Newly Sworn Governorate of Puerto Rico. Pedro Pierluisi
Pedro Rafael Pierluisi Puerto Rico votes in favor of US state Puerto Ricans voters are key in Sunshine State Puerto Rico Democratic boss: party ‘cannot support’ AOC / Velazquez status bill MORE has declared a state of emergency in Puerto Rico in response to the murders of women and transgender people in recent years.
Pierluisi signed an executive order declaring the emergency due to gender-based violence on Sundays. It will last until June 30, 2022.
Activists have for years pushed for government action to address the killings and violence, which they say got worse after 2017’s Hurricane Maria and the island’s coronavirus pandemic. CNN reported.
Puerto Rican police are reporting that at least 5,517 women were victims of domestic violence in 2020, and the Observatory for Gender Equality documented at least 60 direct and indirect femicides, six transfemicides and 26 cases still under investigation or for which information is lacking.
“Gender violence is a social evil based on ignorance and attitudes that cannot have room or tolerance in the Puerto Rico we pursue,” Pierluisi said in a statement translated by CNN. “For too long, vulnerable victims have been affected by systematic machismo, inequality, discrimination, lack of training, lack of guidance and, above all, lack of action.”
The governor’s order establishes several programs to address the violence, including setting up a commission focused on education, support, and rescue.
The 17-member committee, which will include three representatives from organizations focusing on gender-based violence, will submit an initial progress report 45 days after its inception and then every 30 days until the end of the statement.
Pierluisi also asked for a mobile app to allow victims to report violence without drawing attention to themselves.
Advocacy organizations celebrated the governor’s order as progress.
“Today our anger carries some hope,” the organization Colectiva Feminista and Construcción posted on Facebook. “Today, as always, our hope is radical. We will not step back.”