On the morning of May 18, 2018, attorney Lersy Boria was driving down a road in Bayamón with her son in the back seat when the Toyota Yaris in front of her stopped. She saw a man get out of his car, yell at the female driver in front of her, and pull out a firearm.
Then, gunshots. Boria was the only witness to the murder of Suliani Calderón Nieves. She said this horrible act was her motivation to seek to lead the Women’s Advocate Office; she was named to the position of women’s advocate by Gov. Ricardo Rosselló in July 2018. Boria is younger than her predecessors — she was only 38 when she became la procuradora — and her resume prior to her appointment had little to do with women’s issues. But witnessing Suliani’s murder distinguishes her from other government officials; she’s seen the consequences of intimate partner violence up close.
“The issue of domestic violence in Puerto Rico is a multifaceted and multisector issue. Since I became the women’s advocate, and I saw everything we have to work on, [we realized] we need to work on education, accountability, and rehabilitation,” she said.
The Women’s Advocate Office was intentionally created as an independent state agency with broad powers to protect and advance women’s rights in Puerto Rico, one that can work alongside the government but whose leader does not serve at the pleasure of whoever is in power. Some of Boria’s responsibilities outlined in the Ley de la Oficina de la Procuradora de las Mujeres include investigating the infringement of women’s rights, weighing in on the creation of public policy, assessing whether said measures are being adequately implemented, and issuing administrative fines to government agencies that are found in violation of them, including the police. Addressing the island’s gender violence crisis is also one of the office’s explicit duties, according to the law.
In her nearly two years in office, Boria has championed measures meant to help victims of intimate partner violence. Her office has certified mediators who support victims as they move through the legal system. Advocates were troubled by how most rehabilitation programs for abusers on the island were not licensed, and Boria looked into that issue too. Legislation is another area where Boria uses the weight of the Women’s Advocate Office. She pushed for a bill establishing 15 days of unpaid leave for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, a measure that was signed into law by Rosselló before he was ousted last summer. She also supported recent legislation to create a special emergency phone number for domestic violence victims.
Witnessing Suliani’s murder distinguishes Lersy Boria from other government officials; she’s seen the consequences of intimate partner violence up close.
But Boria has also remained on the sidelines for some critical debates, her critics said. She stayed publicly silent about a law signed by Vázquez in December 2019 that allows for survivors of domestic violence to receive an expedited gun license if they have a protective order. Women’s rights advocates and victims’ services organizations say they were not asked for their input when the legislation was drafted and have opposed it since. They believe Boria should have too. “Arming women does not necessarily make them safer,” said González, from Coordinadora Paz para la Mujer. Research has found gun ownership rates are uniquely tied to domestic homicides in the U.S. Half of the women killed by their intimate partners are fatally shot, and these gun-related murders increased by 26% between 2010 and 2017. Owning a gun poses a challenge for victims who want to be housed in a shelter. “We have to now establish [new security] protocols on how to handle this if they come in,” said Rivera, from Red de Albergues. “These measures might be done in good faith, but they don’t work logistically.”
Critics argue that when Boria chooses to weigh in on legislation or other measures, she’s too focused on incrementalism and hasn’t been willing to hold accountable the administration of Rosselló, who appointed her to the job, or that of his successor, Vázquez. In late 2018, she said she could not issue a fine to the PRPD for pepper-spraying women protesters at a weekend-long sit-down against gender violence even though it was within her power to do so — a move seen as support for the Rosselló administration.
“She’s not a government employee. The law that created this office offers her autonomy precisely because the job of the women’s advocate is to inspect whether the government is implementing public policy to eradicate violence against women,” said Dávila, from Colectiva Feminista en Construcción. “The women’s advocate should not side with the government, defending how they are handling this issue. She needs to investigate why there are failures, who is responsible, and how they can be solved. That’s not what she’s done.”
There are other concerned parties, too. Rivera, from Red de Albergues, believes there is a disconnect between their needs and the efforts the Women’s Advocate Office has prioritized. Shelters in particular are expensive programs to run — housing a victim with three children costs about $7,500 per month — and they have been hard-hit by the austerity measures born out of the island’s fiscal crisis. It’s unclear if Boria has advocated on their behalf throughout her tenure.
The Women’s Advocate Office specifically manages funding from the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which shelters can receive. But they have to compete for these funds against other initiatives, including domestic violence training for the PRPD, anti-sexual violence programs, and more. “We’re getting less funds for us to give our services,” Rivera said, adding that’s the case for their other significant streams of government funding: the state legislature, the Administration of Families and Children, and the Puerto Rico Department of Justice. “Ironically, we are the one mechanism that is 100% effective. Women are not killed in shelters because we have security protocols that guarantee victims are protected.”
Boria largely dismissed the complaints about her performance, instead saying different sectors should strive for unity if they want to end violence against women. “We’re all working towards the same goal. We should not focus on rumors. We need to work on a strategic plan and join forces,” she said. “We can’t keep working apart or seeking the spotlight. The important thing is that we all work together and establish the best public policies.”
Women’s rights organizations feel Boria did not join them in the one area where they say her support could have made a difference: Demanding the government declare a state of emergency due to gender-based violence. Instead, Boria stood behind Vázquez as she issued a national alert last September. She has since participated in the meetings of the working group the government established in the fall of 2019 to tackle Puerto Rico’s domestic violence problem.
In December, four feminist organizations — El Movimiento Amplio de Mujeres (MAMPR), Colectiva Feminista en Construcción, Taller Salud, and Proyecto Matria — said they would not continue their participation in the working group. Dávila, from Colectiva Feminista en Construcción, said they came to the table willing to work with the Vázquez administration. In the first meetings of the working group, they saw the draft proposed by the government and were allowed to make suggestions.
“It was very broad and vague,” she said. There was no acknowledgment of the system’s failures. It was not a concrete plan.” In December, they received an updated version that did not acknowledge any of the amendments the group had made. “Everyone was like, ‘this is bullshit,’” she said. Colectiva Feminista en Construcción decided to leave the working group, feeling it was a farce.
The remaining members of the working group have reportedly forged on. Vázquez said in early March the final version of the plan would be made public “within weeks,” just as the coronavirus pandemic hit the island. It has yet to happen.