Puerto Rican women are being sexually abused, killed by partners at double the rate as island stays in lockdown
The world is grappling with the effects of a deadly pandemic. But there's another pandemic that has been hiding in plain sight. The lockdown measures imposed have been helping control the spread of COVID-19, however, it has had darker consequences in some households. Across Latin America, authorities have noted a spike in calls for help suggesting that the cases of domestic abuse in the region have increased. Annually, almost 20 million women and girls are subjected to sexual and physical violence. In cities like Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Santiago, Sao Paulo, and La Plaza, people have been confined to their homes, and only venture out when in need of essentials or in emergency situations. This, however, has caused an uptick in formal reports of abuse, and domestic violence against women, per NBC News, citing the increasing number of calls to the abuse hotlines
This year has been particularly violent for women in Puerto Rico. Andrea Gonzalez Ramirez, a writer at Gen magazine, highlights just how dire the situation is, based on an extensive investigation that she conducted over the course of a whole year. Reports suggest that murders at the hands of partners shot up in 2018, following Hurrican Maria, despite the numbers of killings having decreased between 2014 and 2017. At least 23 women out of the 3.2 million female inhabitants on the island were killed by their partners. There are four government bodies dedicate to intimate partner violence, but they are yet to develop an appropriate reporting standard for the same. The Peurto Rican police, the judiciary, the Department of Justice as well as the Women's Advocate Office, have documented different numbers. The police said in 2019 that the number of reported domestic violence murders had dropped to 10, but the numbers are likely to be much higher.
The Puerto Rican Police Department (PRDR) is notorious for mishandling domestic violence statistics. According to a study on the Latin island's femicides in the past, it has been known to undercount murders of women (including in cases of domestic abuse) every year by between 11 percent and 27 percent from 2014 to 2018. When women phoned in to report a case, they faced many issues that ranged from delayed responses through 911 to police officers who were incompetent at managing such calls. Advocates and surviving victims claim that protective orders issued by the court are barely enforced, highlighting how the government's lethargic response is a huge threat to women's safety.
In addition to this, the Puerto Rican law enforcement has its own share of problems with domestic abuse. Between 2015 and 2019, nearly 450 cases of domestic violence complaints filed were against officers, and there was only one trial out of these cases that ended with a conviction. The island has been struggling through its recession and financial crisis that has now spanned 16 years, which has ultimately also lead to domestic violence shelters either shutting down or offering limited services. The number of shelters in Puerto Rico has decreased from 13 to nine in the last 10 years. Presently there are no shelters offering services to victims in southern Puerto Rico. and those that need to access services of shelter have to travel over two hours to find a safe house for the night.
"It can be hard for victims to get help in a 'machista' (male-dominated) place like Puerto Rico, where right-wing lawmakers and religious groups have outsized influence," writes Andrea Gonzales Ramirez, for Gen. Governor Wanda Vasquez issued a nationwide lockdown on March 15 and set the curfew as 9:00 PM in an attempt to thwart the spread of Covid-19 that had affected the island. Within the course of a month, the PRPD registered almost 10 percent fewer cases of domestic violence, as compared to the same time frame in 2019. However, officials have reasons to believe that the reality is quite the opposite. Lieutenant Aymee Alvarado of the PRPD's domestic violence unit said in a statement to the local newspaper, El Nuevo Dia “Our experience tells me that because of the situations at home and other reasons, the information about domestic violence victims is not reaching the police.” The lockdown was lifted in mid-June and reports indicated that on a national scale, incidents and murders had increasing amid the pandemic.
The robust Peurto Rican society calls for stringent observation of gender roles, thus contributing to domestic violence and murders by intimate partners is a taboo, and rarely talked about subject. It is also not uncommon to rubbish women's claims of being abused by their partners and is often overlooked as the victim's fault for not choosing the right partner and should be handled within the family. Often times, the issue of domestic violence is undermined as a matter of public health, and it doesn't help that the police's involvement in tackling these cases is also flawed. Puerto Rico's American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) chapter learned in a 2012 investigation that the PRPD was repeatedly failing to protect victims of domestic abuse. Furthermore, it also found that it neglected to launch investigations into allegations, enforce protect orders, arrest alleged abusers, coordinate with prosecutors, provide victims with legal opinion, and address intra-departmental allegations of domestic abuse. The police are incapable of recognizing the signs of domestic abuse and regularly mucks up with complaints filed. ACLU Puerto Rico also said that many of the issues from the 2012 report still remain in the pile of uninvestigated complaints.
As the pandemic continues to sweep the globe, leaving no nation unscathed, Latin America's ever-prevalent fear of violence against women has now intensified.