Board of Directors of the Institute of Statistics elects Arnaldo Cruz as its new president

Announcements
IEPR
26 December 2025

BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS ANNOUNCES THE ELECTION OF ARNALDO CRUZ, CO-FOUNDER OF ABRE PUERTO RICO, AS ITS NEW PRESIDENT

San Juan, PR, August 1, 2018 — The Board of Directors of the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute) today announced the unanimous election of Arnaldo Cruz, co-founder of Abre Puerto Rico and director of Research and Analysis of Foundation for Puerto Rico, as the new president of the organization.

Cruz was elected at the first meeting of the Institute's Board of Directors held yesterday afternoon and in accordance with the provisions of Section VII of the Institute's Internal Regulations. It establishes that the members who will occupy seats on the Executive Committee, composed of the President, Vice President and Secretary of the Board, will be elected during the first meeting of the Board of Directors at the beginning of each fiscal year and by a majority vote of those present.

“I am grateful for the opportunity given to me to work with an excellent team such as the Institute of Statistics, under the executive direction of Dr. Mario Marazzi-Santiago,” said the new President of the Board of Directors of the Institute, who holds a master's degree in Public Policy from Harris School of Public Policy Studies, from the University of Chicago.

“I accept this great challenge, aware of the great need that our government has to improve the accessibility and quality of its statistics and the enormous fiscal challenges for these purposes. At the Institute of Statistics, we are available to support the Government of Puerto Rico and achieve important goals of common interest, such as the quality of public data and government transparency, in all aspects,” Cruz said.

On the other hand, the position of vice-president of the Board of Directors of the Institute will be occupied by the doctor in Economics, Antonio J. Fernós, who served as president for the past 2 years and the position of secretary by the Lcdo. Alex López, who is currently serving as an advisor to the Puerto Rico Senate.

Meanwhile, Ana L. Dávila, PhD in Demography and professor of the Demography Program at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), Medical Sciences Campus, Ana L. Dávila and the PhDs in Statistics and professors from the Faculty of Business Administration of the UPR, Recinto de Río Piedras, Marta Álvarez and Sonia C. Balet, will continue as members of the Board of Directors.

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is an autonomous governmental entity responsible for coordinating the Government's statistical production service to ensure that the data collection and statistics systems, on which public policies are based, are complete, reliable, and have quick and universal access. The Institute has in its inventory, accessible through https://estadisticas.pr.gov, about 300 statistical products. In addition, it is a custodian and provides access to over 100 data sets or “data sets” through https://data.pr.gov and to over 40 tables and more than 6 thousand indicators through: https://www.indicadores.pr.

In addition, as the leading entity of the State Data Center (SDC) of Puerto Rico, the Institute manages the SDC portal, which contains the main statistical reports and publications of the U.S. Census Bureau on Puerto Rico, specifically those that are most in demand, such as annual population estimates; the Puerto Rico Community Survey (Puerto Rico Community Survey) and official statistics on Puerto Rico's 10-year population and housing censuses, among others. The Puerto Rico SDC portal can be accessed through: https://censo.estadisticas.pr/.

For more information you can visit our website: https://estadisticas.pr.gov. In addition, you can follow us on social networks through Facebook accounts (https://www.facebook.com/estadisticas.pr), Twitter (https://twitter.com/estadisticaspr) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/instituto-de-estadisticas-de-puerto-rico.

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Press Contact: Sandra Morales Blanes/(787) 688-0401

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Authorized statements by the Executive Director regarding approval by P. de la C. 1403

PRESS RELEASE June 26th, 2018
DR. MARIO MARAZZI-SANTIAGO
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

AUTHORIZED STATEMENTS BY THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS REGARDING THE APPROVAL OF P. C. 1403 BY THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF PUERTO RICO

We are waiting to hear the results of the conference committees so that we can know what will be approved. However, we take the liberty of making some statements in general terms about our feelings.

We are struck by the lack of legislation to advance the transparency agenda in this session. Added to that is the possible approval of P. de la C. 1403 with which, far from promoting greater transparency, the Legislative Assembly would seem to take several steps backwards on that important agenda.

In recent days, we have seen how municipal governments, on their own, have begun to take steps towards greater transparency in the way they manage public funds. It leaves deafening silence the months and years that the central government has ignored the possibility of participating free of charge in the same Puerto Rico Financial Transparency System, which municipal governments are now beginning to adopt.

In the same way, even though there is a virtual global scientific consensus in favor of allowing the Institute of Statistics to continue to carry out its functions independently, the Government also seems to ignore it.

On this occasion, not only in Puerto Rico but in the world, they are observing the steps taken by the Legislative Assembly in the coming days with respect to P. de la C. 1403. With the recent experience of the incomplete count of deaths caused by Hurricane Maria, the Government's commitment to transparency will once again be called into question with the approval of P. de la C. 1403.

It's important for me to stress that:

  1. This issue has nothing to do with this server but with the defense of the institution's independence. If the Governor were available for dialogue and to desist from his intention to amend the Institute's Organic Law, this servant would leave the Executive Directorate of the Institute immediately.
  2. The Institute has 2 administrative jobs. There is no way to achieve savings by merging administrative aspects, when the Institute maintains such a small administrative workforce.
  3. There is no political partisanship in the Institute. For years, the Board of Directors with members of different ideologies have been able to work together, just like the professionals they are. This year, for reasons beyond our control, an attempt was made for the first time to introduce partisan politics into the Institute, but so far the Institute has successfully rejected this attempt.
  4. In these 10 years, the Institute has achieved significant improvements in Puerto Rico's statistics, despite the obstacles presented by the government apparatus and partisan politics. The reorganization of the Institute will take us back to the last century, and there will be little that the federal government can do to remedy the situation.
  5. Thousands of people, 47 world-renowned scientific organizations, 16 congressmen, the Private Sector Coalition, the Transparency Network, the National Academy for the Advancement of the Sciences, the American Statistical Association, the Royal Statistical Society and the Fiscal Oversight Board, among many others, have recommended that the Institute be maintained as an autonomous entity of the Government of Puerto Rico and independent, free from political intervention.

The approval of P. de la C. 1403 is a serious mistake. The Legislative Assembly should not participate in eliminating what it once created to protect the same legislators from being manipulated with erroneous or incomplete information that the Executive Branch controls to ensure that the measures that the current Government wishes are approved. Legislators have the floor.

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Press Contact: Sandra Morales Blanes (787) 688-0401