System failure in"The other Panama” girls investigation

Doctors and organizations that defend the rights of women and have joined the growing outcry against the refusal pf a PRD ruling party legislator to step down while being investigated for the alleged commission of crimes against sexual freedom when He was a doctor in Guna Yala .

The National Women’s Council expressed its “repudiation” for the acts in which Arquesio Arias is named and Néstor Vega, representative of the doctors on the board of the Social Security Fund, believes that Arias should separate while under investigation.

Rossana Uribe , president of the Panamanian Association for Family Planning (Aplafa) , no person who is investigated for committing sexual abuse against a child should be on the street and less in the National Assembly.

She said that the government system or apparatus failed these girls and adolescents from the beginning because those who were called to proceed with the investigation in these cases – The  Ministry of Health (Minsa) and  Ministry of Education – somehow did not comply with what they should have done.

Arias is under investigation by the Supteme Court in a process that involves two complaints. The first has to do with a child under 16, and the second, with a young woman of 22. The event would have occurred in Ustupu, in 2018.

In addition, in 2012 teachers of the Simran Colman school in Ailigandí sent a note to the Minsa after the doctor also allegedly sexually abused three girls who were part of a basketball team.

In both cases the Regional Directorate of the Minsa in Guna Yala was silent, and Arias continued attending until June 2019, when he assumed his seat in the National Assembly.

“These Gunas girls were not heard or were ignored at the time. The system failed because they are the girls of the other Panama. The system, in general, failed them when the Minsa did not assume the investigation against Arias after receiving the warning notes [of] the teachers in 2012, ”Uribe said.

The National Women’s Council said:”We call on the Panamanian population to repudiate these acts considering their seriousness since they threaten the dignity of women and human rights,” said this gender equality advisory body.

Néstor Vega, a representative of doctors and nurses on the board of the Social Security Fund, said that if there is already an investigation of Arias in Court, he must be separated while checking whether he is innocent or guilty.

He said “there are  doctor codes” and when it comes to minors, one of those rules is that the child or young person cannot enter the office alone.

Several of Arias’ alleged victims point out that the doctor asked their  parents to stay out of the office.

Claude de López, Professor of Ontology and Bioethics of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Panama, agreed with Vega that Arias should be separated from the position, both as a deputy and as a doctor, while concluding the Court  process.

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