Editing Carlos Romero Barceló (section)

===Governor===
Romero Barceló brought well-received economic resolutions to the island during his terms in office, emphasizing the island's tourism potential. However, during his administration the economy recovered sluggishly, with unemployment dropping to 17% in 1979 from 19.0% in 1975, a disappointing 2% decline. The economy did not fully recover, and the island's government services deteriorated during his term in office. Moreover, his statements declaring the policemen that carried out the Maravilla murders to be heroes damaged his image.{{citation needed | date=May 2021}}

In 1980 he was elected for a second term as governor by a margin of 3,037 votes again over [[Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico|PPD]]-candidate [[Rafael Hernández Colón]]. The 1980 gubernatorial elections were among the closest in Puerto Rican history, requiring the intervention of the [[Supreme Court of Puerto Rico]] to rule whether improperly cast ballots should be counted. In particular, the [[Puerto Rico Statehood Students Association]] under [[Luis Fortuño]] generated over 1,500 absentee ballots for Romero Barceló that proved an important factor in his re-election.  However, the [[New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico|New Progressive Party]] lost control of the legislature, and party-affiliated mayors won in only 28 of the 78 municipalities on the island. The 1980 elections were the most controversial as many PPD followers said that the elections were stolen in which the PPD won the elections except for the governor candidacy in which almost every election the parties win with straight-party ballots.
This election was similar to the 2004 and 2012 elections, decided by less-than-one-percent margins.

In his second term Puerto Rico was badly hit by a severe recession starting in 1980 and ending in 1983,
the unemployment drastically rose to 25% in 1983 the highest since the Great Depression.

Romero Barceló is frequently associated with the [[Cerro Maravilla incident|"Cerro Maravilla Incident"]] of 1978 in which two young pro-Independence activists at [[Cerro Maravilla]] were killed at the hands of rogue members of the Puerto Rican Police after being lured by the police to a mountainous area that housed communications and television towers. The tragic incident was investigated several times by the Puerto Rico Justice Department, the [[U.S. Justice Department]], and the [[F.B.I.]], and was widely reported on by the local press. In 1984, 10 police officers were indicted and found guilty of perjury, destruction of evidence, and obstruction of justice, with four being convicted of second-degree murder.<ref name="10 perjury">[http://home.coqui.net/ciales15/m7.html ''10 From Puerto Rico Police Indicted on Cover-Up of '78 Killings''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070629183513/http://home.coqui.net/ciales15/m7.html |date=June 29, 2007 }} by Reginald Stuart, ''[[The New York Times]]'', February 7, 1984, retrieved August 2, 2006.</ref>

He sought re-election for a third term in 1984 but was defeated by [[Rafael Hernández Colón]]. After the elections, Romero-Barceló's reaction to the defeat, in response to TV news reporter [[Rafael Bracero]], was ''¿Derrota, qué Derrota?'' (''Defeat, what defeat?''). For him, he said, what had occurred was not a defeat, but simply an "electoral loss". The comment has become legendary in Puerto Rican politics.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Jiménez|first=Lester|title=Carlos Romero Barceló: Una vida dedicada a la política y a la estadidad|url=https://www.noticel.com/ahora/20210503/carlos-romero-barcelo-una-vida-dedicada-a-la-politica-y-a-la-estadidad/|access-date=2021-06-13|website=www.noticel.com|language=en-US}}</ref>