Back in January 2017 millions of women and male allies across the United States and around the world marched, united in opposition to the election of Donald Trump, supporting a broad range of issues affecting women. While much of the media attention was focused on massive gatherings at the main march in Washington, D.C., and other large gatherings in cities like New York and Los Angeles, there were hundreds in the U.S. that took place that were smaller, like those in Puerto Rico in San Juan, and even on the island of Vieques.
The Women’s March policy platform includes these words:
Women deserve to live full and healthy lives, free of violence against our bodies. One in three women have been victims of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner within their lifetime; and one in five women have been raped.
In the fall of 2017, disaster struck Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands with back-to-back Hurricanes Irma and Maria, from which the islands have not recovered.
The same Donald Trump we protested after his inauguration has made Puerto Rico a target of his disdain and contempt. Those of you who have been following the situation on the island, where there are still thousands of people living under blue tarps, may not be aware of one of the other disastrous effects of the hurricane: a spike in violence against women.
From the video:
Puerto Rican women protested outside the governor’s mansion for days to demand that he address gender-based violence on the island.
Thousands of women and allies signed a petition demanding Puerto Rico’s Gov. Ricardo Rosselló sign an executive order to ensure government action against the gender-based violence that is so prevalent in Puerto Rico. According to Feminist group Colectiva Feminista en Construcción, 40 women have been murdered in Puerto Rico in 2018 and 22 of those were cases of domestic violence. The group organized a three-day sit-in outside the governor’s residence which ended on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. They encouraged the government to declare a state of emergency for women.
“The government has been inactive before the gender based violence epidemic that we suffer in Puerto Rico,” they stated via Change.org. “The Women’s Advocate Office hasn’t talked about the murders, and much less started a plan to stop them. Police precincts continue to ignore complaints about harassment and consent aggressions. Gender based violence is a public health crisis and we have to treat it as such.”
After more than 24 hours of no government response, police reportedly pepper-sprayed and got physical with protesters. Eventually, two spokeswomen were able to meet with officials and Gov. Rosselló said he would review the proposed measure.
Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez (profiled here) has spoken out:
Other than this statement from Velázquez and a few tweets from the demonstration—which got very little traction or attention—all things Puerto Rican are once again virtually ignored by mainland activists and bloggers who are not Latinx.
There has been coverage in the Latinosphere, some of which I’m posting here today, and I hope that you can help spread the word by sharing these reports via your social networks.
These protests come at a time when the United Nations has just released a report on intimate partner violence.
Home is the most dangerous place for women, with the majority of female homicide victims worldwide killed by partners or family, the UNODC study says.
Around 87,000 women were killed around the world last year, some 50,000 - or 58 per cent - at the hands of intimate partners or family members. This amounts to some six women being killed every hour by people they know, according to new research published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) today.
The study, released for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, examines available homicide data to analyse the gender-related killing of women and girls, with a specific focus on intimate partner and family-related homicide and how this relates to the status and roles of women in society and the domestic sphere.
Remezcla covered the issue in an article titled “Weekend-Long Protests Against Domestic Violence in Puerto Rico End With Police Pepper Spraying Activists”:
This year alone, 41 women have been killed in Puerto Rico, and at least 23 of them were killed by intimate partners. Activists on the island protesting violence against women this weekend had a clear goal: For Governor Rosselló to sign an executive order declaring a state of emergency against misogynist violence. The order, designed by the protest organizers, the Colectiva Feminista en Construcción, also demands a new protocol be implemented for addressing cases, calls for the creation of an inter-agency committee to support survivors, and requests an audit of 2,554 unprocessed rape kits. A Centro de Periodismo Investigativo report released in May questioned the credibility of current numbers, relaying that organizations have seen an uptick in cases and noting that the “breakdown in island infrastructure and unreliable statistics from official sources makes it difficult to quantify the problem.” In 2012, the ACLU found that Puerto Rico had the “highest per capita rate in the world of women over 14 killed by their partners.”
In a press conference held today, Rosselló said that he’d evaluate the collective’s executive order. He also declared himself a feminist, qualifying this by noting much of his administration’s work has been done by women. But throughout the three days of protest, he said nothing. The crowd of activists numbered more than 60 at times. Some activists camped out, sleeping in tents on the cobblestoned Fortaleza and Cristo streets Friday and Saturday night. Still, by Sunday, the final protest day – which was, by no coincidence, also the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, designated in 1999 by the United Nations to honor the activists Hermanas Mirabal, three of whom were assassinated by former Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1960 – the governor still had not responded.
One of the things that struck me when reading reports from Puerto Rico were the stories of women being murdered and and assaulted by partners who are members of the police force.
Those of you who are familiar with research on gendered violence and rape are already aware of the reasons why far too many women don’t report. News stories in Puerto Rico of cops killing wives and girlfriends certainly increases women’s fears.
Here’s one of the stories that sparked the protests. The translated title is “Policeman arrested for murder of partner in Cidra”:
Reading this (and other reports, all of which are in Spanish and not mentioned in the mainland English language press) propelled me back to the time in my life when I was assaulted by a partner who also threatened to kill my parents. I was one of the very lucky women who had a sympathetic and supportive police officer who responded to my 911 call. By some strange coincidence, we both attended the same AA meetings. Against the wishes of his partner, he spent hours tracking down and eventually arresting my assailant. He went to court with me, and pressed the judge to throw the book at my former boyfriend.
Watching women protesting violence and being violently dealt with by police certainly does nothing to increase women’s confidence in picking up the phone to make that call for help.
Latino Rebels wrote “A Feminist Stand Against Gender-Based Violence in Puerto Rico”:
On this International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, 40 women have been murdered in Puerto Rico in 2018, with at least 22 at the hands of their husbands, partners or former partners. There are about 180 reported cases of domestic violence where the aggressor is a police officer, and there are about 2,554 rape kits unprocessed from 2006 to date. Urgent action must be taken to curb gender violence and the government has no plan to do so.
Let me repeat this in bold:
“There are about 180 reported cases of domestic violence where the aggressor is a police officer.”
Here are other tweets relating to the demonstration. None got even 100 shares or likes.
Back in September, Refinery29 had an in-depth story by Andrea González-Ramírez titled “After Hurricane Maria, A Hidden Crisis Of Violence Against Women In Puerto Rico.”
“We didn’t know how to
protect victims,” Yadira Pizarro Quiles, executive director of the nonprofit ESCAPE, told Refinery29. “Who would we call when their abusers came near them?”
Puerto Rico is no stranger to intimate partner violence. In fact, the island has historically seen some of the highest domestic violence rates in the world. The local police in particular were hit with charges that the department was routinely and systematically failing survivors: A years-long investigation by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) found “significant delays in the adjudication of protection orders ... dramatic under-enforcement of violations of protection orders; inadequate staffing ... lack of adequate evidence collection and case investigation,” among other issues.
Back in May, the Center for Investigative Journalism reported that official reports of violence against women in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria are unreliable.
More than seven months after Hurricane Maria, organizations serving domestic violence and sexual assault victims in Puerto Rico report an increase in violence against women since the storm. Yet a breakdown in island infrastructure and unreliable statistics from official sources makes it difficult to quantify the problem and respond to the emergency needs of victims in the US territory. Sexual violence and intimate partner violence tends to rise in the aftermath of natural disasters due to the high levels of stress, the scarcity of basic necessities, and the breakdown of social networks, according to the World Health Organization. Puerto Rico has one of the highest rates of violence against women in the world, which has increased over the last few years. Leaders of organizations serving victims on the island say the two hurricanes last fall likely exacerbated the rate of violence against women in Puerto Rico.
At Casa Nueva Mujer, an organization operating a domestic violence shelter in Cayey, Executive Director Vilmarie Rivera says she was serving 18 families before the hurricane. Now she says she is helping 43, but the state’s official records on domestic violence do not match what organizations like hers are seeing in their work.“The situation is that we don’t have statistics that prove that we have an increase of those cases,” she says.
One potential reason for gaps in information is that three different government offices measure the relevant data. The Women’s Advocate Office records requests for domestic violence services and calls to their hotline. The Police Bureau tracks incident reports for sexual assault and domestic violence in person and over the phone. The administrative courts track criminal cases and the number of orders of protection filed. “The statistics of the three agencies do not match, because they don’t have an integrated system,” says Amárilis Pagán Jiménez, executive director of Proyecto Matria, a social services organization for women based in Caguas.
Advocates like Pagán believe the rates of violence are much higher than reported, in part because official emergency hotlines, including lines operated by the Police Bureau and the Women’s Advocate Office, were down in the days and weeks after Hurricane Maria. If victims had phone access to call 911, the Police, or the Women’s Advocate hotline, it was unlikely they would get through due to damaged power lines and the high level of phone traffic.
Primara Hora just posted photos and background information on the women murdered this year.
I hope that readers who have an interest in fighting back against gendered violence will take the time to share these stories, and will remember that hurricane recovery is not just a matter of roofs and electricity.
You can also support the shelters on the island that are providing services to victims of abuse. Here is a list of domestic violence shelters in Puerto Rico.
#SOSPuertoRico = Support Our Sisters.