Sanctions demanded for those responsible for children abuse in Panama

Panama, Feb 17 (Prensa Latina) Demostrators gathered in front of the Panamanian Public Prosecutor´s Office and demanded sanctions for those responsible for child abuse in transit homes, a scandal that shook the country at the beginning of 2021.

The representative of the movement Pro Defensa de la Niñez y la Adolescencia, Rebeca Yanis, demanded the prosecutor in charge, Javier Caraballo, to resign if he is not able to advance in the pertinent investigations.

The demostrators delivered to the institution a note in which they indicated that out of 28 processes only five people have been convicted, but with a low profile, while others remained unpunished.

In February 2021, a subcommittee of the National Assembly presented a report on sexual abuse and physical and psychological mistreatment committed since 2015 against dozens of minors, in at least 14 shelters under the supervision of the Secretariat for the Care of Children and Infants.

The scandal shocked the country and provoked continuous protests to demand punishment against those responsible, who were in charge of protecting infants coming from socially vulnerable homes or in situations of extreme poverty.

As a result of the incident, the United Nations Children’s Fund asked the Panamanian government not to delay any longer a law guaranteeing the integral protection of children and adolescents.

Last Tuesday, the President of the Republic, Laurentino Cortizo, decreed a legislation that offers, according to him, greater guarantees and integral protection to this sector of the population, a measure demanded by the society.