Welcome to a New Friend

Vice President-elect Hubert Humphrey was in San Juan, along with Senator William Fulbright, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. They were bidding goodbye to an old friend and welcoming a new one as the next Governor of Puerto Rico. Stepping down at last was Luis Munoz Marin, 66, the island commonwealth's leader for the past 16 years. Into the Governor's La Fortaleza palace went Roberto Sanchez Vilella, 51, Munoz' able Secretary of State (Vice Governor) and hand-picked successor who has worked faithfully for el maestro since 1948. "There is no substitute for Munoz," says Sanchez. "I am simply going to be the next Governor, and I hope a good one. We have great jobs to do. We cannot be afraid."

Mood of Expectancy. Considering how far they have already come, Puerto Ricans have a lot less to fear than most Latin Americans. When Munoz and his men founded the Popular Democratic Party in, 1938, the island was little more than a hilly sugar plantation controlled by companies in the U.S. Per-capita income was a pitiable $120 annually, San Juan's waterfront slums were among the worst anywhere, and thousands of Puerto Ricans were fleeing to the U.S. mainland each year. Munoz' answer was to help Puerto Rico help itself.

He offered U.S. industry low-cost labor and generous tax incentives; today the factories of more than 50 major U.S. companies are spread over the island. He brought in the hotelmen who turned Puerto Rico into the Caribbean's richest tourist market, with 500,000 visitors spending $100 million last year. In 1952, Munoz won U.S. approval for a unique "commonwealth" status, combining many advantages of statehood (U.S. protection and citizenship) with those of a possession (no federal taxes). All of this has combined to give Puerto Rico an annual per-capita income of $830, highest in Latin America.

More important is the mood of expectancy. Early estimates indicate that for the first time in a generation, more Puerto Ricans may have returned to the island in 1964 than left it. They hardly recognized the place. Too many of the old slums remain, but new hotels, homes and apartment houses dominate the San Juan landscape. "Give your child the piano you missed," advertises one busy music dealer. Back-country general stores feature stereophonic jukeboxes. Used-car dealers, playing on the fashionable desire for foreign labels, boast models "imported from Miami."

Time to Delegate. Munoz has been in charge so long that most Puerto Ricans found it hard to believe that he would ever step down. But Munoz knew different and four years ago began preparing his departure. He started delegating more responsibility within his party and making longer trips away from the island--leaving command to Vice Governor Sanchez. When last August's Popular Democratic Convention rolled around, Munoz announced that he would not stand for re-election but would run for a senate seat from which he could "renew my contact with the people and the country." Sanchez Vilella was nominated by acclamation to fill his shoes.

A quiet-spoken, U.S.-trained civil engineer who drifted into politics in the late 1930s, Sanchez lacks Munoz' charisma. But he is smart and dedicated, a man of "illustrious conscience," as Munoz likes to put it, with a long record of success: boss of the island's transit system, mayor of San Juan, president of the senate, and since 1952, Munoz' Vice Governor and key lieutenant. In the November elections, Puerto Ricans gave him 59.6% of the vote, which comes close to Munoz' biggest margin. "Puerto Rico," said Sanchez in his inaugural address, "is leaving an era of the great patriots and is entering the era of the people. It must be the people themselves who run the government now."

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