This list of governors of Puerto Rico includes all persons who have held the office of Governor of Puerto Rico since its establishment under the rule of the Spanish Empire (1508–1898) to the present under the sovereignty of the United States (1898–present).
The archipelago and island of Puerto Rico was annexed by the United States during the Spanish–American War in 1898, ending 390 years of active rule by the Spanish Empire, which began the European exploration, colonization, and settlement of the main island under conquistador Juan Ponce de León in 1508. Ponce de León was the first person to hold the title and office of governor by orders of King Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1509. The governor remained an appointee of the Spanish Crown during Spanish rule, and was an appointee of the President of the United States during American rule until 1948, when the residents of Puerto Rico began to popularly elect the governor, starting with Luis Muñoz Marín, who took office in 1949.
Since 1508, 167 persons (164 men and 3 women), have served in 190 formal, interim, or de facto governorships, as 17 governors have served twice nonconsecutively and 3 have served thrice nonconsecutively. Of the 190 governors, 175 have been appointed (149 by the Spanish Crown and 26 by the President of the United States), 14 elected through popular vote by the residents of Puerto Rico, and one constitutionally appointed after the resignation of an elected governor.
The governorship has been vacant twice, as two municipal administrators, called alcaldes ordinarios, served in place of a governor each year from 1537 to 1544 and 1548 to 1550. The shortest-serving governor was Andrés González Muñoz, who died hours after the start of his second interim governorship on January 11, 1898. Luis Muñoz Marín served the longest, having held the office for 16 consecutive years, or four terms of four years each, from 1949 to 1965, after he decided not to seek re-election. Ricardo Rosselló, who left office prematurely as a result of the Telegramgate scandal in 2019, is the first and only elected governor to have resigned. No elected governor has been impeached.
The first governor born in Puerto Rico was Ponce de León’s grandchild, Juan Ponce de León II, who served as interim governor from 1578 to 1580. He was the only Puerto Rican-born person to occupy the office until Ángel Rivero Méndez, who served in an interim capacity as the last governor under Spanish rule for two days from October 16 to 18, 1898. Several Puerto Ricans also briefly served as interim governors from 1921 to 1941. During the direct Spanish and American control of the governorship from 1508 to 1948, the first and only native Puerto Rican to have held the office in a formal capacity was Jesús T. Piñero, who served as the last appointed governor of Puerto Rico from 1946 to 1949.
Since 1949, the governor of Puerto Rico has served by popular election as the head of government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States organized under the Constitution of Puerto Rico since its establishment in 1952. The incumbent governor is Jenniffer González, who was elected on November 5, 2024, and sworn in on January 2, 2025.
History
Spanish Empire rule With the European discovery of Puerto Rico during the second voyage of Christopher Columbus in November 1493, the archipelagic island was claimed by the Spanish Crown. In 1505, Spanish King Ferdinand II of Aragon ordered the colonization of Puerto Rico, appointing Spanish conquistador Vicente Yáñez Pinzón as its captain and corregidor to essentially serve as a de facto governor. However, Yáñez Pinzón never fulfilled the commission. Puerto Rico remained unexplored and unsettled by the Spanish Empire from 1493 to 1508.
In 1508, the King ordered Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León to conquer Puerto Rico, becoming the first European to explore, colonize, and settle the archipelago and island. In 1509, the title and position of governor of Puerto Rico was officially established by King Ferdinand II of Aragon, who appointed Ponce de León as the first holder of the office. The governor continued to be appointed by the Spanish Crown for 390 years, serving under various administrative entities: the Viceroyalty of the Indies (1508–1535), the Viceroyalty of New Spain (1535–1582), the Captaincy General of Puerto Rico (1582–1897), and the Autonomous Province of Puerto Rico (1897–1898).
From 1537 to 1544 and 1548 to 1550, the governorship remained vacant, as alcaldes ordinarios served in place of a governor. By order of King Charles I of Spain, two alcaldes ordinarios, one for the eastern cabildo of Partido de San Juan and the other for the western cabildo of Partido de San Germán, were elected each year by the regidores of each cabildo. The alcaldes ordinarios, who could only be re-elected two years after the end of their one-year term, served as municipal administrators and not governors.
From 1578 to 1580, Juan Ponce de León’s grandchild, Juan Ponce de León II, served as interim governor, becoming the first Puerto Rican-born person to serve as governor of the archipelago and island. He was the only Puerto Rican-born person to occupy the office until Ángel Rivero Méndez, who served for three days as interim governor from October 16 to October 18, 1898.
With the English occupation of San Juan, the capital city of Puerto Rico, from June to November 1598, which was the only complete takeover of the city by a foreign power before its peaceful transfer to the Americans after hostilities stopped during the Spanish–American War in October 1898, the governor, Antonio de Mosquera, surrendered and was exiled to Cartagena de Indias in Colombia. However, the English, led by George Clifford and John Berkeley, failed to keep the city and to gain control of the main island. From November 1598 to March 1599, former governor Pedro Suárez Coronel, who had been imprisoned in San Juan’s El Morro fortress, assumed the governorship after the retreat of the English and arrival of Mosquera’s formal replacement, Alonso de Mercado.
United States sovereignty In 1898, the President of the United States assumed the authority to appoint the person occupying the office as a result of the annexation of the archipelago and island by the United States during Spanish American War.
While General Nelson A. Miles led the American invasion and occupation of Puerto Rico from July 25 to August 13, 1898, he never served as governor, as that responsibility was assigned to fellow General John R. Brooke, who was head of the American delegation to the commission for the peaceful transfer of sovereignty over Puerto Rico from Spain to the United States, as stipulated in the armistice signed by the two countries on August 12. After the departure of the Spanish officials from San Juan on October 16, Brooke became the first American governor of the archipelago and island on October 18, 1898, succeeding interim governor Ángel Rivero Méndez, who was the last governor under Spanish administration.
Under the military (1898–1900) and insular civil governments (1900–1952) of Puerto Rico, the latter of which was established by the Foraker Act of 1900 and expanded by the Jones–Shafroth Act of 1917, the governor remained an appointee of the American president from 1898 to 1948. While several Puerto Ricans briefly served as interim governors during this period, the only native Puerto Rican to be appointed to the governorship was Jesús T. Piñero, who served as the last appointed governor of Puerto Rico from 1946 to 1949. Piñero was the first and only native Puerto Rican to held the office in a formal, not interim capacity during the direct Spanish and American control of the governorship from 1508 to 1948.
In 1947, the Elective Governor Act granted the residents of Puerto Rico the power to elect the governor through popular vote. The first election for the governorship was held in 1948, resulting in the victory of Luis Muñoz Marín, who became the first democratically elected governor. Since 1949, the governor of Puerto Rico has served by popular election as the head of government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States organized under the Constitution of Puerto Rico since 1952.
In 2019, governor Ricardo Rosselló, alongside other members of his cabinet, including the Secretary of State, resigned as a result of the Telegramgate scandal, becoming the first elected governor to step down. Before leaving office, Rosselló named Pedro Pierluisi as state secretary, with the intention of making Pierluisi his successor, as the state secretary is the first official in the gubernatorial line of succession. Pierluisi was sworn in as governor after Rosselló’s resignation. However, his tenure only lasted five days, as the Supreme Court ruled that his assumption of the office was unconstitutional because his nomination as state secretary was never confirmed by the Legislative Assembly. He was succeeded by the next official in the gubernatorial line of succession, Secretary of Justice Wanda Vázquez Garced, who became the first governor to serve through constitutional appointment.
Spanish Empire rule (1508–1898)
This list includes all governors of Puerto Rico who served under the Spanish Empire from the start of the colonization of the archipelago and island in 1508 to the end of Spanish rule as a result of the Spanish-American War in 1898. Governors are divided by the administrative territorial entity under which they directly served.
Century16th – 17th – 18th – 19th
Viceroyalty of the Indies (1508–1535) In 1492, when explorer Christopher Columbus took possession of the West Indies in the Caribbean in the name of the Spanish Empire, pursuant to the provisions of the Capitulations of Santa Fe granted by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, the Viceroyalty of the Indies was established as an administrative entity, with Columbus as its first viceroy and governor. Headquartered in the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo in Hispaniola, it was primarily composed of the Greater and Lesser Antilles islands discovered by Columbus during his voyages to the Americas, including the archipelago and island of Puerto Rico, where he landed during his second voyage in 1493.
From the start of the colonization of Puerto Rico by Juan Ponce León in 1508 to the merging of the Viceroyalty of the Indies into the Viceroyalty of New Spain in 1535, the governor of Puerto Rico operated under the jurisdiction of the Spanish Crown, which exercised its authority through the monarch of Spain, the president of the Council of the Indies, and the viceroy and governor of the Viceroyalty of the Indies, who was also the governor of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo and the president of the Real Audiencia of Santo Domingo in Hispaniola.
No. Signature Name Tenure Start End Duration Juan Poncede León June 15, 1508 October 28, 1509 JuanCerón October 28,1509 March 2,1510 Juan Poncede León March 2,1510 June 21,1511 Gonzalode Ovalle June 21,1511 November 28,1511 JuanCerón November 28,1511 June 2,1512 Rodrigo de Moscoso June 2,1512 February1513 ≥ Cristóbalde Mendoza February1513 July 15,1515 ≥ JuanPoncede León July 15, 1515 September 12,1519 Antoniode la Gama September 12,1519 January 15,1521 PedroMoreno January 15,1521 May 1523 ≥ AlonsoManso May1523 1524 ≥ PedroMoreno 1524 June1529 ≥ Antoniode la GamaJune15291530 ≥ FranciscoManuelde Lando 1530 August1536 ≥
Viceroyalty of New Spain (1535–1582)