Juana had to seek asylum due to gender violence. She left her life in the Dominican Republic to escape her ex-partner, who not only beat her and mistreated their children, but also attempted to rape her and sexually harassed her for at least two years.

“The system failed in every way because when they started paying more attention to my case, I had already filed five complaints with the prosecutor’s office,” said Juana, whose name in this story has been changed for safety concerns.

“He wanted to force me to have sex with him. He would come and talk to the children. They were small, he had a restraining order, but the kids would open the back door for him. He would sneak in through the yard on his tiptoes so I wouldn’t notice and jump on me in bed while I was sleeping,” she recounts. “I had up to four restraining orders. He never respected them.”

Thanks to a supportive network of friends, lawyers, and feminist organizations, Juana survived her aggressor — who remains free — and the system’s failures. When the authorities couldn’t protect her from harassment, these groups helped her immigrate legally, receive support in her new country, and welcome her children into their new home. She has a job and has started a new life far from her original family, in a different country with a new language.

As proof of her struggles with the system, she keeps an unexecuted arrest warrant and a restraining order. Emigration was never her plan until she realized it was the only way to raise her two children safely.

“I had to leave because when they put me in a shelter, he was arrested but released because he had his connections, and my life was in danger. People were stalking my house. He wasn’t in jail, so I had to leave the country,” she recounts resignedly, with the calmness of someone far from their nightmare.

To save Juana, one of her lawyers, who’s also a friend, took care of her children for a while, also becoming a victim of the man’s harassment.

“I kept the children, whom she had custody of, for a while and he started calling me at night to intimidate me,” said Juana’s lawyer, whose name we also do not mention for security reasons.

At the same time, Juana faced a process in which she felt stigmatized because, according to her, in a virtual court hearing, only her aggressor was allowed to speak.

Women in similar situations to Juana’s have come to the Centro de la Mujer Dominicana (CMD, in Spanish) in Puerto Rico. According to CMD social worker Noelia Delgado Rodríguez, many of the people who visit the organization have suffered sexual abuse multiple times during their lives. “Many women who come to our organization have suffered sexual abuse in their childhood, and many have experienced sexual abuse or assault during their journey [from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico],” she explained.

The element of power wielded by aggressors is a common thread in the accounts of sexual violence shared by women at the CMD: a partner, a friend, or an employer is often the perpetrator. Compounding these situations is the structural and machista violence that puts migrant women at greater risk of organized crime, sexual assault, kidnapping, and human trafficking, as detailed in the book “Narrativas de Lucha: Mujeres inmigrantes y violencias de género en Puerto Rico,” written by Dr. Elithet Silva-Martínez. More Dominican women migrate than men, and when they face poverty, the threat of these types of violence escalates.

The publication states that many women reported experiencing sexual violence in other contexts but did not provide further details. One woman attributed her reluctance to share more information about her sexual assault to shame. “I would never dare to say that, not in public, it embarrasses me… Even if you’re the victim, it still embarrasses you,” the victim said, describing the difficulty of sharing her experience despite not being at fault.

The book notes that support and collective solidarity spaces are often crucial to rebuilding a person’s life after facing such violence.

From January to April this year, 2,398 reports of sexual crimes were filed in the Dominican Republic, according to data from the Attorney General’s Office. On average, 20 sexual crimes were reported daily in the Dominican Republic in 2023. All this occurs in a country where conservative groups oppose comprehensive sex education in schools, which addresses fundamental topics like abuse prevention and consent in relationships. Following criticism from conservative influencers, the Ministry of Public Health suspended a violence prevention program implemented in some schools in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, which included sex-affective education elements.

According to a March 2023 UNESCO document, comprehensive sex education is not mandatory in Dominican schools. “The Sex-Affective Education Program (PEAS) and the Guidelines for Sex-Affective Education in Educational Centers (2011) are official references for incorporating comprehensive sex education into schools and are optional for educational centers,” the document states.

Last year, the Attorney General’s Office recorded 7,483 cases of rape, assault, harassment, seduction of minors (children or adolescents abused by adults without physical force), incest (sexual abuse of minors by relatives), and exhibitionism.

Impunity in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico

The Attorney General’s Office registered 1,454 reports of sexual assault in 2023. However, according to the Judicial Branch, only 92 verdicts related to sexual assault were issued that year based on preliminary data. “Sexual assault is defined as any act of sexual penetration of any nature committed against a person through violence, coercion, threat, or surprise,” states Article 331 of the Dominican Republic’s Penal Code.

Not all sentences correspond to 2023 cases, but the fact that they represent only 6% of the total complaints filed in a year indicates the system’s sluggishness and the victims’ difficulty accessing justice.

Impunity in sexual violence cases is not exclusive to the Dominican Republic. According to the latest annual report of Puerto Rico’s Judicial System, as of July 1, 2021, there were 177 sexual assault cases — 105 filed that fiscal year and 72 pending from previous years — before the Superior Court. Of these, only 16 were resolved, representing 9% of cases. Four resolved cases ended in acquittals, two were dismissed, and 10 resulted in convictions.

The most recent report from the Puerto Rico Police in 2022 revealed 1,467 reported incidents of sexual violence that year. Of these, only 100 (7%) resulted in arrests, and only 14 (0.10%) led to convictions.

Official statistics have their flaws. In 2018, victim support organizations in Puerto Rico reported that government statistics were unreliable because they did not match due to different data collection systems.

Even in 2024, mistrust in these statistics persists, according to Vilma González Castro, director of the Puerto Rican Coalition and Assistance for Victims of Gender Violence, Coordinadora Paz para la Mujer.

“Although some changes have been made, we still don’t trust that the reported statistics accurately reflect the actual number of sexual violence cases in Puerto Rico,” González Castro said.

This mistrust stems from the fact that sexual crimes are underreported, sometimes to avoid the revictimization people might face during the process. Others prefer alternative routes to the police or justice system for help. “[The statistics] don’t allow us to have a clear vision of sexual violence in Puerto Rico. They give us an idea of the problem, but we don’t have a reliable number,” she added.

She also noted that a lack of communication between government agencies still hampers trust in the statistics.

On the other hand, it is known that in both the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico there is an underreporting of cases that, for different reasons, are not taken to the authorities.

In the Dominican Republic, some rapes only come to light and reach justice because they ended in death and were published in newspapers or talked about in TV news, like the case of a 13-year-old girl.

According to preliminary investigations, the girl was raped and murdered in July 2023 by her stepfather. The Permanent Attention Court of the National District imposed three months of preventive detention on the man as a coercive measure. At the same time, he awaited trial for several criminal offenses, including voluntary homicide. According to the newspaper “Hoy,” neighbors reported that the girl was constantly mistreated and threatened by the rapist.

Justice and Public Health Debts to Victims

Six victims and mothers of raped girls said the process of reporting and prosecuting their cases was torturous, exhausting, or expensive. Sometimes, pursuing justice requires paying for private lawyers, transportation costs, and frequent visits to different offices for administrative procedures or moving from one province to another so abused children and teens can be interviewed in Gesell chambers, a mechanism to prevent revictimization.

Through lawyers, the Gender Investigative Unit — a collaboration between Todas and the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo — confirmed that two of these women abandoned their cases, one due to fear of the aggressor and the repercussions of reporting within the family and the other due to the exhausting efforts and the feeling of revictimization experienced during the process.

In Puerto Rico, the experience is not much different. Victims face revictimization in courts and public discourse, especially when the process presents challenges that prevent them from continuing, according to attorney Vilmarie Vega Meléndez. The lawyer cited the case of Andrea Ojeda in 2021, who reported her ex-partner, former boxer Juanma López, for gender violence. However, she didn’t move forward with the case due to the pressure of the process.

Ojeda said she felt so affected by the process imposed by the Public Ministry that she had to be treated in a psychiatric hospital. Vega Meléndez argues that the lack of constitutional protections plays a crucial role in the processes victims face. “In Puerto Rico, unlike jurisdictions like Mexico, crime victims don’t enjoy constitutional protections. The weakness of local law safeguards, coupled with the simplistic definition of the victim, only adds to their vexation,” Vega Meléndez said.

An Ancient, Normalized Structural Violence

Elena, whose name was changed for her safety, was raped by her uncle more than 20 years ago when she was still a teenager, and she remained silent. When the rape was discovered sometime after the fact, because her husband realized she had already had sexual relations with other men, her family demanded more silence to protect the family’s “honor.” She remained silent again. Her husband accepted her back and kept the secret: he believed that the young woman “was not at fault.” The new millennium was dawning, and in some rural regions of the southern Dominican Republic, those old patriarchal codes were still valid.

Even now, some families choose silence, either for “honor” or lack of faith in the justice system, like a Dominican-Haitian family that decided not to report a girl’s rape for fear of facing the legal process and the abuser’s wrath, who was known in the community.

Their fear is not unfounded. Attorney Joselin Melo, of the National Human Rights Commission in Azua province, who defends women and girls who are victims of sexual violence, explains that legal processes are exhausting for victims. After reporting to the Prosecutor’s Office or the Comprehensive Care Unit for Gender Violence, Intrafamily, and Sexual Crimes, an arrest warrant is issued against the rapist, but it is often not executed.

In 2022, 28.6% of the 9,198 arrest warrants issued by the Comprehensive Care Units for Gender Violence, Intrafamily, and Sexual Crimes were not executed, according to the Statistical Report on Violence Against Women Cases Based on Variables Linking Different Institutional Sources. The most extreme case was in Valverde province, where only 36.7% of arrest warrants were executed. These data include all types of violence against women: sexual, physical, and psychological.

The aggressor can remain free for years, knowing who reported them. In small towns, victims and their rapists encounter each other in public spaces. “The police don’t go looking for anyone; it has to be that they locate him, that someone tells them where he is, and that one risks going after him without knowing…,” the lawyer said.

Here’s an example. On August 10, 2021, arrest warrant number 1136-2021 was issued against the alleged rapist of a 12-year-old girl identified as “Wery,” according to Judicial Branch records that the Center for Investigative Journalism accessed. The man was still free three years later, official sources and lawyers confirmed.

Whether rapists are sought or not, in many provinces, victims live in fear of encountering their abusers on their way to school or work, in the neighborhood, or the park, and must trust that they are protected by a “restraining order.” “They give them a restraining order that is just a piece of paper that says the person can’t approach the victim within a certain distance, but no one respects that here; it doesn’t stop a bullet. It stops nothing,” said Melo.

Attorney Patricia Santana, experienced in litigating cases of sexual violence suffered by girls and adults, said, “A complaint initiates the public action.” Santana explains that if a child or teenager has been assaulted or is at risk, it is not necessary for someone to formally complain to the Prosecutor’s Office for the authorities to act. “Due to the severity of the act, public action is initiated, meaning the Public Ministry must act.”

However, the Public Ministry does not always act on a complaint, especially when violence occurs far from cities.

A Severe and Neglected Security and Public Health Problem

In a rural community in the southwestern Dominican Republic, near the border, three men raped a girl. Her mother filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, where they promised to follow up on the case but failed to do so and did not refer her for medical help.

Since the incident, the girl has been abused by other men, several family members, and human rights defenders confirmed to the Center for Investigative Journalism. In rural areas of the southwestern Dominican Republic, some believe that if a girl or teenager has had sexual relations or been abused, she is “a woman” and can consent.

Two years later, the girl, now about 13, still has not received physical or mental care. At least one of the rapists, accused of abusing girls in other towns, is on the run.

The mother believes that the family, especially her daughter, needs help. She has spoken with two different authorities and human rights defenders but attempts to get the girl help have been futile. Her daughter is at risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease or getting pregnant.

“After that, other men have tried to take advantage of the girl. One, much older, over 18, also was with her because the problem was known among some neighbors,” the desperate mother said while cooking in a house that is essentially one room separated by curtains and sparse utensils. She lives by working the land.

Although the law prohibits and punishes them, abusive relationships between adults and teens are tolerated, especially in rural areas, when it is believed the adolescent was not forced. According to an article published by “Diario Libre,” based on an analysis of civil registry records, on average, men who impregnate teens are five to 10 years older. Still, there are cases where the age difference is up to 30 years. Often, when teens arrive at medical centers, weeks or months into their pregnancy, the focus must be on ensuring the health of both the mother and the child, said Luz Fermín Brito, head of the Adolescents Department at the National Health Service (SNS).

Limitations of Statistics

Of the 2,393 cases of rape and sexual abuse registered in the Dominican capital, the sex of the victims was identified in 2,262: 1,785 were women, accounting for 78%, and 477 were men, accounting for 22%.

Sex-disaggregated data on sexual crimes do not work well in the Dominican Republic. When asked for data for the entire country, the Attorney General’s Office responded that they were unavailable in the system.

Without sex-disaggregated statistics, it is challenging to analyze and create public policies to address gender and domestic violence, which includes most sexual crimes. This violence constitutes a severe security and public health problem in the Dominican Republic.

In 2023, gender and domestic violence, including sexual crimes, accounted for 45% of complaints to the Public Ministry. Of the 165,461 crimes recorded by the Attorney General’s Office, 74,465 were related to gender, domestic violence, and sexual crimes. Sexual crimes accounted for about 10% of gender or domestic violence complaints and 4% of total complaints.

Despite the severity of domestic, gender, and sexual violence, neither the Attorney General’s Office nor the overall care, protection, and sanction system has a protected budget to address the problem, as women’s organizations and specialized prosecutors have asked for.

“We need protected resources because we cannot respond without resources. Violence is expensive; I always say machismo is very expensive. And the response to machismo and preventing the phenomenon is tackled with strategies to achieve impact, prevention, and care, but also with a budget,” said Judge Ana Andrea Villa Camacho, head of the Gender Violence Directorate.

What Happens When the Rapist Is Released?

Near Santo Domingo, in a rural community, a mother fears for her safety and her daughter’s. About seven years ago, the girl, now a teenager, was raped by a relative who was prosecuted and sentenced to only five years in prison. He will soon be released, and the woman fears her ordeal will resume.

“I fear for my life and my daughter’s. Because even in court, he would say to me and a friend who was with me, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll get her.’ He threatened me, even in jail, even with handcuffs, during hearings, he always threatened me.”

The legal process against the rapist began when the mother filed a report at one of the dependencies of the Children’s Prosecutor’s Office after noticing her daughter had injuries. Pediatricians attended to her and advised her to go to the Prosecutor’s Office. There, they guided her to receive more specialized medical care, and a legal process was initiated, including psychological evaluations.

However, there was no subsequent psychological treatment to help the girl and her family process the trauma, said the mother. The only intervention in this regard was with the school psychologist, who was informed of the situation to help stop harassment from classmates who learned about the incident and taunted the girl for being raped.

Most sexual assaults against children are committed by people close to them, explains World Vision, an organization dedicated to child protection.

For this investigation, the victims’ real names were omitted, except those who chose to make their cases public in the media. The names of most human rights defenders consulted were also withheld to ensure their safety and privacy in cases where they were deemed at risk or requested it.

The interviewees who verified the execution of protocols were raped or accompanied women who were raped in the last three years. Other women have suffered rape in silence without seeking support for decades.

Where to Seek Help in the Dominican Republic

Reports can be made to the Línea Vida by calling 809-200-1202. If possible, it is recommended to go to a specialized gender violence unit; if unavailable in your province or municipality, you can go to any Prosecutor’s Office.

The Ministry of Women offers psychological and legal assistance services, as well as a helpline for victims at *212.

There are NGOs that provide free or low-cost support to victims of gender violence, including sexual assault, such as the Patronato de Ayuda a Casos de Mujeres Maltratadas at (809) 533-1813 or WhatsApp (849) 340-1813.

Where to Seek Help in Puerto Rico

Options for seeking guidance or support after sexual abuse or assault in Puerto Rico include: Tu Paz Cuenta, from Taller Salud (787-697-1120); the San Juan Municipality helpline 939-CONTIGO (939-266-8446); Proyecto Matria’s helpline: 787-489-0022; and the Centro de Salud Justicia’s helpline (787-337-3737). All operate 24/7.