(Miami Herald) Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi declared a state of emergency Sunday over a tide of violence against women, a measure local activists have demanded for years to address a scourge that continues to go largely unpunished.
The emergency declaration calls for a series of wide-ranging policies to combat femicides and other forms of violence. The executive order was hailed by advocates as an important step in addressing a long-existing issue that jumped back into the spotlight after a recent murder.
“Gender violence is a social evil, based on ignorance and attitudes that cannot have space or tolerance in the Puerto Rico that we aspire to,” Pierluisi said in a press release. “It is my duty and my commitment as governor to establish a STOP to gender violence and for these purposes I have declared a state of emergency.”
As part of the order, a mobile app will be created to help victims request assistance and report aggressors to emergency services. Authorities will create a program to check in with women who have filed restraining orders. And the government will launch media campaigns to educate the public about gender violence.
A compliance officer will be charged with ensuring the order is followed, while a committee including local rights groups will simultaneously recommend public policy, monitor implementation, and publish progress reports.
“To eradicate gender violence we have to make concerted efforts between the state and society in which, in addition to a comprehensive plan, there is an educational approach to teach our children that every human being has to be respected, as well as empower to our next generations to eradicate this evil,” the governor said.
The move comes days after Angie Noemi González, a nurse from the mountain town of Barranquitas, was found dead in a ravine in a crime that outraged many on the island. According to police, her partner of 16 years, Roberto Rodríguez, admitted to killing the mother of three.
The woman’s uncle, Alex Santos, told el Nuevo Herald she had been working at a nursing home throughout the pandemic and had survived cancer. He said she had expressed fear for her life but thought that filing a restraining order would be pointless.
“It’s a piece of paper that won’t protect me at all,” he said she told him.
The order is the latest measure to bring attention to violence against women in Latin America and the Caribbean, considered one of the most dangerous regions in the world to be female. A recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperative and Development notes the region has the world’s highest rates of femicide, with over a quarter of women experiencing violence from an intimate partner at least once in their lifetime. Advocates fear those trends have gotten worse during the pandemic, with lockdowns putting vulnerable women at further risk.
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