Parents in the Caribbean island of Hispaniola are gripped with terror, with many refusing to let their kids roam the streets after the gruesome revelation was made that a 10-year-old girl who disappeared near Santo Domingo last year was murdered for her organs and buried not too far from her family's home.
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| A commodity worth killing for. External source |
Dawin Trininad Infante was arrested as a suspect in the disappearance of 10-year-old Carla Massiel and was denied bail. Sources say that once inside prison, Mr. Trinidad was befriended by an undercover agent posing as an inmate, to whom he eventually confessed that Carla Massiel had been killed for her organs.
Thus far, Dominican authorities have offered nothing but silence, even as three prominent hospitals in Santo Domingo were raided and shuttered in connection to the investigation.
The silence has fueled speculation that the investigation is of an even bigger scope than many people originally thought it would be, especially with the latest revelations by the large-circulation daily Listin Diario that witnesses in the neighborhood where Carla Massiel's body was discovered saw agents from the Department of Criminal Investigations return to discover two more bodies, which witnesses described as appearing to belong to minors.
Doctors responsible for conducting transplants in the Dominican Republic have come out publicly wondering if it was prudent for authorities to shut down clinics without presenting evidence, but it's certain to many that the Ministry of Justice wouldn't have ordered action against the medical centers without some evidence linking them to stolen organs.
The number of people on social media calling for violence against the shuttered clinics and its doctors is quite staggering, and as the press continues shedding light on one of the most gruesome activities taking place in the Americas, it's probable that people will descend into mob violence, taking vigilante action as is common in the Dominican Republic.
At this stage we can only hope that the government can at some point restore people's trust in the organ transplant system, a trust which was already low even before the discovery of the bodies and the closing down of prominent clinics.
