The Puerto Rico governmental line of succession defines who may become or act as

Governor of Puerto Rico The governor of Puerto Rico ( es, gobernador de Puerto Rico) is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and commander-in-chief of the Puerto Rico National Guard. The governor has a duty to enforce local laws, to co ...

upon the incapacity, death, resignation, or removal from office (by

impeachment Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements. In ...

and subsequent

conviction In law, a conviction is the verdict reached by a court of law finding a defendant guilty of a crime. The opposite of a conviction is an acquittal (that is, "not guilty"). In Scotland, there can also be a verdict of " not proven", which is cons ...

) of a sitting governor or a governor-elect. Article IV of the

Constitution of Puerto Rico The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, Constitución del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico) is the controlling government document of Puerto Rico. It is composed of nine articles detailing the structure of the government ...

establishes that when a vacancy occurs in the post of Governor said post shall devolve upon the Secretary of State, who shall hold it for the rest of the term and until a new governor has been elected and qualifies. In the event that vacancies exist at the same time in both the post of Governor and that of Secretary of State, the law establishes a line of succession upon the Secretaries. This line of succession is established b
Law No. 7 of 2005
In the event that the Governor-elect does not qualify, or a permanent vacancy occurs in the office of Governor before the Governor-elect shall have appointed a Secretary of State, or before said Secretary, having been appointed, shall have qualified, the Legislative Assembly just elected elects a Governor who shall hold office until his successor is elected in the next

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

and qualifies. With regard to a temporary vacancy in the office of Governor, such as the Governor's absence due to travel away from Puerto Rico and the absence of the Secretary of State, the line of temporary succession is not affected by the age of the temporary successor or serving in a recess appointment capacity. In those cases, for example, Secretary of Justice

Rafael Hernández Colón Rafael Hernández Colón (October 24, 1936 – May 2, 2019) was a Puerto Rican politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 1973 to 1977 and 1985 to 1993 for a total of three terms. An experienced politician, Hernández held the ...

, for example, could have served as temporary successor to Governor

Roberto Sánchez Vilella Roberto Sánchez Vilella (19 February 1913 – 24 March 1997) was the governor of Puerto Rico from 1965 to 1969. Sánchez Vilella successfully ran for governor in the 1964 elections for the '' Partido Popular Democrático''. He is also the fou ...

should the Secretary of State also be absent, even though he was under 35 years of age. Likewise, Secretary of State

Marisara Pont Marchese Marisara Pont Marchese (born October 29, 1941) served as the 20th Secretary of State of Puerto Rico, as well as Acting Governor in the absence of Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá and the only one whose recess term ended when denied legislative conf ...

, during her recess appointment, served in 2005 as Acting Governor during Governor

Aníbal Acevedo Vilá Aníbal Salvador Acevedo Vilá (born 13 February 1962) is a Puerto Rican politician and lawyer. He served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 2005 to 2009. He is a Harvard University alumnus ( LL.M. 1987) and a graduate of the University of Pu ...

's absences. In the case of Secretary of State

Pedro Pierluisi Pedro Rafael Pierluisi Urrutia (born April 26, 1959) is a Puerto Rican politician and lawyer currently serving as governor of Puerto Rico. He has previously served as Secretary of Justice, Resident Commissioner, acting Secretary of State, i ...

, the Puerto Rico Supreme Court, in a 9–0 decision, determined that he could not ascend to the governorship when

Ricardo Rosselló Ricardo Antonio Rosselló Nevares (; born March 7, 1979) is a Puerto Rican politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 2017 to 2019. He resigned on August 2, 2019, after protests related to the Telegramgate scandal. He is the s ...

resigned because he held the position in a recess appointment capacity and was therefore precluded from being in the line of permanent succession to the governorship. The Constitution establishes that the governor of Puerto Rico has to be at least 35 years old to serve.

Current order

The table below shows the current governmental line of succession as established by Article IV of the

and further defined by Law No. 7 of 2005. However, those in the line of succession must still satisfy the constitutional requirements for the office of governor in order to serve. In the table, the absence of a number in the first column indicates that the incumbent is ineligible, either because the incumbent holds a recess appointment in the case of Secretary of State Elmer Román, or because the incumbent does not have the minimum age, as in the case of Secretary of the Treasury Francisco Parés.

References

{{notelist-ua Executive branch of the government of Puerto Rico

Current order

See also

References