The Venezuelan Public Prosecutor's Office announced late Saturday into Sunday the arrest of a woman who offered to sell a kidney of a "15-year-old girl" online for $20,000. In a tweet, Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab stated that "Marielis del Carmen Yedra was arrested in Portuguesa state after illegally advertising the sale of a kidney on Marketplace for $20,000."
The attorney general included in his tweet the ad that stated the kidney belonged to a "15-year-old girl" in perfect health. Saab emphasized that authorities are investigating to determine if the ad is connected to a "criminal network," but he did not clarify how the arrested individual planned to obtain the kidney or whether the ad involved any fraudulent activity.
In 2017, the organ transplant program in Venezuela, which has been experiencing the worst economic crisis in its history with nearly eight years of recession, was halted. Venezuelan authorities attribute this situation to sanctions imposed by the United States. However, non-governmental health organizations assert that shortcomings in the organ transplant program began to emerge in 2015.
