Syra Ortiz-Blanes, a Puerto Rican journalist reporting for the Miami Herald, describes the response of women on the island to the governor’s proclamation.
Local activists have battled evictions for years, noting an increase in femicides and the lack of an effective police response. They welcomed the order as an important step in improving government accountability.
But many remain cautious even after years of disappointment on an island that struggled to provide basic food such as electricity to residents after devastating natural disasters. Observers note that success depends not only on politics, but also on greater cultural change.
“As long as you have such a high level of tolerance for gender-based violence, even the best legislation will not be perfect because it is not enforced,” said Amalia Alarcón, an executive at Plan International, a humanitarian organization that works for improvement of the life of girls.
The story in Primera Hora shows a picture of one of the youngest victims – nurse Angie Noemí González Santos, mother of three daughters, who was strangled by her 13-year-old partner Roberto Félix Rodríguez Díaz. Her funeral took place on January 26th.
Puerto Rican journalist Andrea González-Ramírez has reported this problem in English for several years. She wrote about the 2018 crisis after Maria.
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A hidden violence against women crisis in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria
“We didn’t know how to protect victims,” Yadira Pizarro Quiles, managing director of the non-profit ESCAPE, told Refinery29. “Who would we call if their perpetrators came … https://t.co/3WeYfpxpfY
– the ACLU of Puerto Rico (@ACLUPR) September 20, 2018
The crises caused by Hurricane Maria only exacerbated the existing crisis of gender-based violence.
“These women were in a crisis and could not reach the authorities. There were times when our team tried to figure out who would take the victims or how we could relocate them because their perpetrator was already harassing them and could show up at any time, ”said Pizarro Quiles, who has led non-profit intervention and prevention for two decades said. “It was complicated, but we were able to help our survivors without putting them in dangerous situations.”
ESCAPE, which provides domestic violence and child abuse prevention and intervention services across multiple areas of the island, saw requests for survivor-related services increase by 62% and requests for prevention and educational resources by 47%. Other organizations providing services to survivors reported similar increases. “We also saw the intensity of the violence after Maria from the hits women received, where and what type of aggression against children,” she said. “The trauma of the storm and the current economic situation will inevitably lead to more violence.”
González-Ramírez has continued to delve into the topic and wrote an extensive, ongoing story in June 2020 that it will bring back into circulation in the wake of Pierluisi’s statement.
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As I reported in June, more than 150 women have been killed by their intimate partners in the past decade. The total number of non-IPV femicides is likely to be much higher, but we don’t really know because the statistics are not adequately captured. Https://t.co/hlR3p7Qnpi
– Andrea González-Ramírez (@andreagonram), January 24, 2021
Please take some time to read the whole thing.
T.The night before Suliani Calderón Nieves was murdered, she drove to her mothers house in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, to give up their two children. The 38-year-old health worker had begun rediscovering her freedom after a controversial divorce and was on her way to an event in town to read a poem she had written. As she left the house, her mother, Sonia Nieves, took a moment to admire her daughter’s long black hair, red lipstick, and bright smile. “You look very beautiful today,” said her mother. “Yo sé que estoy bien buena,” Suliani replied cheekily. “I know that I’m hot.”
When Suliani returned on the evening of May 17, 2018 to pick up her children, the ease was gone. Her ex-husband, José Vega Nieves, had turned up unannounced at the end of the reading, one of the many times he’d molested her after their tumultuous 16-year relationship ended. Suliani fought furiously with him over WhatsApp messages, but her mother encouraged her to drop them. In the heated exchange, Suliani threatened to call the police.
That night after returning home with her children, Suliani logged on to Facebook and posted another poem. “La vida te golpea… Life hits you, you think you are learning the lesson and it hits you again. When the river of misery leaves its channel, it never returns to its current. The stones are painful episodes. As you get used to her stumbling, you will only allow more worry. Nobody owns our life and I just want to live it. “
Suliani was shot by her ex-husband in front of their children the next morning. Vega Nieves then killed herself.
The day after González-Ramírez published Suliani’s story, she discussed domestic violence on the island with CBS News.
Tiffany Rivera, writes for UP TO DATE, covered yet another devastating murder, this time by a trans man.
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It was hard to write this article. RIP Samuel … 🇵🇷
Puerto Rico’s scourge of transgender violence continues with the murder of Samuel Valentin https://t.co/NXDRJxDfOe
– Tiffany Rivera (@ tiffanyreads215) January 14, 2021
Samuel Edmund Damian Valentin, a young transgender man and student at Atlantic University College in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, was found murdered on January 9 in the middle of the PR-181 freeway in Trujillo Alto, Carolina, Puerto Rico.
His body was discovered by a woman who accidentally hit him while driving on the highway. When she pulled up to investigate what had hit her, she made a cruel discovery. According to WAPA, Valentin’s body is said to have had at least five gunshot wounds.
His body was originally reported as that of a woman, but family and friends confirmed to reporters that he was, in fact, a trans man. Sadly, Valentine’s murder is the seventh transgender murder on the island in a year.
Rivera interviewed The LGBTQ activist Pedro Julio Serrano, founder and CEO of PuertoRicoParaTod @ s for their story. Serrano has advocated the need to ensure Pierluisi’s emergency statement addresses homophobia and transphobia.
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We salute all women’s rights activists whose hard work led to this important moment. We cannot stop there, however. There is another crisis that is very closely related to an unprecedented epidemic of homophobic and transphobic violence. https://t.co/vloPv9IuZn
– Pedro Julio Serrano (@PedroJulio) January 27, 2021
Activists on the island continue to fight back and take actions to raise awareness of the ongoing crisis.
The Puerto Rican journalist Raquel Reichard described one of the protests on the island for HipLatina.
Outside a justice center in Ponce, Puerto Rico, Deddie Almodovar Ojeda’s body lies face down on the concrete, baking under the Caribbean sun. A white sheet covers her motionless body. The staged crime scene attracts the attention of those who pass by on the busy street. Some park their cars to take photos. The trial of Juan Luis Cornier Torres, a local graffiti artist who was charged with the murder of Deddie’s late sister Valerie Ann Almodóvar Ojeda, was set to begin in the courthouse. Instead, a hearing is being held to postpone the trial to January 21, 2021 – the fifth delay since the young actress’s brutal murder on December 17, 2018. Deddie’s artistic protest makes the crisis of gender-based violence in Puerto Rico visible and condemned what many consider a government unwilling to protect its women and girls and ill-equipped to bring its killers to justice.
Activists on the island find many creative ways to get involved and educate. Here is an example: “Confronta tu machismo y ¡cambia ya!” (This is “Confront your machismo and change now!” In English.
The shadow is the metaphor of machismo, a learned behavior imposed by patriarchal society.
This piece by Carla Cavina of Taller Cinemático for Puerto Rico’s Todas Feminist Journalism Outlet (todaspr.com) focuses on toxic masculinity that idealizes conquest, possession and control, expressed through everyday microaggression that often goes unnoticed. It shows empathy as the axis of necessary change when the individual realizes his own machismo.
You can help by actively supporting activist organizations on the island and domestic violence shelters directly by reaching out to your elected officials, following reporters covering Puerto Rico, and sharing their coverage.
#SOSPuertoRico
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