Acevedo Vilá, Aníbal, 1962-

<p>Aníbal Acevedo-Vilá served a single four-year term as Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner, advocating for the island’s commonwealth status and its cultural and political autonomy. “I’m going to Washington to reaffirm that we are Puerto Ricans first. I’m going to Washington to defend the sovereignty of the Puerto Rican people,” Acevedo-Vilá declared shortly after his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000.</p>

<p>Aníbal Acevedo-Vilá was born on February 13, 1962, in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, to state senator Salvador Acevedo and Elba Vilá. He earned a degree in political science from the Universidad de Puerto Rico in 1982 and graduated from its law school three years later. After clerking for the supreme court of Puerto Rico, he moved to the mainland United States, where he earned a master's degree from Harvard Law School in 1987. For the next two years, he clerked for the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, returning to Puerto Rico in 1989. He married Luisa Gándara, and the couple had two children, Gabriela and Juan Carlos.</p>

<p>Acevedo-Vilá began his career as an aide for Puerto Rican Governor Hernández Colón of the Partido Popular Democrático (Popular Democratic Party, or PPD), which he called “the longstanding defender of the commonwealth of Puerto Rico.” In 1992 at the age of 30, he won election as a Popular Democrat to the Puerto Rican house of representatives, and after only five years in the insular legislature, he was elevated to minority leader and elected president of the PPD—a major vote of confidence. As party head, Acevedo-Vilá became a leading critic of the island’s 1998 status referendum—which had support in the U.S. House of Representatives—complaining that it gave those who favored statehood an unfair advantage. On multiple occasions, Acevedo-Vilá asked Congress to scrap referendum bills H.R. 856 and S. 472, and in 1997 he argued heatedly with Puerto Rican Resident Commissioner Carlos Romero-Barceló during a House subcommittee hearing on the island’s political status. Testifying before the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Energy and Natural Resources roughly a year later, Acevedo-Vilá blamed mainland administrators for the island’s nebulous federal relationship. “It is not our fault. It was the United States that invaded Puerto Rico. It was Congress that granted U.S. citizenship back in 1917. It was Congress that granted Commonwealth back in 1952,” he said. “By harmonizing the fact that we are a people, a Nation, with our own identity, history, and culture, with the preservation of the permanent bond of the U.S. citizenship, Commonwealth represents an alternative to the extremes of complete integration and total separation.” In December 1998, much to Acevedo-Vilá’s satisfaction, a majority on the island voted in favor of commonwealth status. “This vote,” he declared, “means that we have here people who are proud of their history, proud of their relationship with the United States, proud of their American citizenship, but, above all, proud of their Puerto Ricanness.”</p>

<p>Aníbal Salvador Acevedo Vilá (born 13 February 1962) is a Puerto Rican politician and lawyer. He served as Governor of Puerto Rico from 2005 to 2009. He is a Harvard University alumnus (LL.M. 1987) and a graduate of the University of Puerto Rico School of Law, where he obtained his Juris Doctor degree. Acevedo Vilá has held various public service positions in the Puerto Rico government under the Popular Democratic Party, serving as a member of the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico (1993–2001) and as the 17th Resident Commissioner (2001–2005), before he was sworn in as Governor on 2 January 2005. Acevedo Vilá was also a member of the National Governors Association, the Southern Governors' Association and the Democratic Governors Association, and a collaborator of President Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Also he is currently an adjunct professor of the University of Puerto Rico School of Law. He unsuccessfully ran for Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico in the 2020 elections for the Popular Democratic Party.</p>

<p>On 27 March 2008, Acevedo Vilá was indicted in the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico on 19 counts of campaign finance violations. He subsequently organized a press conference, where he claimed that he is innocent of all charges presented against him. On 19 August 2008, he was charged with five more counts. On 1 December 2008 Judge Paul Barbadoro determined that 15 of those charges were based on a flawed theory, leaving him with only nine charges. On 20 March 2009, Acevedo Vilá was found by a jury not guilty of all the charges against him.</p>

<p>On 4 November 2008, he failed in his bid for a second term, losing to incumbent Resident Commissioner Luis Fortuño. Two days later he stepped down as president of the Popular Democratic Party.</p>

ACEVEDO VILÁ, Aníbal, a Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico; born in Hato Rey, P.R., February 13, 1962; B.A., University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, P.R., 1982; J.D., University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, P.R., 1985; L.L.M., Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 1987; lawyer, private practice; member of the Puerto Rican house of representatives, 1991-2001; elected as a Popular Democrat to the One Hundred Seventh Congress to a four-year term (January 3, 2001-January 3, 2005); caucused with the Democratic Party; was not a candidate for reelection One Hundred Ninth Congress in 2004, but was a successful candidate for Governor of Puerto Rico; Governor of Puerto Rico, 2005-2009.