Femicide cases in Puerto Rico are all too common and often we don’t hear the victims’ name. This time around, there was more media visibility because the alleged murder of Rodríguez was a well-known boxer.
Part of our role as media should be to contextualize these cases. That is, not just focus on one murder but the system that puts women and members of the LGBTTIQ+ at risk.
For example, in 1988 basketball player Richie Pietri brutally murdered his wife Ivonne Rodríguez. It was this case, the way the media sympathized with the victim, a growing feminist movement, and dedicated senators that led Puerto Rico to pass a law that criminalizes domestic violence in August 15, 1989. Law 54 was ahead of its time, it was the first criminalization of domestic violence in Latin America and it was passed years before the U.S. passed VAWA.
Although it was written carefully, the implementation of Law 54 has failed mostly because there hasn’t been adequate training to law enforcement who continue to dismiss warnings such as the one Andrea Ruiz made.