‘A being of light’: Puerto Rico mourns Keishla Rodríguez as anger swells over femicides

At a funeral home in the outskirts of San Juan, Puerto Ricans from all over the island gathered to mourn Keishla Rodríguez, the pregnant 27-year-old girlfriend of a professional boxer whose murder has sparked outrage over violence against women.

One woman led the crowd in prayer, demanding action from the governor. A man played a guitar and sang a décima he composed for the young woman. Others showed up to pay their respects in shirts with messages against gender violence and gifts in hand.

“Let her be the last,” said Keila Ortiz, Rodríguez’s mother, dressed all in white, a cross around her neck.

Rodríguez was reported missing a week ago after not showing up to the pet salon where she worked as a groomer. Her body was found two days later floating in a lagoon under a heavily trafficked bridge in the island’s capital. Felix Verdejo, the Olympic athlete she’d known since middle school, has been charged in her death.

Her murder— and that of a 35-year-old woman found lifeless and partially burnt after she sought legal protections that weren’t granted — have fueled a national conversation on how to protect women on an island where poverty, natural disasters and the pandemic have left many increasingly vulnerable to abuse.

Violent deaths of 2 women in Puerto Rico stoke sorrow, outrage as femicides mount

The services for Rodríguez, including a wake held Thursday and Friday, will conclude Saturday when her body is laid to rest. The funeral has turned into a moment of public mourning, with many Puerto Ricans calling on officials to more quickly address gender-based violence. The government, meanwhile, has vowed to push forward implementing an emergency order issued in January. A woman is killed in Puerto Rico every seven days, according to a 2019 study from two human rights groups.

At the event, Rodríguez’s parents demanded an end to femicides in Puerto Rico, saying they hope this will be their daughter’s legacy.

“That Keishla’s name be the end of femicides,” said Jose Rodríguez, Ortiz’s husband. “And that my daughter is remembered for that. That my daughter is remembered like law.”

“Abuse against women needs to stop. Please, this cannot happen again,” added Ortiz in a solemn voice.

At the center of the room, Rodríguez lay in a shiny, silver casket covered with white flowers and dark green leaves. Visitors placed bouquets at the base of the altar. Some arrangements were in the shapes of dogs and paws, a testament to Rodríguez’s love for animals. Dozens of balloons of all colors and shapes, some which said “Happy Mother’s Day,” hung in the air nearby.

Many in attendance were relatives of women and girls murdered in Puerto Rico. This year alone, there have been 21 femicides in Puerto Rico, according to The Observatory for Gender Equity, a coalition of academics and women’s rights groups considered a leading authority in tracking gender-based violence in Puerto Rico. That figure indicates the island is on track to see the same number of femicides as last year, when 60 women were killed.

Nitza Rios, left, mother of Arelis Mercado who was brutally murdered twenty months ago, gives support to Keila Ortiz on Thursday, May 6, during a press conference at the wake of her daughter Keishla Rodriguez, whose body was found in a lagoon in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Nitza Rios, left, mother of Arelis Mercado who was brutally murdered twenty months ago, gives support to Keila Ortiz on Thursday, May 6, during a press conference at the wake of her daughter Keishla Rodriguez, whose body was found in a lagoon in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Nitza Ríos, the mother of Arellys Mercado, whose alleged murderer, Jensen Medina, is currently on trial in a highly publicized case, comforted Rodríguez’s mother with a hug. Carlos Negrón, the father of 15-year-old Karla Michelle Negrón, killed by a stray bullet that struck her during New Year’s festivities in 2012, also came to pay respects.

One couple who lost their daughter to violence last year drove from the coastal town of Arecibo, over an hour away, to comfort Rodríguez’s family.

“We went because we felt we had the need to give some support, because we have lived in our own flesh what it feels like,” said Amarilis Torrado, whose daughter, Alexandra Cardona Torrado, was shot in the head and killed in June 2020, allegedly by the former partner of her best friend. Her husband stood holding a photo of their daughter, flashing a smile at her son’s birthday party while holding the child in her arms.

In the parking lot of the Ehret Funeral Home, Rodríguez’s family and friends passed the time. Some cars had messages handwritten on their windows. A white vehicle said “Madlane aparece,” on black tinted windows, a plea calling Rodríguez by her middle name to turn up, a vestige of the hope the family had of finding Rodríguez alive only days ago.

Jose Antonio Rodriguez, left, is embraced by a relative as he arrives at a wake for his 27-year-old daughter Keishla Rodriguez, at a funeral home in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Thursday, May 6, 2021.
Jose Antonio Rodriguez, left, is embraced by a relative as he arrives at a wake for his 27-year-old daughter Keishla Rodriguez, at a funeral home in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Thursday, May 6, 2021.

Verdejo turned himself in to federal authorities Sunday night after a witness with a gruesome, firsthand testimony of the killing came forward. He faces federal charges and perhaps capital punishment for kidnapping and carjacking resulting in death, as well as the killing of an unborn child.

According to her family, Rodríguez had dated Verdejo for 11 years and often joined him when he traveled to train in the United States. Relatives described the relationship with Verdejo, who has a wife and daughter, as complicated and rife with abuse. Rodríguez’s mother told Telemundo that the boxer did not want his girlfriend to have the child, and that she was going to meet him to show him a pregnancy test when she vanished.

Advocates and experts say violence against women has gotten worse since the devastating 2017 Hurricane Maria. A series of earthquakes and pandemic lockdowns also put women at risk. Gov. Pedro Pierluisi declared a state of emergency against gender-based violence in January after the death of Angie González, a 29-year-old nurse and mother of three whose partner confessed to killing her and throwing her body down a cliff. Puerto Rico’s Financial Oversight and Management Board allocated $7 million to fund the public efforts against gender violence this week.

In the other case stoking anger in Puerto Rico, authorities and advocates say the justice system missed several opportunities to protect Andrea Ruiz, who was found dead last Thursday in a wooded area of mountainous Cayey. She’d gone to a local court in late March to pursue a domestic violence charge against the man she’d dated for eight months, but it was dismissed. She also wasn’t granted a restraining order.

In audio messages that later surfaced, obtained by Telemundo, Ruiz expressed frustration with the justice system.

“Let it be what God wants. Let this be a lesson to me,” she told a friend, flattened by the response of the courts.

Her family, which has largely stayed out of the public eye following her death, has requested the court to release the recordings of the public hearings where Ruiz asked for legal protection. The Supreme Court said it would not release the audio.

“My daughter having died, a victim of murder, it is impossible to re-victimize her,” said Olga Costas, Ruiz’s mother, according to a sworn declaration.

At Rodríguez’s wake, relatives like Michelle Ortiz and friends donned outfits in the memory of the deceased woman from head to toe: Keishla headbands, masks, and shirts, her name and face plastered across their mouths and chests.

Ortiz described Rodríguez as a “spectacular being of light.”

“She was born with her own light and that was what bothered the people who wanted to hurt her, that her light was too big and they wanted to turn it off,” she said.

She echoed the hopes of Rodríguez’s parents: That her death might be a turning point in the fight against gender violence.

“We want to tell women to raise their voice,” she said. “Don’t be silent. Let justice be done for Keishla, for all the women in the world.”