Hernández Rivera makes first appointments as PDP president

Popular Democratic Party (PDP) President Pablo José Hernández Rivera, announced on Monday his first party appointments, focusing on the secretary general post and the electoral structure of the party.

The new PDP president, who is also Puerto Rico’s resident commissioner in Washington, D.C., named Manuel Calderón Cerame as secretary general of the PDP, replacing Juan Luis Camacho Semidei, who tendered his resignation from the post on Sunday, while Ernesto González Rodríguez and Ramón Luis Hernández Espino will assume the positions of electoral commissioner and alternate electoral commissioner, respectively. “They are all top-notch professionals with extensive administrative and political experience,” Hernández Rivera said in a written statement. “I am sure that their knowledge will be key to our work plans within the party.”

Calderón Cerame has worked as a legislative adviser, columnist and political analyst for more than a decade. In 2022, he became the PDP spokesperson in San Juan, standing out for his oversight. He has a master’s degree in history of the Americas and a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Inter-American University of Puerto Rico.