By Roberto Morejón

In a consumer society like Puerto Rico, under the influence of the United States, the exercise of violence is gaining ground.

The outbursts are seen in the movies, many enhance weapons as part of survival and the drug trafficking market brings with it the use of extreme methods.

Hence, experts point to the growing violence in Puerto Rico as a structural problem, capable of generating consternation, so they advocate further examination of the causes of the problem and apply corrective measures.

Professor Víctor García Toro admits the existence on the island of policies aimed at mitigating crime and terror, but in his opinion they are misguided, as they try to deal with alarming facts without unraveling the social circumstances.

Interviewed by the weekly Claridad, he speaks of a vicious circle and points out the difficulties of access to good education and housing, deficiencies of the State and the structures of the political and economic elites.

Dr. Rey Hernandez, also an educator, recalled that more than 52 percent of children under 18 years of age in Borinquen live below the poverty level.   

He mentioned the lack of opportunity, of an adequate food system, of access to culture and welfare, and mentioned what he defined as a narco-economy manipulated by adults in a society that lives in a very materialistic way.

Along with the clarifications of the experts, grim statistics have come to the forefront, since Puerto Rico is experiencing a level of belligerence, with almost 500 deaths in extreme situations annually.

Governor Pedro Pierluisi, of the annexationist New Progressive Party, admitted that the highest incidence of shootings and murders on the island of 3.2 million inhabitants is related to the illegal circulation of weapons from the United States.The state, which is neither independent nor a federal territory, is undaunted by the increase in femicides, to the point that the governor was forced to issue an order to declare an emergency for gender violence.

During 2020, forty-five women were murdered in Puerto Rico in machista assaults and between January and August 2023 the police reported 27 such crimes.The effects of violence are present, but with the exacerbation in the red chronicle it will be impossible to stop them.