Careta

Careta was an Indigenous chiefdom on the Caribbean side of eastern Panama, near the route across the isthmus to the Pacific. In the early years of Santa María del Darién, Vasco Núñez de Balboa and the Spanish colonists obtained much of their food from Careta’s territory. The relationship carried a heavy cost for its inhabitants: many were enslaved, and within a few years the arrival of the Spaniards had disrupted the chiefdom’s political and economic life and reduced its settlements.