Law Enforcement
Woman arrested in Venezuela for selling organs on Facebook
"Kidney of a 15-year-old girl in perfect condition," was the sale offer posted on Marketplace
April 19, 2022 3:41pm
Updated: April 20, 2022 8:45am
A woman was arrested on Sunday in Venezuela for selling a human kidney for $20,000 through social media, according to Attorney General Tarek William Saab.
"After publications in which they illegally offered through 'Marketplace' a kidney for the amount of 20,000 dollars, the location of one of the people who made this type of offer was determined, and it was possible to verify the content of the publication made on his phone," Saab said on Twitter.
The detainee, identified as Marielys del Carmen Yedr, will be charged with "donation for profit."
2)… se determinó la ubicación de una de las personas que realizaba este tipo de ofertas y se pudo verificar en su teléfono el contenido la publicación realizada/ El @MinpublicoVEN investiga si se trata de una red criminal.
— Tarek William Saab (@TarekWiliamSaab) April 17, 2022
Delitos a #imputar: Donación con propósito de lucro
"Kidney of a 15-year-old girl in perfect condition," was the offer posted on Marketplace by Yedr, who resides in the Venezuelan state of Portuguesa, reported El Universal.
The post mentions that the sale of the kidney was because she wanted to become independent and offer "a better life to her siblings." She also claimed that she would not use the money to "buy stupid things like clothes and shoes."
Complaints and reports of the organ for sale circulated through the Facebook platform.
🌐INTERNACIONALES
— Diario El Poder Py (@elpoderpy) April 18, 2022
Una mujer fue detenida en Venezuela por ofrecer un riñón humano a la venta por la cantidad de 20.000 dólares a través de Facebook.
La detenida es Marielys del Carmen Yedr. Será imputada por "donación con propósito de lucro". pic.twitter.com/pWmcoIl3O0
Venezuela’s organ transplant program stopped operating in 2017. The regime of Nicolás Maduro argued that the decision was due to the economic sanctions imposed against the country.
However, several health NGOs claim that the transplant program began to fail in 2015, according to Portafolio.
Thousands of people also have to deal with shortages of medicines to treat their chronic or renal diseases due to the crisis that has affected the country for almost a decade.
