Popular Party candidate Luis Muñoz Marín (1898–1980) became the first elected governor of Puerto Rico. He would win repeated elections until he left power in 1964. Muñoz Marín oversaw OPERATION BOOTSTRAP, begun in 1948, which was designed to industrialize and urbanize the island by utilizing low wages and tax concessions to promote investment. For the next 20 years, the economy boomed. Operation Bootstrap promoted out-migration to the mainland (particularly New York) to provide labor for U.S. industry. After 1945, over a million Puerto Ricans, including many women, immigrated to the U.S.
The attempt onU.S. president Harry Truman's life by two Puerto Ricans led to the arrest of large numbers of Communists and nationalists on the island. Support for the nationalists dwindled.
