People take part in the annual Gay Pride parade in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on June 3, 2018. (Ricardo Arduengo/AFP/Getty)
Puerto Rico governor Pedro Pierluisi declared a statement of emergency in the US territory Sunday (24 January) amid a spate of targeted killings against trans people as well as cis women.
Pierluisi, a member of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party sworn in earlier this month, announced the executive order that will provide sweeping protections against gender-based violence.
According to a news release from the governor’s office, the state of emergency will be in effect until 30 June, 2022.
“Gender violence is a social evil, based on ignorance and attitudes that cannot have space or tolerance in the Puerto Rico that we aspire to,” Pierluisi said in a statement.
But Pierluisi’s decision registered as more effectual with activists.
“For us, it’s a victory because the island has already been requesting for two years the declaration of a state of emergency and, well, it was finally decreed the way it had to be done: with an executive order that includes specific issues to address the violence towards women in Puerto Rico,” Amárilis Pagán, the director of the activist group Proyecto Matria, said in a statement to reporters.
Pagán clarified that she and other members of Proyecto Matria met at La Fortaleza, which serves as the residence of the governor, last Friday to present guidelines for the Pierluisi to implement that can effectively address femicide on the island.
Puerto Rican activists urge investigation of suspicious LGBTQ deaths
Puerto Rico Para Tod@s also criticized police for failing to identify victims as LGBTQ
44SHARES
Samuel Edmund Damián Valentín, a trans man, was shot to death on Jan. 9, 2021 – Photo: Facebook.
LGBTQ activists in Puerto Rico are calling on law enforcement authorities to properly investigate three suspicious deaths in which the victims are believed to be LGBTQ people.
On January 9, a woman was driving down Highway 181 in Trujillo Alto around 3:25 a.m., when she hit an object on the pavement, but could not see due to the lack of lighting. She stopped her car and went to check, and discovered a body suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.