How Latin America’s Organ Trafficking Industry Preys on Migration
by Marley Markham
1 Aug 2024
María Amalia Matamoros found herself in a difficult position in late June 2024, when she got a message from her friend Marcos*, asking if it was possible to sell an organ for as much as $200,000.
Matamoros, a Costa Rican surgeon and former president of the Latin American and Caribbean Transplant Society (Sociedad de Trasplante de América Latina y el Caribe – STALYC), told Marcos it was illegal and warned him about the dangers of exploitation and botched operations.
But she knew that Marcos, who immigrated to Costa Rica from Nicaragua without authorization, had few other opportunities to quickly make such a large amount of money.
“You don’t exist, you don’t have a single piece of paper, you don’t have a ticket, you don’t have anything,” Matamoros said of Marcos’ precarious situation.
Growing rates of informal immigration in Latin America make the region increasingly vulnerable to human trafficking for organ removal. But the criminal dynamics underlying this predatory industry are poorly understood due to underreporting and other difficulties facing authorities trying to combat the problem.
https://insightcrime.org/news/how-latin-america-organ-trafficking-industry-preys-migration/
