Female Indigenous leader takes office in Panama

PANAMA CITY (AP) — The first elected female leader of Panama’s Wounaan Indigenous group has taken office. The inauguration of Aulina Ismare Opua marks a strengthening of women’s positions in the country’s Indigenous communities. Recently, Elena Cruz Guerra won the leadership of the Indigenous territory of Ngäbe-Buglé. And a woman from the Guna community was elected to the national congress in 2019.  The country’s assistant minister for Indigenous affairs said women’s roles in leading Indigenous communities is growing stronger.  The Wounaan are one of the smaller communities that make up Panama’s total 450,000 Indigenous population, in a country of about 4.3 million people.