. Navy training on V...
M
Maritza García Arroyo
Released
Maritza García Arroyo was arrested during the 2000 civil-disobedience campaign against U.S. Navy training on V...
G
Gustavo García López
Released
Gustavo García López was arrested for trespass on the U.S. Navy bombing range at Vieques, Puerto Rico, as part...
C
César Gardez
A PIP member who testified about arrest, release and rearrest in 1950 for alleged shooting at the National Gua...
B
Blanca Gari Perez
Released
Blanca Gari Perez was arrested for trespass on the U.S. Navy bombing range at Vieques, Puerto Rico, as part of...
E
Efraín Gil de Lamadrid
Imprisoned and held incommunicado for two weeks after the 1950 uprising. The thesis, citing Emelina de Jesús’s...
N
Nydia Gonzalez Reyes
Released
Nydia Gonzalez Reyes was arrested for trespass on the U.S. Navy bombing range at Vieques, Puerto Rico, as part...
A
Antonio González
A seventeen-year-old Utuado nationalist identified among the surrendered captives killed during the 1950 upris...
I
Ismael González
Released
Ismael González was arrested for trespass on the U.S. Navy bombing range at Vieques, Puerto Rico, as part of t...
S
Salvador González
Released
One of approximately 1,500 activists arrested between 1999 and 2003 for civil disobedience at the U.S. Navy's...
T
Tomás González Candelaria
A Utuado nationalist identified in the thesis’s participant list and referred to as Tomás Candelaria in Heribe...
S
Santiago González Castro
Released
Santiago González Castro was a Puerto Rican Nationalist and standard-bearer of the Cadets of the Republic in P...
M
Martín González Ruiz
Released
Martín González Ruiz was one of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party members charged with the murder of two poli...
M
Modesto Gotay
A seventy-year-old independence leader jailed for refusing to lower the Puerto Rican flag at his home during t...

Institutions in Puerto Rico

Prisons, jails, and detention centers in Puerto Rico that appear in the census’s case files.

Metropolitan Detention Center GuaynaboGuaynabo, Puerto Rico
95 cases
Federal Detention Center, GuaynaboSan Juan, Puerto Rico
93 cases
Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) GuaynaboGuaynabo, Puerto Rico
20 cases
MDC GuaynaboSan Juan, Puerto Rico
15 cases
La PrincesaSan Juan, Puerto Rico
9 cases
Vega Alta Women's PrisonVega Alta, Puerto Rico
4 cases
Arecibo Women's JailArecibo, Puerto Rico
1 case
District Jail, AreciboArecibo, Puerto Rico
1 case