Government Has No Plan to Handle Increase in Post-disaster, Gender-based Violence

Since Hurricane Fiona struck September 18, the government of Puerto Rico has held more than a dozen press conferences, but in none has it provided information that helps victims and survivors of gender-based violence get specialized aid they need during the emergency, when they are most vulnerable. 

feminicidio

The Children Whose Mothers Were Taken Away by Machismo

“Where’s mom?,” asks Sgt. Roberto Mercado at the doorway of the light green house, located in the La Fuente neighborhood, in the town of Florida.

Behind the window, a 2-year-old boy responds by looking down at the floor next to him.

“For me, it was a sign that his mom was dead,” says the Puerto Rico Police negotiator about the femicide that he had to handle on the afternoon of June 30, 2018.

Los niños a los que el machismo les arrebató la madre

“¿Dónde está mamá?”, pregunta el sargento Roberto Mercado a la entrada de la casa verde claro, ubicada en la urbanización La Fuente, en el municipio de Florida. 

Detrás de la ventana, un niño de 2 años responde dirigiendo la mirada hacia el suelo, a su lado. 

“Fue, para mí, una señal de que mamá estaba muerta”, cuenta el negociador de la Policía de Puerto Rico sobre el feminicidio que le tocó atender la tarde del 30 de junio de 2018. 

Emmanuel Córdova Vendrell había asesinado de un disparo a su pareja Loren Figueroa Quiñones, de 30 años, frente al hijo menor de ella, tras horas de haberla mantenido como rehén. Otro hijo de la mujer, de 8 años, había escapado corriendo de la residencia durante la discusión. Luego de cometer el crimen, el asesino se suicidó. Todo ocurrió frente al más pequeño, que fue quien, con sus pies mojados en la sangre de su mamá, vestido con pantalón corto y sin camisa, abrió la puerta de la casa a los agentes. Mercado lo cargó al hombro, mientras lloraba, y lo entregó a su abuela materna.

Diversion Programs for Law 54 Aggressors Have No Supervision in Puerto Rico

In 1989, when Puerto Rico’s feminist movement fought a battle inside the halls of the Capitol to get Act 54 passed, one of the concessions it had to make was to include in the legislation the possibility that the aggressors would avoid jail time if they participated in a reeducation, or diversion program, to reeducate themselves over their sexist behaviors. After completing the program, the conviction is removed from their criminal record, as if they had never been guilty. “I remember perfectly the conversations  between those of us who were there lobbying for the legislation, that we didn’t know very well how successful these programs could be,” said María Dolores Fernós, one of the promoters of the Prevention and Intervention with Domestic Violence Act, and who later became the first director of the Women’s Advocate Office. The concerns that the feminists had about reeducation programs three decades ago are still valid today, as there is no evidence to support their effectiveness and the entity responsible for their supervision, the Regulatory Board of Reeducation and Retraining Programs for Aggressors Act, which was created in 2000, has been mostly idle, while not producing a single report on the programs.

Neither the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR), the Courts Administration, nor the Women’s Advocate Office provided information to the Center for Investigative Journalism (CPI, in Spanish) on the number of participants, levels of re-offense, or success rates in re-educating aggressors. The lack of a curriculum for programs that promote real change, that allow the victims to take classes together with their aggressors, and the absence of continuous education for the therapists are part of the problem.