Juan R. Melecio-Machuca was the longest-serving Director of the Office of Legislative Services of Puerto Rico, from 1981 to 1988. He was subsequently appointed a Superior Court judge by Governor Rafael Hernández Colón.
In the 1990s he was nominated as a tri-partisan consensus candidate to serve as chairman of the Puerto Rico State Elections Commission.
A former member of the pro-status quo Popular Democratic Party, he surprised political observers in 2003 when he announced his conversion as a statehooder and accepted an invitation to serve as the chairman of former Governor Pedro Rosselló's 2004 campaign to return to the Governor's Mansion, La Fortaleza, for a third non-consecutive term.
He served as senior advisor to the gubernatorial campaign of former Resident Commissioner Luis Fortuño, who was Rosselló's successful running mate when the former governor lost in 2004, and was subsequently appointed by Governor Fortuño to head Puerto Rico's Trade Office in the Dominican Republic, where he currently serves.
He is one of a handful of Puerto Ricans who have served in all three branches of government, the Legislative, Judicial and Executive branches.