Pedro Pierluisi announces effort to create the Comprehensive Plan for Social Reconstruction and Prevention of Violence

The governor Pedro Pierluisi announced this Tuesday the signing of an executive order (OE 2023-023), whose purpose is to create the Comprehensive Plan for Social Reconstruction and Prevention of Violence, which will be led by the lawyer Maria del Carmen Munoz and should be ready at the beginning of December.

According to Pierluisi, Ms. Munoz will be in charge of the administrative aspects of the plan, as well as its drafting and implementation, which would begin in 2024.

“There is no time to waste and we are going to act with a sense of urgency,” stated the chief executive about the executive order, which responds to the climate of violence reported in Puerto Rico. According to the Police, as of Sunday, 316 had been registered murdersamong them, the violent deaths of 25 women, of which 12 died at the hands of their partner or ex-partner.

The president specified that the departments of Family, Education, Public Safety, Corrections and Rehabilitation, Economic Development and Housing will be an integral part of the effort. “to develop a comprehensive public policy that seeks to address the roots of crime and violence.”

Likewise, he explained that there will be an advisory committee, which “will be made up of representatives of the different sectors represented in the working groups, which will be divided into the following eight areas: family, law and order, education, nonprofit organizations, faith base, health, community and public housing, private business and media, and academia.”

He added that none of the representatives of the eight sectors will be paid and must be appointed by the executive director.

The governor recalled that, in his Message on the Situation of the Country, last March, he had announced that he would be giving way to the plan.

“It is essential that our country stands up against violence of all kinds and that we unite to prevent and combat it, because we do not want to lose even one more life as a result of violence,” he said at a press conference held in Strength.

Questioned with the similar effort that the Gender Violence Prevention, Support, Rescue and Education committee (STOP) carried out to address femicides, He emphasized that the executive order goes to the root of the problem of violence.

“It not only entails physical violence, it includes psychological violence, to mention one case. We are including the private company. We all have to take an exam here. Health and the area of ​​law and order itself”he noted, and took the opportunity to defend the measures taken by his administration to combat violence.

In this regard, he commented that “the work has been done, but there are always spaces to improve or expand our efforts.”

For its part, the designated secretary of the Family, Cieni Rodriguez Troche, stressed that he will review the initial draft of the plan. “A single sector plan is not functional,” said Rodriguez Troche.

The governor’s decree also contemplates the annual holding of a Multisector Congress of Social Reconstruction and Prevention of Violence, which will have the purpose of seeking multisectoral exchange of information on violence prevention, identifying resources to mobilize, defining short and long-term objectives and strategies, as well as strengthening and developing institutional and human resource capacity, among other objectives.

Prior to the meeting of that congress, the executive director must convene the working groups to make a plan linked to the issue that concerns them, the official explained.

“The goal is to promote a broad and comprehensive discussion so that we can all be part of the strategies in favor of a society of respect that values ​​human dignity and promotes healthy coexistence”held.

Pierluisi added that “I am structuring this effort here, but the solutions are going to come from society.”