In a joint statement, the Mexican Attorney General’s office (PGR) and the National Transplant Center (Cenatra)announced organ trafficking in Mexico is a myth, with not a single documented case of it’s kind.
Guillermina Cabrera, head of the Attorney General’s specialized child, illegal immigrant and organ trafficking investigative unit said that in recent years only two cases of alleged organ trafficking have been reported.
One case was reported in 2005 in San Luis Potosi and the other in the State of Mexico in 2006. Both cases, according to Cabrera, after being throughly investigated in coordination with the Ministry of Health and the Assistant Attorney General’s Specialized Investigation of Organized Crime Unit, were determined unsubstantiated with no crime to pursue by the Federal Public Prosecutor’s office.
Arturo Dib Kuri, General Director of mexico’s National Transplant Center, said that it is virtually impossible that there is a criminal organization dedicated to trafficking in organs, as the realization of a transplant requires a high degree of specialization of medical personnel and material and high-tech infrastructure which are found in very few hospitals in the country.
He suggested a media campaign to counter the negative effects of the myth and encourage organ donation.
Last year 22 thousand transplants were performed in Mexico, which Dib Kuri admits was an estimated 12 thousand too few.
