Angel Valdes | April 17, 2023
Lucy Córdoba, a human rights defender, gave details of the situation that was experienced on Peterson Island, where the case of women and children who arrived at the Rambala Hospital in Bocas del Toro with serious injuries caused by a religious sect became known.
«Within the rituals they used vines, hot nails, firebrands, spicy food, arguing that the children and women were possessed and had to get evil spirits out of them, the man who pretended to be the messiah beat the women and the most cruel is that they used the spicy to throw it in the eyes of women and children, unfortunately children may possibly lose their vision, “explained Córdoba.
While the Public Ministry reported in a statement that 5 people are provisionally detained linked to crimes against Life and Personal Integrity in the modalities of Attempted Femicide and Deprivation of Liberty; In addition, Against the Legal and Family Order in the modality of Child Abuse.
Regarding why an alert was not given before these events occurred with this sect, Córdoba considers that they have normalized this type of violence «I consider that they do not want to recognize that silence is cultural, they told this man they called him a healer, that is that they still believe that this is a type of medicine and traditional cures, this is a mixture of religion and traditional medicine, because the warning voice is not raised because they have normalized that in a certain sense, in the hearing they said that they had the Women were possessed and they had to get that out of him.
The investigation arose ex officio after Wednesday, April 12, 2023, on Peterson Island, Kusapín, in the Ngäbe Buglé Comarca, in the middle of a ritual in which some 50 members of a sect participated, a group of them caused blows and burns to children and adults.
