Raid on shelters HQ seeks links

The Family Section of the Public Ministry and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office carried out an ocular inspection process at the offices of the  e National Secretariat for Children, Adolescents and the Family (Senniaf ), as part of the investigations into abuses in shelters.

Anti-corruption prosecutor Aurelio Vásquez told La Prensa that he cannot provide information on the investigations, because they are currently in process and that it is a case in which minors are involved.

“The only thing we can anticipate right now is that we are conducting inspection procedures at Senniaf and that some situations will eventually be verified regarding what may come out today,” said Vásquez.

While the proceedings were being conducted in Senniaf, the deputies of the Commission for Women, Children, Youth and the Family of the National Assembly met with the attorney general Javier Caraballo.

The substitute deputy Walkiria Chandler said that the visit was “quite cosmetic” and that Caraballo could not specify the exact number of open cases, for the abuse of minors in shelters subsidized by Senniaf.

Chandler indicated that they want the certainty of punishment and transform the reality of minors who are still in shelters.

The commission gave Caraballo more than 400 pages of information gathered, which includes three new cases of abuse in shelters.

The deputies reproached that the five accusations known so far are against “middle management” personnel, but that Caraballo guaranteed that he would investigate all equally.

“We know that there are quite important or powerful people involved within the State”, linked – according to Chandler – to religious congregations, political parties, the “economic power” or with family affiliation with the rulers. The deputies did not specify the names of those involved.

Lawmaker  Zulay Rodríguez said that when Eduardo Ulloa, prosecutor until March 2, wanted to lead Sara Rodríguez and Carla García (former director and former deputy director of Senniaf), “the father came, he got very angry, and he [Ulloa] resigned. He couldn’t stand the pressure ”

García’s father – now the governor of the province of Panama – is the Vice Minister of the Presidency, Carlos García.

Rodríguez also asked to summon the former Minister of Social Development, Markova Concepción, who currently holds a diplomatic post in the United States.

This scandal is related to an investigation initiated ex officio by the Public Ministry in 2020, after the media – including La Prensa – reported the irregular transfer of minors to that center.