Panama investigates claimed forced Indigenous sterilization

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Prosecutors and human rights officials in Panama have gone to the region of the country’s Ngobé-Buglé people to investigate claims by a dozen Indigenous women that they had been subjected to sterilization procedures without their consent. The teams were dispatched Monday to look into allegations made before a legislative commission that visited the area in October. The procedures allegedly took place at a public hospital run by the government. Legislator Walkiria Chandler says the complaint came from a spokeswoman for the 12 women, each of whom apparently spoke only the Indigenous language and already had two children. The Ngobé-Buglé are the largest of Panama’s many Indigenous groups.