Carlos Edill Berríos Polanco

Latino voters were generally supportive of the Biden administration’s policies but remain extremely worried about inflation and the rising cost of living. Pre-election myths about frustration leading to a seismic Latino shift towards the right were ultimately wrong.

Puerto Rican legislators from New York and local activist groups joined forces on Thursday to repudiate the Puerto Rican government’s contract with LUMA Energy and ask Gov. Pedro Pierluisi not to grant the company control over the archipelago’s electrical system for the next 15 years.

Latinos made up about one in 10 of the votes cast during the 2022 midterm elections, according to a study conducted by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. Roughly 35 million Latinos were eligible to vote, representing 14 percent of the electorate.

Latinos were running for top offices across 44 states, with political observers predicting a “historic” rise in Latino representation. Some elections have yet to be called, but even still, Latinos have made clear gains throughout the government.

Tuesday’s midterm elections will likely see a “historic” rise in Latino representation in Congress, statewide offices, and state legislatures, according to a study conducted by NALEO. Latinos are running for top offices in 44 states.

On Thursday, private businesses used heavy machinery to block the public access path to Cueva del Indio, a Taíno historical site on Puerto Rico’s northern coast, which had been cleared by activists in mid-October.

On Tuesday, the Citizens’ Victory Movement and the Puerto Rican Independence Party announced a formal collaboration to address grievances against the 2020 electoral law and its proposed amendments, which were passed by the Puerto Rico House of Representatives later that day.

Pennsylvania Lieutenant Gov. John Fetterman, a Democrat, has broad support among Latino Democrat and independent voters in the state’s hotly contested race for the U.S. Senate, according to Futuro Media’s first-ever poll of Latino voters.

Protesters arrested last Wednesday in the Puerto Rican capital and later released without charges were surprised when police officers gave them a manual on how they should protest.

After Futuro Media’s first-ever poll of Latino voters in Florida revealed high support for Gov. DeSantis and the Republican Party, Latino Rebels spoke to respondents to get a better sense of the political environment in a battleground state that is quickly becoming a crimson stronghold for the GOP.

On Wednesday, October 12, activists and artists were attacked in the Dominican Republic’s capital city of Santo Domingo by a right-wing ultranationalist group during a cultural performance that sought to highlight Indigenous and Afrodescendant heritage.

On Monday the Supreme Court declined to review a case involving the citizenship rights of American Samoans that advocates had hoped would lead to the overturning of a series of century-old rulings that provide legal justification for the disenfranchisement of U.S. citizens living in overseas territories.

Faced with a slow response from the federal and local governments, activists took matters into their own hands on Sunday by tearing down illegal construction blocking the public entrance into the Cueva del Indio Taíno historical site.

President Joe Biden visited Puerto Rico on Monday to announce new hurricane relief projects, two weeks after Hurricane Fiona battered the archipelago. Tens of thousands remain without power, and even more worry that aid promised by Biden will be too little too late.

As Hurricane Fiona bore down on Puerto Rico two weeks ago, the U.S.-imposed fiscal control board and the U.S.-based judge who handles the public electric utility’s debt restructuring deal forced Puerto Rican lawyers to file motions even as the archipelago was experiencing an island-wide blackout.

As fuel in Puerto Rico grows scarcer after Hurricane Fiona, an oil tanker loaded with much-needed diesel fuel is treading water off the coast of Puerto Rico, unable to dock because a 1920 law, known as the Jones Act, requires ships to be U.S.-owned if they want to load or unload.

Since Hurricane Fiona swept over Puerto Rico on Sunday, residents along the southern coast have seen little state or federal aid in their communities, forcing them to survive mostly on their own.

In the five years since Hurricane María tore through their country, the people of Puerto Rico have made efforts to rebuild in hopes that they would be ready for the next disaster. Hurricane Fiona, a Category 1 storm that swept through the island on Sunday, has shattered such hopes.

After a string of blackouts that left many without electricity throughout August, Puerto Ricans came together on Thursday to protest LUMA Energy and Gov. Pedro Pierluisi in Old San Juan. The protest ended with the streets thick with tear gas and multiple journalists and protesters wounded by police.

Experts say that mental health among Puerto Rico’s youth is getting worse at an alarming rate, exacerbated by compounding natural disasters, faltering infrastructure, and a lack of mental health resources.

After seven consecutive increases, the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau has announced the first reduction in the price of electricity since 2021. The decrease went into effect on Monday, August 1.