To the stocks for  lockdown violators

A dozen indigenous youths, members of the Piriati Embera community in the Chepo district have been sentenced to time in the stocks for flouting lockdown rules. The stocks, a regular and usually painful form of punishment in the Middle Ages are still used under Embara law,  with offenders’ legs clamped for hours between two logs in a public place. Local leaders said they are enforcing government quarantine and travel decrees and carrying out extensive disinfecting programs.