2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE NINE - Highways and Traffic (§§ 1-8 — 5725) › Chapter 27 - Vehicle and Traffic Law (2000) › Subchapter I - Definitions; Registry of Motor Vehicles, Trailers or Semi-Trailers, and Authorization to Operate on Public Roads (§§ 5001 — 5044) › § 5028 - Special license plates—Career or honorary consuls

By request of the interested party, the Secretary shall issue special license plates or badges to every honorary or career consul duly accredited as such in the Departments of State of the United States and Puerto Rico, in addition to the official license plate issued to the vehicle. The information needed to identify the special license plate with the corresponding official motor vehicle registration shall be noted on the registry of the vehicle, it being understood that any person who acts as a Career Consul within the jurisdiction of Puerto Rico in representation of their country of origin, must perform any action regarding the registration or transfer of the motor vehicle owned by him/her or the Consulate he/she represents, through the Foreign Missions Office of the Department of State of Puerto Rico.
Career Consuls, as well as the Honorary Consuls shall be responsible, respectively, for the payment of all administrative traffic fines that are issued by a police officer, if unable to justify that they were performing an official function at the time.
These special licenses shall be issued subject to the following conditions:
(a) The Secretary shall provide through regulations, all matters concerning the design, size, color, location, issuing, use, renewing and canceling of said special license plates or badges, as well as any other details he/she deems necessary.
(b) For purposes of this section, “honorary consul” shall mean that person who is a citizen or permanent resident of the United States designated by a foreign country and duly accredited as such before the Department of State of the United States or Puerto Rico who sees to the affairs of the citizens and the interests of the country that he/she represents, without receiving any financial remuneration for the services rendered, and does not enjoy the privileges or immunities applicable to career consular officials, and who is a permanent, not a provisional head of a duly accredited consular position.
(c) Every request for said special license plates or badges shall be accompanied by the appropriate certification of the Department of State of the United States or Puerto Rico, attesting to the credentials of the petitioning Consul.
(d) Said license plate or badge shall be solely and exclusively used on the vehicle used by the consul or highest-ranking accredited consular official in Puerto Rico, and said privilege shall not be extended to the members of his/her family nor to other persons or officials of the consulate. The privilege to use said license plate or badge does not necessarily imply any other benefit concerning vehicles for the use of the consular corps.
(e) The use of said special license plate or badge on the public roads of Puerto Rico is authorized solely during the effectiveness of the official license plate, which must be renewed annually.
(f) The Secretary may cancel or revoke the authorization to use said special license plate or badge in the event of noncompliance of the provisions of this section, as provided by regulations.
(g) Every career consul or honorary consul to whom the Secretary issues a special license plate or badge, shall be bound to return it in the event their accreditation ceases, or his/her official functions as a consul cease for any reason, whenever the vehicle is sold, whenever it is sent out of the country, whenever the same is disposed of as scrap metal or is abandoned as useless, or when the vehicle is no longer authorized to travel on the public roads of Puerto Rico. Failure to comply with this provision shall result in the cancellation of the authorization to use the special license plate.
(h) Every person who displays a special license plate or consular badge without being authorized therefor, shall incur a misdemeanor and upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine of not less than two hundred dollars ($200) nor more than five hundred dollars ($500).
History —Jan. 7, 2000, No. 22, § 2.27; June 3, 2004, No. 132, § 2, eff. 8 months after June 3, 2004.