A 41-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl have been arrested in Venezuela for offering human organs on social media. They would have marketed a kidney on the Marketplace platform with fake Facebook profiles.
The police seized a smartphone in which “the active participation of the detainees in the act is obvious”, indicated this Tuesday the head of the Scientific, Criminal and Penal Investigation Corps (CICPC). No details about the organ, its provenance or the offer made by the suspects were given. The arrests follow “a public denunciation on social networks”.
A country without a transplant program
This Saturday, a woman had already been arrested in the country for having offered a kidney for 20,000 dollars on Marketplace. The facts took place in the state of Portuguesa, near Caracas. The prosecutor had posted photos of the woman’s announcement on Twitter, which offered “the kidney of a 15-year-old girl in perfect condition”.
The Venezuelan public prosecutor’s office is currently investigating the existence of a “criminal network” selling organs. The organ transplant program ceased to operate in 2017 in the country due to the economic crisis. The Venezuelan power accuses the economic sanctions (including those of the United States) of being responsible for this situation. But according to NGOs, the transplant program was showing failures as early as 2015.
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