Fuerza Publica officers assigned to the National Border Police of Costa Rica spent an entire night walking across beaches, rivers and the thick jungle of Burica, near the southern border with Panama, to rescue an indigenous child of the Ngöbe Bugle (or guaymí) ethnicity. The child was suffering from an acute and dangerous infection due to a wound that he had sustained days ago in his remote community of Carona, located in the heart of the rainforest.

Officers assigned to the Punta Burica security checkpoint received the report about the wounded child over the weekend, around 1:00 am. They coordinated a rescue operation with Red Cross paramedics from Golfito, and together they set off on foot to reach the remote indigenous village, which is a just step away from an unguarded border region with Panama. In addition to their service weapons, the officers carried flashlights, rappelling gear, and a first aid kit. It took them four hours to reach the village; once they arrived, they quickly performed first aid before an officer carried the child on his shoulders to the nearest clearing where a helicopter from the Air Surveillance Service could land safely and carry out a medevac.

A Red Cross paramedic determined that the infection on the child’s foot required advanced care, and thus he was flown to the National Children’s Hospital instead of the public hospital in Golfito. The helicopter landed at the Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO), where a Red Cross ambulance from Alajuela transported the child to San Jose, where he is in stable condition.

The Punta Burica border outpost is formally part of the Golfito canton in the province of Puntarenas. This remote part of Costa Rica is located on the southern border, and thus the Fuerza Publica officers assigned to this region are typically on the lookout for drug traffickers, contraband runners and even mysterious paramilitaries. Most of the Ngöbe Bugle people who reside in the region come from Panama, but they are granted residency in Costa Rica by virtue of their ethnicity and their connection to the Burica territory.

Source: Official Fuerza Publica Press Release