Roberto Sánchez Vilella

Roberto Sánchez Vilella ( born February 19, 1913 in Mayagüez, † 24 March 1997) was a Puerto Rican politician and from 1965 to 1969 governor of Puerto Rico.

Career

Roberto Sánchez Vilella attended the public schools of his home and thereafter until 1934, the Ohio State University, where he was trained as a civil engineer. He then returned to his Puerto Rican home where he struck a political career. He served in various official positions. He was, among other things, between 1942 and 1945 Administrator of the Transportation Authority. In the years 1945 and 1946, he served as mayor of San Juan. From 1952 to 1965 he served as Secretary of State, the Executive Officer of the Government of Puerto Rico. For a short time he also worked in the private construction industry. He built a government-funded tourist hotel. Politically, he was a member of the Democratic Party of the United States and Puerto Rican Partido Popular Democrático.

In 1964 he was elected as the successor of Luis Muñoz Marín as the new Governor of Puerto Rico. This post he held between January 2, 1965 January 2, 1969. Reigned he in a time in which Puerto Rico, including through its support, gradually transformed from an agricultural area to an industrial and tourism region. A vote on the status of Puerto Rico as a territory of the United States at that time gave a clear majority in favor of the preservation of the existing state. His policies brought him into conflict with his party that no longer nominated him in 1968 for re-election. He left the party and founded a short-lived own People's Party ( Partido del Pueblo), which did not win the election for governor, but his old party harmed. Their candidate lost to Luis A. Ferré of the Partido Nuevo Progresista.

After the end of his governorship Sánchez Vilella was a professor of public administration at the University of Puerto Rico. He died on 24 March 1997 from cancer.