This protection measure was ordered by the Attorney General of the Nation, Luis Carlos Manuel Gómez Rudy, with the purpose of safeguarding the integrity, well-being, and specialized care of this population. On Wednesday, February 18, 2026, the Minister of Social Development (Mides) and President of the Board of Directors of the National Secretariat for Childhood, Adolescence, and Family (Senniaf), Beatriz Carles de Arango, coordinated the transfer of 10 young adult males with disabilities, residing at the Comprehensive Care Center (CAI) in Tocumen, to the María Auxiliadora Home, located in the city of Chitré, Herrera province. This home is currently vacant, as it houses a population of 23 adolescents during the school year. This measure is temporary, while a specialized and multidisciplinary solution is being managed, according to the needs of this population. Nevertheless, conscious of the importance of ensuring the continuity of care that this home provides to the student population, alternatives are being coordinated that will allow the service to continue under the same conditions once the school period begins. For the transfer of these 10 young adults, who grew up within the child and adolescent protection system, coordination with Senniaf was required, a decentralized and specialized public entity of the State that had these ten individuals under its care at the Comprehensive Care Center in Tocumen. On the morning of this Tuesday, the 17th, the Minister of Social Development traveled to the María Auxiliadora Home to personally verify the needs of the transferred population, from where she managed to articulate with the Ministry of Health, which immediately sent a medical team that evaluated each of the young men. As the governing body of social public policies, Mides drives articulated actions to ensure the protection of childhood and adolescence, as well as people in vulnerable situations under State guardianship, ensuring them dignified and adequate conditions from an inter-institutional approach.
