U.S. Corruption and Neglect Enable Electoral Fraud in Puerto Rico

An explosive investigation has revealed that an alleged drugs-for-votes scheme benefited a Republican governor during the 2024 election cycle. A prison gang handed out drugs to prisoners in exchange for casting their ballots for then-gubernatorial candidate Jenniffer González-Colón, according to ProPublica.

González-Colón, who won a three-way race with 41% of the vote, won 83% of the inmate vote. Prosecutors were ready to charge inmates and staff, and were in the midst of investigating González-Colón, an avowed pro-Trump Republican, and her campaign’s possible involvement. They claimed to have evidence of WhatsApp messages between González-Colón and a prison gang leader. But President Trump’s Justice Department abruptly halted the investigation just after he was elected — presumably to protect a GOP ally.

You might think a political scandal involving the criminal underworld and electoral fraud would make the front-page news, especially with such an eye-catching headline. You would think — at the very least — that Democrats would be shouting about the scandal from the rooftops and chomping at the bit to investigate an apparent outrageous instance of corruption by the Trump administration.

But none of that has happened. The alleged scheme took place in Puerto Rico, which means that nobody in the United States really cares.

The American media’s neglect of Puerto Rico has been well-documented. Famously, after Hurricane María, U.S. news outlets spent far more time reporting on Roseanne Barr’s cancellation than on a major study on the storm’s death toll.

That neglect has far-reaching consequences. It perpetuates harmful misconceptions about Puerto Rico. Absent in-depth reporting on the archipelago, many Americans believe that federal oversight and U.S. rule over Puerto Rico are a necessary corrective to rampant corruption by the archipelago’s leaders.

Puerto Rico’s ruling pro-statehood (PNP) and pro-status quo (PPD) parties do have a long history of graft and fraud. But the Trump administration’s alleged partisan meddling in a federal investigation illustrates that the U.S. government’s own corruption taints Puerto Rican politics and enables bad actors on the archipelago.

This is at least the second time that President Trump has allegedly directly protected a political ally in Puerto Rico. Back in January, he pardoned former pro-statehood governor Wanda Vázquez twice, who was likely to serve prison time for her own electoral bribery scandal. Ironically, the pardon was itself the result of bribery: the daughter of one of Vázquez’s co-defendants donated more than a million dollars to Trump.

The media’s neglect abets the U.S. public’s disinterest in MAGA’s corrupt footprint in Puerto Rico, in turn disincentivizing action from American leaders. Four days after the ProPublica article was published, only two U.S. lawmakers had made public comments about it. Pablo José Hernández, Puerto Rico’s non-voting delegate in Congress, claimed he’s talking to his colleagues about an investigation. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island wrote a single tweet and Republican Rep. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin told ProPublica he did not know the details of the scandal but would support an investigation. 

So far, that is the full extent of political reaction to the scandal in the United States. The lack of attention from elected officials in the United States is par for the course and a persistent colonial challenge. Because there are no votes to be earned on the archipelago, there is little motivation for U.S. politicians to care about what happens in their beleaguered Caribbean colony. If the American people, who are their voters and constituents, don’t care either, there is even less reason for U.S. leaders to expend political capital on Puerto Rico’s problems.

This is a microcosm of how Puerto Rico’s colonial status creates a vicious cycle ripe for abuse and corruption. A U.S. president who Puerto Ricans can’t even vote for has ultimate authority over the archipelago’s legal system, and there is no incentive for American politicians to enforce accountability to actually promote justice.

Many U.S. leaders also hesitate to shine the spotlight on Puerto Rico, lest people start asking uncomfortable questions about colonialism. Both political parties have a stake in the dominant narrative that the archipelago’s status is more helpful than harmful. Challenges to that narrative might fuel demands for a change in political status.

Neither party wants to talk about statehood, which divides Democrats and is anathema to Republicans. President Trump seemingly can’t go a week without warning that Puerto Rican statehood would destroy America. Shamefully, after 128 years of colonial rule — and on the 250th anniversary of the United States’ own independence — neither party wants to talk about freeing Puerto Rico either.

As a result, the U.S. political and media establishments conspire to avoid talking about it altogether.

None of this should excuse the malfeasance of Puerto Rico’s public officials, who take advantage of the archipelago’s colonial status for political gain. Figures like González-Colón, a former leader of Latinos for Trump, get MAGA protection while allegations against her don’t get investigated. That is an indictment of her honesty and decency, but also of the broader political system under which she and all Puerto Rican leaders operate.

Colonialism enables corruption by eroding or eliminating the basic structures of democratic accountability. It creates perverse incentives and rewards allegiance to the colonizers more than to the people whom elected officials are meant to serve. It keeps Americans in the dark about what’s really happening in Puerto Rico, even though their government is legally responsible for it. Corruption thrives in those shadows.

Some people believe that Puerto Rico isn’t “ready” for independence because it is far too corrupt. They have it backwards. The archipelago is so corrupt, in no small part, because it is not free. It has been trapped, for more than a century, in a political condition that degrades our nation’s capacity for healthy democratic rule. Puerto Rico’s decolonization and sovereignty are not just moral imperatives, but the necessary preconditions to a political transformation that can result in better government and a more just society.

Alberto C. Medina, President of Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora, is a Puerto Rico-born, U.S.-based advocate for Puerto Rican independence. He writes about Puerto Rican politics on Substack and his book, Free Puerto Rico, will be published in 2027 by The New Press. Follow him on X/Twitter at @AlbertoMedinaPR. 

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