The Yéremi Vargas case, a case that has dragged on for almost two decades, is receiving a new boost from the courts. First Instance Court No. 2 of San Bartolomé de Tirajana in southern Gran Canaria has issued an order, dated June 24, 2024—a date that, incidentally, puts us a year back in time, which gives an idea of the slowness that often governs these cases—requiring the Canary Islands Health Service (SCS) to hand over the minor's complete medical record. This is because the documentation provided—almost four years ago, on October 1, 2021!—turned out to be "incomplete." An administrative inefficiency that, in a case of this seriousness, is embarrassing.
The office of lawyer Marcos García-Montes, who represents the family of Yéremi—who disappeared in 2007, it's worth remembering—was responsible for announcing this new request. The SCS, it turns out, had submitted "three admissions to pediatrics and pediatric neurology," along with "several scattered reports from the Neuropediatrics service." Scattered? In a case involving a missing child, scattered documents are, at the very least, negligence. The urgency of requesting all clinical documents is a cry in the bureaucratic wilderness.
The court hasn't stopped there. It has ordered that the forensic medical report prepared by Dr. Manuel Francisco Carrillo Rodríguez be incorporated into the case file. And, once the SCS completes the medical history, the Las Palmas Institute of Legal and Forensic Medicine (IMLCF) must produce a new report, which will require the cooperation of two medical experts. This approach appears to aim for completeness, but it clashes with the protracted nature of the process.
Furthermore, the court has requested Yéremi's official birth certificate from the Civil Registry. A formality, yes, but one that underscores the need to reconstruct every last detail of the life of a child who, from one day to the next, vanished. García-Montes' office has reported that all these pending proceedings have led to the postponement of the statement of the prime suspect, Antonio Ojeda, alias "El Rubio," as a suspect. A logical decision, of course, since interrogations cannot be conducted without all the information available. But allow me a final reflection: how many more years must this family wait before justice, with all its pieces on the table, can finally shed light on the darkness surrounding Yéremi Vargas's disappearance? Bureaucracy sometimes seems thicker than the mystery itself.
