Eudaldo Báez Galib

Eudaldo Báez Galib was born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, in 1939. The exact date of his birth has not been widely published. His father, attorney Eudaldo Báez García, was one of the founders of the Partido Popular Democrático (PPD) in Mayagüez and represented the town in the Puerto Rico House of Representatives. His mother was Rosita Galib. Growing up in a political household in western Puerto Rico shaped his lifelong interest in law, party organization and the island's political status.

He earned a bachelor's degree in Political Science and Economics at the University of Puerto Rico. He then studied at the University of Puerto Rico School of Law and received his Juris Doctor in 1965. He was a member of the Phi Sigma Alpha fraternity.

Law and the bar association. After law school he practiced privately from 1965 to 1985. In the Colegio de Abogados de Puerto Rico he presided over the Mayagüez delegation several times, served on the governing board and chaired the Civil Rights Commission.

Early campaigns. In 1968 he joined the Partido del Pueblo and ran for mayor of Mayagüez. He later returned to the PPD and ran in its 1976 primary for mayor of Mayagüez, which he lost.

Party leadership. In 1985 Governor Rafael Hernández Colón appointed him PPD electoral commissioner, the party's representative before the State Elections Commission. In 1989 he also became PPD secretary general, and he held both roles until 1992. He was one of the three members of the Constitutional Board of Electoral Redistricting that drew the districts in force from 1992 to 2000. In February 1997 he ran for the PPD presidency before the party's General Council and lost to Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, 180 votes to 124.

Senate. He was elected senator at large in 1992 and reelected in 1996, 2000 and 2004, serving from January 1993 to the end of the 2005 to 2008 term. In 2001 to 2004 he chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Ethics Committee. In his final term he was the PPD spokesman on the Government and Labor Affairs Committee and on the Consumer Affairs and Government Reports Committee. He was a founding member and co-chair of the Joint Commission for the Revision and Reform of the Civil Code, promoted legislation for a Constitutional Assembly on Puerto Rico's status, and authored Law 377 of 2004 (the Constitutional Mandate of Rehabilitation Act) on rehabilitation programs for incarcerated people.

Later years. After the Senate he returned to legal practice and became a columnist, mainly in El Nuevo Día, and a television and radio commentator on electoral and status questions.

He was married to attorney Elba Rivera, and they had four children. Their son José Báez Rivera, also a lawyer, was elected to the Puerto Rico House of Representatives for San Juan in 2012 and chaired the House Judiciary Committee. He later served as a presidential delegate in San Juan for the PPD under Pablo José Hernández Rivera. Báez Galib lived in San Juan in his later years.

Báez Galib was an autonomist within the PPD and a defender of the Estado Libre Asociado and of a distinct Puerto Rican nationality. He backed a Constitutional Assembly as a way to resolve the status question. He was willing to criticize his own party's leaders. In October 2024 he wrote in El Nuevo Día that he had voted a straight PPD ballot but chose Juan Dalmau (PIP and Alianza de País) for governor, explaining that he was not rejecting the PPD candidate Jesús Manuel Ortiz but feared that this could be his last election and that Puerto Rican nationality was in grave danger. "No me hiere la coexistencia cultural, pero sí la asimilación" (cultural coexistence does not hurt me, assimilation does), the column's summary read.

He is remembered as one of the most intellectually formidable PPD legislators, a master of parliamentary procedure and a key architect of the party's electoral machinery in the 1980s and early 1990s. His work on the revision of the Civil Code and on rehabilitation rights for incarcerated people is part of his legislative record. Opponents in the New Progressive Party, from Orlando Parga Figueroa in 2008 to Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz in 2026, publicly praised his effectiveness and credibility. His family's three generations of service, from his father Eudaldo Báez García to his son José Báez Rivera, are part of Mayagüez and PPD history.

No major awards are documented in the sources reviewed. After his death, Governor Jenniffer González Colón decreed an official day of mourning, with flags at half staff, in recognition of his decades of public service. The Senate of Puerto Rico issued a statement honoring him as a public servant, jurist and legislator.

In his later years he was a regular opinion columnist for El Nuevo Día, with pieces such as "Ya voté popular y por Juan Dalmau" (October 2024), "Elecciones 2024: al borde de un precipicio" and "¿Puertorriqueños o americanos?". He also appeared as an analyst on Puerto Rican television and radio, including Línea Directa TV (America Tevé) and Directo y Sin Filtro (ABC Puerto Rico).

His 2024 decision to vote for independence candidate Juan Dalmau rather than the PPD's own candidate for governor, Jesús Manuel Ortiz, drew criticism within his party. He anticipated this, writing that he knew he would be harshly criticized. Earlier, in 1968, he had broken with the PPD to run for mayor of Mayagüez with the Partido del Pueblo before later returning to the party.

Báez Galib died on 28 October 2026 at the age of 87, according to the obituary published by his funeral home and his family. Family members said he died at night in hospital, surrounded by loved ones. His death was announced the morning of Thursday 29 October, when his son José Báez Rivera informed PPD secretary general Manuel Calderón Cerame. El Nuevo Día reported that he had recently had a fall that led to health complications. A specific cause of death was not made public. Governor Jenniffer González Colón announced an official day of mourning, to be set once funeral arrangements were known. Tributes came from PPD president and Resident Commissioner Pablo José Hernández Rivera, Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz, PPD Senate spokesman Luis Javier Hernández Ortiz, Carlos "Johnny" Méndez, San Juan Mayor Miguel Romero, Mayagüez Mayor Jorge Ramos Ruiz and the Senate of Puerto Rico.