support. In 2012, 5.6% of people voted for independence (12). Although there are small pockets of independence support, the events of the twentieth century have essentially murdered the Nationalist cause. With the option of independence gone, the Puerto Rican people turned to a new option: statehood. With the current status that Puerto Rico is under, it is extremely easier for American corporations to exploit the island for cheap labor, set up monopolies, use it as a tax haven, or all of those at once (11). As a result, the people have been suffering. In April of 2022, power outages occurred across the entire island when a fire took out an electrical plant, leaving people without food or access to the outside world. The plant is owned by LUMA, a subsidiary of a Canadian company, that has run the Puerto Rican power grid since June of 2021 (13). With no way of advocating complete freedom from these conditions, the majority of Puerto Ricans have turned towards statehood as a way to gain safer, more stable resources. In 1967, the support for statehood stood at 39%. Over time, as the island became more entrenched in the culture of privatization, the support for statehood grew. In 1998, 46.5% of Puerto Ricans voted for it, and in 2012, 61.1% did. However, this increase is not completely due to the virtues of statehood. In the 1998 referendum, 50.3% voted for “None of the Above (12).” The people were still partial to a better status than either option. However, with independence removed from the conversation, their hand had been forced by the actions of the US. The US, to this day, has sought out Nationalists and their families. In 2005, the FBI raided Filiberto Ojeda Rios’ house, killing him in the process. Approximately 104 rounds were fired at Ojeda, and after he was finally hit, the FBI agents didn’t allow PAGE 12 VOL. 2, NO. 1 ZEITGEIST of Campos’s imminent imprisonment arose in 1950, and so the revolution was moved up. On October 30, Nationalist revolts in Ponce, Arecibo, Naranjito, Mayagüez, Utuado, San Juan, and Juyaya occurred (11). They were all put down in different ways. In San Juan, Nationalists drove to the Governor’s mansion and attempted to assassinate Luis Muñoz Marin. They were killed immediately. In Utuado, where all militants were to regroup, 70% of the town was bombed by the Puerto Rican National Guard. The same happened in Juyaya, with both bombs and machine guns used to ruin the town (4). After these events, Campos and other Nationalist leaders were arrested with lengthy prison times. Two days later, two Nationalist members, Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo, attempted to take Harry Truman’s life at Blair House. Torresola was killed, and Collazo was sentenced to death (4). This conflict absolutely crippled the Nationalist cause, and just about all momentum was taken away from them. After the Nationalist uprisings and the attempted assassinations, the independence movement had lost all steam. The people had been effectively scared off from the option. In 1945, some 57 percent of Puerto Rico’s elected representatives supported independence publicly (4). After the events in 1950, including the arrest of Albizu Campos, the Nationalist Party had essentially been decapitated. They had lost their leader and a good amount of members from the uprisings, and the failed assassinations had scared people from the cause (11). The effects of this would soon show themselves in the ballot box. In 1967, a referendum was held on the status of Puerto Rico. In 1967, only 0.6% of people voted for statehood, and 60% of people voted for a commonwealth status (12). Over those seventeen years, the threat of retaliation turned people completely away from the option. Over the years, independence would stay at that low level of
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