About
The League

The League of Puerto Rican Cities unites local governments in a nonpartisan effort to improve the quality of life of the Puerto Rican people.

It was born from a shared need among mayors and municipal governments of Puerto Rico to have an entity that unites them with the purpose of strengthening their capacity to provide services to the country's communities.

Vision

Unite local governments in a nonpartisan effort to improve the quality of life of the Puerto Rican people.

Mission

Strengthen the capacity of municipalities and communities in the country to better address social, structural, fiscal and governance challenges.

Sobre La Liga

Our History

Following the passage of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017 in Puerto Rico, mayors from 78 municipalities mobilized to restore essential services and coordinate direct aid to affected communities. Recognizing the crucial role of mayors in providing immediate response, former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and the Open Society Foundations launched the Mayors Exchange in February 2018. During this program, 24 visits were made to the 27 participating mayors and a technical assistance workshop was provided to 17 municipalities and more than 40 experts in disaster recovery, development, planning, and fiscal management.

The goals were to provide direct assistance to mayors to address fiscal and reconstruction challenges, as well as create advocates in the United States to support Puerto Rico’s recovery.

In June 2018, a group of Puerto Rican mayors who had participated in the Intercambio program formed a working group to create a nonpartisan coalition of municipalities, focused on long-term inter-municipal collaboration and dialogue with leaders in Puerto Rico and the US. The coalition received technical assistance, and in November 2018, they held the First Covening of Mayors (Primer Conversatorio de Alcaldes y Alcaldesas). After obtaining support from the Ford Foundation, together with the Open Society Foundations, they formally launched the League of Puerto Rican Cities on October 4, 2019, consolidating their effort to build a formal organization for the continued benefit of local communities.

Hurricane María Damage in Puerto Rico _ © Cliff_edited.jpg

Landscape of a Mountain, El Yunque Rainforest _ © Wenhao Ryan.jpg

Initiatives

Municipal Innovation Laboratory

The Municipal Innovation Laboratory seeks to elevate Puerto Rican municipalities to the standard of model municipalities of good governance with a view to strengthening local government.

In the Lab, they assess their capabilities and needs, share lessons learned, and generate an innovation plan to act toward systemic change.

ICAMU

The Municipal Training Institute (ICAMU, for it's Spanish abbreviation) promotes best practices to ensure the well-being of local governments and their communities. This is achieved through professional development designed for the municipal ecosystem.

ICAMU serves as a municipal academy and provides specialized technical assistance to meet the current needs of municipalities.

The Solutions Table

The Solutions Table is a 9-step initiative that seeks to identify problems and co-design and co-create solutions from the municipal ecosystem.

The objective is to raise funds directly at the local level to strengthen municipalities and address the fiscal challenges they face.

Federal Funds Navigator

The Federal Funds Navigator is a tool developed by La Liga that seeks to make viable the billions of dollars in funds available for infrastructure and housing projects in local governments.

Visit the Navigator

Iniciativas

We are committed to systemic change to avoid perpetuating the stagnation of always enduring.

“whatever comes”.

Publicaciones

In Rice... and Miseries:
Analysis of the

Fiscal Plan 2021

Preliminary analysis on the impact of the 2021-2022 Fiscal Plan on the country's economy, its municipalities, public entities and communities.

In Rice... and Miseries:
Analysis of the

Fiscal Plan 2021

Preliminary analysis on the impact of the 2021-2022 Fiscal Plan on the country's economy, its municipalities, public entities and communities.

Annual Achievement Report 2020

Summary of our efforts made during 2020, as well as future plans. We communicate our reason for being: the defense, protection and strengthening of the country's municipalities and communities.

Municipal Radiography 2020

Analysis of audited financial statements of the 78 municipal funds of Puerto Rico from 2015 to 2018.

Opportunities for decentralization in Puerto Rico: A Framework

Development of a reference framework based on a brief historical overview of elements that have been attempted to be used in Puerto Rico, definitions of concepts, lessons learned, achievements of other countries and potential courses of action.

Publications

Otras Colaboraciones

Other Collaborations

Bandera Violeta

The Purple Flag Project (Proyecto Bandera Violeta), a collaboration between the Peace Coordinator for Women, the Puerto Rican Coalition against Domestic Violence, the National Network of Gender Violence Shelters and the League of Cities of Puerto Rico, aims to establish a municipal learning ecosystem to prevent gender violence.

Supported by the Municipality of Gurabo and its mayor Rosachely Rivera Santana, the objective of the project is to create a municipal learning ecosystem to prevent gender violence.

Through training for municipal government staff, the aim is to alert and raise awareness in municipalities about the problem, but above all, to provide them with basic prevention tools and evidence-based best practices. This way, they will be able to intervene in an empathetic and effective way with victims and survivors of gender violence who come to the municipalities to seek support.

Municipalities that meet the requirements will receive the Purple Flag as a symbol of their commitment. The project aims to be a transparent indicator of the municipal commitment to the sustainable eradication of gender violence.

Síguenos en las redes

Other Collaborations

The League of Puerto Rican Cities to identify best practices in municipalities

The organization begins a series of case studies with the Llanero Senior Challenge in Toa Baja. (September 30, 2025 - San Juan) The...

Liga de Ciudades de Puerto Rico

3 min read

Puerto Rico Senate Resolution Filed to Measure Effectiveness of the Public Order Code

Puerto Rican Senator Roxanna I. Soto Aguilú filed a Resolution that seeks for the Municipal Affairs Committee to conduct an exhaustive investigation on the effectiveness, implementation and compliance of the Public Order Codes adopted by several municipalities.

Liga de Ciudades de Puerto Rico

1 min read