José Joaquin Dapena Thompson (born c. 1938), known as Josito, was a Puerto Rican

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

and

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

Ponce, Puerto Rico Ponce (, , , ) is both a city and a municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government. Ponce, Puerto Rico's most populated city outside the San Juan metropolitan area, was founded on 12 August 1 ...

from 22 February 1984 to 1988.

Schooling

Dapena graduated from the

University of Salamanca The University of Salamanca ( es, Universidad de Salamanca) is a Spanish higher education institution, located in the city of Salamanca, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It was founded in 1218 by King Alfonso IX. It is th ...

, Spain, in 1965. He practiced law in the island until he got involved in

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

. In 1984, he defeated the candidate from the PPD by a narrow margin for the position of Mayor of Ponce,

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

Mayoral term

Dapena Thompson became mayor of Ponce on 22 February 1984 upon the resignation as mayor of Jose G. Tormos Vega on that day. Later, in October of that year, he became ''bona fide'' mayor via the electoral vote. In the interim, Ruben Quinones, the Ponce Municipal Secretary, was the acting mayor. He was mayor until Ivan Ayala Cadiz assumed the mayoral post in December 1987 via nomination of the New Progressive Party. Ayala Cadiz was mayor until January 1989.

Resignation

In 1988, Dapena Thompson was "named an unindicted co-conspirator" of

embezzlement Embezzlement is a crime that consists of withholding assets for the purpose of conversion of such assets, by one or more persons to whom the assets were entrusted, either to be held or to be used for specific purposes. Embezzlement is a type ...

of federal funds from

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. As a result, he resigned as mayor. Ivan Ayala Cadiz, former assistant dean at the

Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico School of Law The Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico School of Law is the law school of the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico, a Private university, private Catholic church, Roman Catholic university with its main campus in Ponce, Puer ...

, finished off Dapena Thompson's last few weeks' mayoral term.

Today

Dapena Thompson lived in

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and worked with his son, José Dapena, as of counsel and

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. He has also served as legal advisor to senator

Larry Seilhamer Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment * Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer *Larry Boone ...

Schooling

Mayoral term

Resignation

Today

See also

References

Further reading