Women in Puerto Rico are Dying

Since 2018, feminist and women’s health organizations in Puerto Rico have pressured first Gov. Ricky Rossellό and then his successor Gov. Wanda Vázquez to declare a state of emergency on violence against women. They had reason: After Hurricane Maria exacerbated conditions for already vulnerable people, the number of women killed by their partners doubled.

Two years later, Vázquez Garced, whose term ends in December, has yet to issue an emergency order and has failed to release an action plan as the cases of women, including transwomen, being attacked, disappeared or killed are regular front-page news.

Among the most recent casualties of this epidemic are Rosimar Rodríguez Gόmez, 20, and Michellyn Ramos Vargas, 33, a trans woman. Rodríguez Gόmez was abducted on Sept. 17 and her body was found 10 days later. She was buried a day after what would have been her 21st birthday. Ramos Vargas, a nursing student, was found dead on Sept. 30^th of multiple gunshot wounds.

According to the police watchdog group Kilόmetro Cero, investigators lost time in the Rodríguez Gόmez case because it was classified as a missing person instead of an abduction, which would have triggered other protocols. Rodríguez Gόmez was forced into a vehicle, according to a witness. The handling of this case is under administrative review by the Island’s police department.

So far this year, 30 women and two girls have been killed in the Island. At least eight women and 13 girls are missing with police still investigating those disappearances. Between Wednesday and yesterday morning, Nashaly Cristina Torres Vargas was shot to death, and Nicole Lόpez, a trans woman, was stabbed multiple times in her home.

As in the United States and elsewhere, femicide is not included in the Island’s penal law. In contrast, 16 Latin American countries include a specific type of crime referring to the murder of women. Kilόmetro Cero defines femicide as “the killing of a woman by an intimate partner or the death of a woman as a result of a practice that is harmful to women, regardless of motive” and includes women murdered by partners, ex-partners, or strangers.

“Women are killed for being women…because there’s the impression that men have control over our bodies and lives,” said Mari Mari Narváez, executive director of Kilόmetro Cero. “You’re not going to believe this but the police here still classify some of these [domestic violence] cases as crimes of passion.”

“You’re not going to believe this but the police here still classify some of these [domestic violence] cases as crimes of passion”

In a year-long investigation into domestic violence in the Island, journalist and Ida B. Wells fellow Andrea González-Ramirez found that the intimate partner murder rate in Puerto Rico soared in 2018 to 1.7 per 100,000 women, up from 0.77 per 100,000 in 2017. Gonzalez-Ramirez and independent groups have tried to piece together accurate data in light of the number of reported cases differing across multiple government agencies. On top of this inconsistency, Kilόmetro Cero and the women’s organization Proyecto Matria found that between 2014 to 2018 the Police Department reported between 11% and 27% fewer cases of female murder cases annually.

The full picture of violence against trans people fares even worse because of the lack of documentation and the misclassification of trans women as men.

Indeed, the demands of Colectiva Feminista en Construcciόn, Taller Salud and other women’s organizations on the Island include better and reliable data from the local government, and accountability for violence. Another is for public education, the training of government employees and a school curriculum that all address gender and gender violence.

On the call for a curriculum, some of Puerto Rico’s six gubernatorial candidates have expressed troubling views or have switched gears after coming under fire.

During a Sept. 17^th debate this year, Dr. César Vázquez, a pastor who represents the religious right party Project Dignity, said he was not in favor of “imposing” a gender curriculum. Citizens’ Victory Movement candidate Alexandra Lúgaro, the only woman in this race, challenged him on gender equity and toxic masculinity. Puerto Rican Independence Party candidate Juan Dalmau jumped in to denounce gender violence.

The other three candidates –pro statehood Pedro Pierluisi, Commonwealth party contender Carlos Delgado Altieri and independent Eliezer Molina remained quiet– for which they were criticized.

Pierluisi is on record saying he is not in favor of a curriculum with a gender perspective but after the Sept. 17^th debate, announced his support. During another debate late last month, Delgado Altieri also flip-flopped from opposing to backing a curriculum on gender.

Narváez and others see the hesitancy among these and other leaders as pandering to religious fundamentalists in the Island and misinterpreting the critical need for gender-based curriculums as optional. “Gender equity and education are not matters of opinion, they are human rights issues,” Narvaez said.