The kidnapping and murder of 20-year-old Rosimar Rodríguez has given new urgency to Puerto Rico’s epidemic of gender-based violence. Hundreds took to the street on Monday to protest the government’s lack of action on this crisis. As I reported for GEN back in June, more than 150 women have been killed by their current or former intimate partners in the past decade. The murder of several transgender women, the unsolved gang rape of a young woman, and the number of missing girls and women have also shaken the U.S. territory.
On September 4, 2019, Gov. Wanda Vázquez announced she was issuing a national alert against gender-based violence and created a working group tasked with drafting a plan to fight the crisis. A year later, there is no plan.
