“In Puerto Rico there is no appetite for the traditional parties”

A Video Interview with Paul Figueroa

Paul Figueroa is a community activist and was a nominee for city council for the Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño (PIP) in the 2020 election in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

I spoke with Paul Figueroa about the results of the 2020 elections and statehood referendum in Puerto Rico. We spoke about the left’s significant gains in the elections, the challenges posed to the two party duopoly, and independence for Puerto Rico.

“A serious decolonization process is not statehood, ‘yes or no’. A serious decolonization process is one that proposes the alternatives, that educates people on what they mean. So this plebiscite was done without even negotiating conditions of statehood with the United States. So how can we in good conscience vote yes on something if we have no idea what the consequences of that would mean? That’s one of the many reasons why we were against this…