Women in the Dominican Republic are in constant fear for their life just simply because of their gender. In 2012, Council on Hemispheric Affairs reports demonstrated that in the nation’s population of ten million, one woman is murdered every two days. The underlying machismo ideologies prevalent today, violate women’s rights in the Dominican Republic. As a result, the nation has one of the highest rates of women’s deaths at the hands of their partners or ex-partners in Latin America.
In 2017, according to People Magazine, Emely Peguero, a 16-year-old girl, who was five months pregnant, was found inside a suitcase on the side of the road. Days before being found, 19-year-old Marlon Martinez, Emily’s boyfriend, and his mother, held a press conference officially announcing that Emely should return home. However, after the press conference, Martinez turned himself in to the police and confessed to killing his 16-year-old girlfriend. He also told officials that his mother, who served as a government official in Santo Domingo, Marlin Altagracia Martínez Paulino, helped him dispose of the body.
Peguero was only 15 years old when she discovered she was pregnant, three years below the age of consent in the Dominican Republic. However, as a predominantly Catholic nation, abortion is illegal. Forensics reports found that Peguero had suffered internal bleeding believed to be caused by an attempt at abortion as well as a blow to her head. According to Listin Diario, Martinez was sentenced to thirty years in prison and his mother was sentenced to twenty years for serving as an accomplice, in 2017. However, in 2019, Paulino was set free after only completing two years of her twenty-year sentence.
Photograph of Marlon Martinez in court.
Cases like Peguero are quite common in the Dominican Republic and continue to occur today. Domestic violence is one of the biggest threats to women’s security, and in 2020 alone, USAID reports “more than 10,000 incidents of gender-based violence” in the Dominican Republic. In the case of Peguero, the question of corruption is also prevalent, as the mother of Paulino was a government official who aided in the killing of a young woman and was freed 18 years before finishing her original sentence.
These tragedies make me wonder what makes someone who is supposed to love you and care for you turn towards hate to kill? Where did the hatred arise in a relationship that is supposed to be based on love? What drives humans to the point of taking the lives of innocent people? Who are we trusting to prosecute the crimes against humanity?
Rush W. Dozier, in his 2002 book Why We Hate: Understanding, Curbing, and Eliminating Hate in Ourselves and Our World, has attempted to explain the science behind hate, where he mentions that “[i]n the name of hate, humans carry out the most shocking and repulsive acts imaginable” (1). These acts are often a combination of prejudice and extreme anger. Is domestic violence, specifically against women in the Dominican Republic, a cause of the toxic culture and parenting often taught to men? In the patriarchal society that still values men more than women and commends hyper-masculinity, does hate towards women arise from their historical objectification? Or is it a result of the corruption that takes place in their justice system, which allows murderers to walk free?
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