Aníbal Acevedo Vilá

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Aníbal Acevedo Vilá

Aníbal Acevedo Vilá (born May 13, 1962 in Hato Rey , Puerto Rico ) is a Puerto Rican politician and former governor of Puerto Rico. Acevedo held many political offices in Puerto Rico, including as a member of the Puerto Rican House of Representatives (1993-2001) and Resident Commissioner in the United States House of Representatives (2001-2005). Acevedo won the governor's election in November 2004 when he defeated challenger Pedro Rosselló . His predecessor was Sila María Calderón .

The election victory was very close, as only 3,566 votes allowed Acevedo to win. Acevedo is the first elected governor born after the adoption of the Puerto Rico Constitution.

Life

childhood and education

Acevedo was born in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, a suburb of San Juan . He attended the Colegio San José High School in San Juan, which he graduated in 1979. In 1982 he received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras. Acevedo then completed a law degree and obtained his doctorate in law in 1985 with the distinction magna cum laude. In 1987 he obtained a Master's degree in Constitutional Law from Harvard University. He then worked for Levin Hicks Campbell, the presiding judge of the Boston Court of Appeals.

Political career

From 1989 he worked as a legal advisor to the governor Rafael Hernández Colón . In 1992 he was elected as a member of the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico . After being re-elected in 1996, he became spokesman for the minority faction in parliament in 1997 and also chairman of the Partido Popular Democrático in the same year . In 1998 he campaigned against a proposal submitted by Don Young to the US House of Representatives to redefine the political status of Puerto Rico, which included the admission of Puerto Rico as a state to the United States. The law failed in the United States Senate. He was a member of the state parliament until 2001. A first attempt to be elected to the US House of Representatives as Resident Commissioner for Puerto Rico failed in 1999, the next was successful in 2000. He represented Puerto Rico from January 2001 to January 2005 in Washington.

When the previous governor Sila Calderón announced in 2003 that she would not run again for a second term, Acevedo prevailed as a candidate for the Partido Popular Democrático against the internal party competitor José Hernández Mayoral. In November 2004 he won the gubernatorial elections in Puerto Rico against Pedro Rosselló, who was already governor of Puerto Rico from 1993 to 2001. When trying for re-election in 2008, he failed because of Luis Fortuño from the Partido Nuevo Progresista .

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personal data
SURNAME Acevedo Vilá, Aníbal
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Puerto Rican politician
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Hato Rey , Puerto Rico