Measures to tackle violence against women have been approved in the Senate

He Senate gave way to measures to address the problem of gender violence at the legislative level during today’s session, one request called on the governor Pedro Pierluisi to declare a state of emergency against gender violence and another to launch an investigation into the functioning of certain instruments that the state has to address the issue, such as the Office of the Women’s Ombudsman, the police and the Institute of Forensic Science with its treatment of the ‘angler packs’.

The resolution calling for a state of emergency to be declared was voted against by Thomas Rivera Schatz of the New progressive party and Joanne Rodríguez Veve, from Proyecto Dignidad. New progressives Keren Riquelme and Gregorio Matías abstained. The legislative inquiry measure was approved with the vote against William Villafañe and Rivera Schatz. Riquelme, Wanda Soto, Nitza Morán, Matías, Carmelo Ríos and Migdalia Padilla abstained.

This afternoon, the Senate also approved a measure to create a new committee chaired by pro-independence María de Lourdes Santiago, which will serve as a watchdog for the Ministry of Education’s special education program. Likewise, two measures were approved regarding the 0.81 cents increase in kilowatt / hour energy costs: one to reject the increase and order the Department of Justice to remove any wrongdoing carried out in the process to the increase. to approve and another starts a similar investigation, but in the Senate.

The PNP delegation voted against the two measures for electrical power.

The objections of Penepés Senators Carmelo Ríos, Henry Neumann and William Villafañe revolved around the need to approve projects with substance and not to give way to more legislative inquiries, based on the ‘hasty’ premise that crimes have been committed and that the language of one of the measures referred to possible “political strategies” implemented over the past four years to delay the entry into force of the electricity surge.

“I’m afraid this is the kind of research we’re going to do if there’s a conclusion,” Ríos said.

“They’re talking about premeditated actions and collusion and darkroom discussions… it’s a bad start. If we’re going to do things right, we’ll do them right, ”said Neumann.

Senate President José Luis Dalmau Santiago said the increase approved by the Energy Bureau on Dec. 31 is included in the tax plan approved by the latest government.

Debate on gender violence

Senators Rodríguez Veve, Ana Irma Rivera Lassén, Santiago and Migdalia González held their first parliamentary debate in the Senate Chamber when they discussed both measures, on the topic of violence against women.

On the one hand, Rodríguez Veve, of Proyecto Dignidad, objected to the desire to specialize in violence against women, arguing that “general violence” should be tackled.

“I believe it is our duty to combat violence against women, but I also believe it is our duty to combat violence against men, children, young and old with the same zeal. In short, I believe it is our duty to fight violence against everyone, ”said Rodríguez Veve, discussing a series of crimes that have occurred in recent days.

Rodríguez Veve recalled how on November 30 he asked the then-elected governor to declare a state of emergency against “general violence”.

“Without distinction according to gender or age. What we cannot allow is that some deaths are more scandalous than others because we would create superior categories of people and much less can we allow the fight against violence against women to be a vehicle to overtake vehicles that have nothing to do with the goal of protecting lives said Rodríguez Veve, who criticized the fact that the explanatory memorandum mentions building alliances with organizations.

“It doesn’t specify which groups and organizations it refers to. This resolution should not be a blank check for organizations and groups with ideological proposals that hinder the implementation of measures that are truly effective in the fight against violence against women, ”she said.

Rivera Lassén answers

When it was her turn, Rivera Lassén insisted on the need, as she put it, to place “surnames” on violence. “

“If it is not done, it will not recognize what violence is and its sources and origins will not be identified,” he said. “We cannot cross out and say that all violence is the same and that there is one in particular that kills women … just because they are women.”

Rivera Lassén recalled how before the introduction of Law 54 on Domestic Violence in 1989, men had an open letter to rape their wives “because it was their right,” he said. “There was no defense in favor of married women, who considered themselves the property of their husbands,” she said.

“And it was impossible for a woman to say she had been raped by her husband because the husband had rights over his property,” said Rivera Lassén. “If violence is not given a surname, it will not be recognized,” he insisted.

“That’s why it’s important to put surnames. We live in a country where we are objects just because of the fact that we are women, also trans women, just because of possible violence. A violence related to what we construct as feminine and masculine ”.

Mary of Lourdes Santiago

The pro-independence senator argued that no one can deny that the gender gap today gives way to wage inequality and that at one point in the last century, women could not vote “because they were women.”

“Until the other days, until 1976 … a woman could run a real estate agency, but she couldn’t go to the bank alone without her husband’s permission because she couldn’t be the administrator of the community property company,” she said. . .

The same thing happens with the different manifestations of violence. There is violence that manifests itself of which we are the victim or potential victim by the mere fact that we are women, because all these inequalities over decades and centuries have found their most perverse channel in that some men have that forcing their chromosomes and forcing them to act violently. Not with their fellows, with women, ” he said.

“The price is hundreds of dead women and thousands of injured women,” he insisted.

Santiago Negrón rejected that the discussion is whether there are people who are superior, as Rodríguez Veve claimed and reviewed a series of cases where women have been murdered on the island.

“There is gender violence and it is difficult to be a woman,” she said.

Santiago said he would vote in favor of the measures but said legislative responsibility should go beyond an inquiry or petition to the governor and invited the legislature to put in place mechanisms to address the issue as well.

Migdalia González

The chair of the Women’s Affairs Committee stated that in Puerto Rico thousands of women are victims of gender violence every year.

It should not be a problem for this LA to recognize that there is a problem of discrimination against women that ends in the murder of women, ”said González. “We cannot tell our daughters and granddaughters to live in a violent country,” he added.

“A legislative body made up of a majority of 14 women is a more sensitive body that is empathetic to the victims of gender-based violence,” he said.