Abstract

The Governor and the Bishops

Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rico's first elected Governor, remains in La Fortaleza, Puerto Rico. Despite his victory, a threat lingers, perhaps not to his power, but to the political stability of Puerto Rico. And, while the threat evolves primarily from clericalism, part of the threat also stems from Muñoz Marín himself. During the campaign, the flare-up over the tactics of the bishops, who issued two pastoral letters forbidding Catholics to vote for Muñoz Marín obscured some of the political problems of Puerto Rico. The Governor's rout of the new Christian Action Party, a creature of the bishops, tended to fill his supporters, particularly abroad, with a heady optimism, blinding them to the dangers still enveloping democracy on the island.