Carmelo Gallardo, MD, internist and hematologist, was detained by SEBIN on April 30th when he was on the Bermúdez Avenue in Maracay, when he was taking part of the demonstrations that took place that day. The 7th Control Tribunal charged him with three counts of felony, and imprisoned him in Detainee Attention Center Alayón, alongside his colleague Gabriel Flores, rural MD for Palo Negro, also detained in Maracay.
After being detained for three days in the Paez Barracks in Maracay, Carmelo Gallardo, MD, physician and hematologist was taken to court in Aragua state, where the 7th Control Judge, Yasdeise del Valle Herrera, charged him with resisting authority, obstruction of a public way, and disorderly conduct, and ordered him to be imprisoned in the Centro de Atencion al Detenido Alayón (Detainee Attention Center “Ayalón”), located in Maracay.
The medical doctor, who is also the chief of the blood bank in Maracay’s Central Hospital, took part of the demonstrations that took place on April 30th, when a SEBIN patrol group detained him on Bermúdez Avenue in Maracay. 10 more doctors were detained as well all throughout the country, as reported by Médicos Unidos de Venezuela (United Doctors of Venezuela), an NGO.
Gallardo, with 16 years of service in Aragua’s main hospital, also presides the Joint Doctor’s Society in the Central Hospital. A University of Carabobo alumni, university professor for both the medical school and graduate school in the field of Medicine, is the father of two young children, who, since being detained, have been under the care of his elderly parents.
His wife left the country, joining the millions of Venezuelans who have done so as well. As a result, Gallardo had to take his youngest child to the hospital with him, because he did not have anyone to take care of him while he worked.
He rode his bike 24km to go and come back from Santa Rita, in the municipality Francisco Linares Alcantara, where he lives, to the Hospital in Maracay. When his ride breaks down, he walks. But he has never avoided his responsibilities as physician and hematologist, as stated by his coworkers.
His friends, students, and colleagues vouch for his human quality and for his ethics, colleague and friend, Adriana Rodriguez, describes Gallardo as an exemplary father and son: “He is an only child, and he never stops working for a day, because he has to provide food and medication to his parents, even though his salary is not enough for this. Nevertheless, he has never stopped seeing his patients, especially those in hematology and children who suffer from cancer. These are the reasons why Carmelo must be released.”
Doctor Melvin Trujillo, chief of the hematology service at the Central Hospital, also spoke for Gallardo as his direct supervisor. “If Doctor Gallardo has to be charged with a crime, it must be the one of reporting the reality suffered by the health area in the region. He has not committed any crimes, and there is more than enough evidence about his commitment to his patients.”
Gallardo has always publicly denounced the crisis that affect the health sector and particularly the HCM. Despite the warnings of his colleagues to not be exposed to the media, he did not stop in his eagerness. Journalist interviewed him many times in different places (instead of at the hospital) or on the outskirts, quite distant from the mall, because he knew that his complaints could cause aggressions against him or against the reporters.
The lack of supplies within the blood bank of the HCM has been his permanent claim, because he says that blood is life. For that reason, it was not strange to find him on a corner, a street or avenue of Maracay, sticking posters that he elaborated as part of the blood donation campaigns. “He has only done what any committed and responsible doctor would do. When I met him at the HCM, he had donated three computers so that the children suffering from leukemia would entertain themselves while waiting for the consultation. His work has been to save lives and today the regime has him prisoner.” This is the statement of a pediatrician called Alejandro Crespo, member of the NGO Medicos Unidos de Venezuela, of the Aragua chapter.
When people know about the transfer of Dr. Gallardo from the Paez Barracks to the prison of Alayón, the medical association of the region made a statement to reject his arrest and demand his release. “He has only exercised his constitutional right to protest and that is not a crime,” says pediatrician Feder Álvarez, former director of the Medical College of Aragua.
The association has provided support to another young doctor also arrested on April 30th, in the neighborhood San Jacinto, located in Maracay. It is the rural doctor in the town of Palo Negro, municipality Libertador, Gabriel Flores, graduated from the Romulo Gallegos University, who was charged with the same crimes attributed to Gallardo, by the same court.
The support of the Aragua medical union for both doctors will be translated, after a general assembly of specialists and residents of the HCM and board of directors of the school, in the paralysis of those non-priority activities within the care centers and the civic and active protest in the street and in hospitals, to demand the freedom of the head of the blood bank of HCM and Flores.
