Luz Deicy Vélez died on the same day her son turned 12, a few hours after undergoing plastic surgery. The 42-year-old woman entered the San Miguel clinic in northern Bogotá on the morning of March 8, 2023. She had paid Dr. Andrés Álvarez Amariles, better known by his second surname, 28 million pesos in cash (about 7,000 dollars) for the procedure, her husband said via video call: “They told him that if he paid in cash he would save 7% on taxes. They never sent us a receipt.” Vélez’s family accuses Amariles of being responsible for her death.
Vélez underwent five procedures in a four-hour period, her husband says: an abdominal lipectomy, three liposuctions and a bichectomy. Her husband says she came out of the operation feeling very weak and was taken to an observation room. At around 3:45 p.m. she was discharged and her parents put her in a taxi. There she began to lose blood.
She arrived shortly after at a house in Chía, northwest of Bogotá. She had left a huge red stain on the back seat of the car. Her husband says they put her on a bed and a few minutes later she asked to go to the bathroom. She urinated blood. She lay down again, but a few minutes later she asked to go to the bathroom again. She urinated blood again. Suddenly she fainted. Her pulse was very weak. Her parents rushed her to a nearby hospital. She died half an hour later. According to an expert hired by the family’s lawyers, the death was due to multiple organ failure resulting from hemorrhagic shock, “as a direct consequence of the extensive cosmetic procedure performed.”
In an article published on May 17 by The Weathera spokesman for Amariles defended him. “The doctor did not operate on the woman. He is part of a surgical team permitted by law. The one who operates is the plastic surgeon, Dr. Amariles supports him,” he declared. He also argued that five surgeries were not performed on her, but only one abdominal liposuction. Finally, he added that “many times these situations are due to circumstances that are unavoidable in these processes and that are duly informed before the procedure.”
Andres Alvarez Amariles
Felix Aguirre, Vélez’s husband, remembers this nightmare a year and a half later. He connects to the video call from his home in Canada, where the couple married, built a life and raised their three children. He says he was depressed for months and that his youngest daughter has not yet processed it. “I am still waiting for mom to come back from the airport,” says little Isabella. “In her little head she can’t understand what happened. She is waiting,” explains her father. However, the man assures that his family is just another victim ―the one with the saddest story― of Dr. Amariles.
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EL PAÍS interviewed eight other women who say they have had very bad experiences with this supposed surgeon. Supposedly because, according to the Health Departments of Bogotá and Medellín, the two Colombian cities where he practices, Amariles is a general practitioner and is not licensed in any specialty. In other words, he cannot operate on patients. Despite this, he sells himself on social media as “the doll maker.” “I can offer you magic,” he says in a video posted on his Instagram account.
Image of Dr. Andrés Álvarez Amariles in an advertisement on his social media.
In his resume, Amariles describes himself as a “general practitioner and cosmetic surgeon.” The specialty of cosmetic surgery does not exist in Colombia. He also claims to have studied medicine at the Remington University Corporation and to have completed a specialization in Plastic, Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of São Paulo, one of the most prestigious educational institutions in Brazil, between 2016 and 2020. On his Instagram account, there are hundreds of posts uploaded between 2018 and 2020 in which he promotes his services as a surgeon. He shows images of patients whom he claims to have operated on. During that time, he is supposed to have been studying the specialization in Brazil.
The victims
The allegations follow a pattern. Yurleidy Pinilla says via video call that she traveled from Spain to have surgery with Amariles in Medellín, at the Los Álamos clinic. She says that she only saw her one day before the surgery, at 10 p.m.: “She didn’t examine me. She just told me to show up the next day at 7 a.m.” Pinilla says that the blood tests she had that morning showed that her sugar was high, but that Amariles’ team insisted that she could have the surgery like that. She underwent an abdominoplasty and breast augmentation on January 9. She says that she returned to Spain three weeks later with open wounds on her abdomen. She had to be hospitalized in Palma de Mallorca.
Seven months later, she still feels weak and has trouble walking: “When I walk, my stomach swells up. I feel like the wound is going to open.” According to her, the surgery cost her 30 million pesos (about 7,500 dollars) and Amariles never gave her her medical records. She says he also doesn’t answer her messages. “I came out horrible. I have scars on the sides and another horrible scar on my breasts,” she laments.
Marisol Carranza says she traveled from Miami to Bogotá to have surgery with Amariles at the San Miguel clinic: “On social media she showed incredible results.” She says she paid 20 million pesos (about 5,000 dollars) for liposuction, a fat transfer to the buttocks and a bichectomy. She claims that the doctor tried to sell her a breast augmentation several times. She underwent a first intervention on February 8, 2023. She remembers that it went so badly that she had to undergo another operation, on March 10: “I went into the second surgery with open wounds.” To this day she has scars on her sides and abdomen, as well as an epigastric hernia in her stomach, which she shows during a video call with this newspaper. She has filed a criminal complaint against the doctor.
Carranza says she saw Amariles about seven times throughout her process, and that her team was very resistant to giving her her medical records. When she finally received them, something surprised her: Amariles is not listed as the surgeon who operated on her, but as a “first assistant.” Another doctor, Marlen Cárdenas, is listed as a specialist surgeon. “They always told me that Dr. Amariles was going to operate on me,” she says. Dr. Cárdenas also appears as the surgeon in the medical records of Luz Deicy Vélez, who died, and her signature appears in the medical records of another woman who claims to be a victim of Amariles, Ingrid Janeth Díaz, who had surgery in October 2022. Like Carranza, Díaz claims she did not know Cárdenas and that she paid Amariles millions of pesos to perform surgery on her.
The other surgeons
This newspaper contacted Dr. Cárdenas to get her version of the events. In a call, she assured that she “works honestly” and that she has not done so with Amariles “for two years.” She then hung up. The next day she wrote on WhatsApp: “It should be noted that at one time I worked at the clinic where Dr. Amariles also worked and where many doctors come and rent operating rooms. Currently I have no communication with him.” [sic]”. EL PAÍS tried to answer him, but Cárdenas had blocked the number.
In Medellín, other doctors have signed as surgeon in the medical records of patients who paid Amariles thinking that he was going to operate on them. In the medical documents of Cenelia Giraldo, who had surgery at the Los Álamos clinic, Luis Enrique Cañadas Valencia appears as a plastic surgeon. Amariles appears as “accompanying doctor.” Giraldo, the victim, says that he never met Cañadas Valencia. EL PAÍS contacted him via WhatsApp. He responded with exactly the same message that Dr. Cárdenas sent: “It should be noted that at one time I worked at the clinic where Dr. Amariles also worked and where many doctors come and rent operating rooms. I currently have no communication with him.” [sic]”.
Cenelia shows a photo on her cell phone of her scar and the result of the operation performed in December 2022.Eva Marie UZCATEGUI
In the medical record of another patient, who prefers to remain anonymous and who traveled from Popayán to Medellín to have surgery with Amariles, the surgeon Lizbeth Vicent Pacheco appears. This newspaper called and wrote to Dr. Pacheco. Her assistant blocked the number. The victim says she never met a Dr. Pacheco. She adds that she had open and infected wounds after the operation. She had to be hospitalized from October 29 to November 14.
In addition to the women who spoke to this newspaper, there is a WhatsApp group with dozens of people who say they are victims of Amariles, and an Instagram account with more than 400 followers, dedicated to denouncing the alleged surgeon. The page is called “Doctor without a heart.”
Famous on Instagram
All the victims say they met Amariles on Instagram, where the doctor is very active: he has almost 600,000 followers through his two accounts. Félix Aguirre, whose wife died, says that he gets attention there. “After three pregnancies, my wife dreamed of fixing her stomach,” he recalls. Amariles sells exactly that on social media. He promotes himself as an incredible surgeon, who has invented his own “world-renowned” technique, which he calls “surgery.” tightlacing surgery (something like corset surgery). In his publications he appears at galas, where he is supposedly nominated for awards, and with the well-known influencer Yina Calderón, who claims that she has had excellent results after undergoing surgery with him.
Amariles does everything to look successful on Instagram. On April 15, he posted a photo from a room in the Congress of the Republic. In the image, he wears a tricolor sash and a medal hangs from his neck. In his hands he holds a certificate stamped with the words “Republic of Colombia” and the national emblem. The document reads: “Awards in Congress, praising social work, the example of life, contributions to research, science, culture and pedagogy. For his interdisciplinary work in prevention, conservation and recovery of the health of the communities he works with. In Colombia it was agreed to award Amariles: Award for the Beauty Artist Decoration.” In another post, the doctor wrote: “Many thanks to the Congress of the Republic for the recognition.”
Neither the ceremony nor the award had anything to do with Congress. Amariles and other people, including popular music singer Yeison Jiménez, rented a room in the Capitol to give each other supposed recognition and take photos. After the scandal, the president of the House of Representatives, Andrés Calle, published a statement on April 17 announcing that from that date on, “the loan of institutional spaces (…) for events that do not correspond to those organized by the same legislative corporation was strictly prohibited.” The document adds that “likewise, the use of the logo of the House of Representatives is not permitted, for the dissemination of events or certifications, without the respective authorization of the Presidency.”
Amariles’ response
This newspaper tried to contact Amariles on several occasions. It called and wrote to several telephone numbers. On August 30, it received the following message: “It should be noted that you are not a judicial entity so that you can report that you have received several complaints against Dr. Amariles. Please direct your query with the letterhead of the newspaper that you represent and contact number to the email [email protected] and the Legal Department will respond to your request or schedule an appointment. Thank you.” [sic]”. This newspaper sent the email, but never received a reply. On August 31, EL PAÍS tried to call Amariles’ WhatsApp again. The number was blocked.
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