Panama: the prosecution opens an investigation into the forced sterilization of indigenous women
Indigenous women dance during the opening ceremony of the third ancestral indigenous games in the port province of Chiriqui Grande in Bocas del Toro, Panama, December 16, 2021 (illustrative image).
AFP - LUIS ACOSTA
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
Panama's public prosecutor's office opened this investigation on Monday, February 21, following information disclosed by a parliamentary commission.
Advertising
Read more
It was last October.
A Parliament delegation visits the indigenous community of Charco La Pava.
She lives in a mountainous region that is difficult to access in the province of Bocas de Toro.
The delegation then collects the testimony of several women, explains Walkiria Chandler.
A substitute member of the National Assembly, she was part of the delegation.
“
The women told us that they were sterilized without their consent,
” she says.
They found out because those who went – on foot for hours – to the nearest hospital to give birth could no longer have children.
On the other hand, those who gave birth in their village according to ancestral practices retained their reproductive capacity.
»
A dozen women victims
The parliamentarians write a report, alert the Minister of Health at the time, but the Panamanian government is slow to react.
It was only last Thursday that things started to move: the Ministry of Health decided to launch an investigation into the accusations of forced sterilization which would concern a dozen indigenous women.
The public prosecutor's office in Panama has just sent a team on site to meet the alleged victims.
For now, she is still waiting for permission from the indigenous authorities to access the community.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Panama
Womens rights