JOSÉ LAGUARTA teaches anthropology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. He has participated in, studied, and written extensively on Puero Rico’s politics and social movements for many years.
The first round of the local elections took place against a backdrop of widespread creeping fascism in France and comes after a brutal offensive by the far right, during which the traditional ‘Republican’ right has decisively broken from much of its historical framework and values.