Former Official of MINSA Sentenced to 27 Years for the Murder of a Moneylender and Race Car Driver 

Carlos Cabrera Tello, a former official of the Ministry of Health (MINSA), was sentenced to 27 years in prison for the murder of moneylender and race car driver Abel Augusto Gallardo Castañeda.  The sentence was read out this past Friday, September 27, at the facilities of the Accusatory Criminal System located in Chitré, province of Herrera, during a hearing presided over by the judges of the oral trial court Ruth García (president), Daniel Samaniego and Rosa Chamorro.  Abel Augusto Gallardo Castañeda was  considered a loan shark and a race car driver.  On August 3 in Chitre he was found dead of gunshots in a car.  Police and prosecutors say that it was about a debt owed to Gallardo. The murder of Abel Augusto Gallardo Castañeda uncovered the clandestine business that uses payment for so-called extraordinary medical shifts in the public health system as a guarantee. Discussion of the man accused of killing Gallardo and jailed without bail on a murder charge is one Carlos Cabrera Tello.

The homicide prosecutor of the province of Herrera, Edilma Flores, said that in the reading of the sentence an accessory penalty of 10 years of disqualification from exercising public functions was also established once the main sentence has been served.  Flores revealed that he had requested a 30-year sentence for the former official, but the trial court assigned 27 years. The range of the sentence goes from 20 to 30 years, he clarified. He added that the convicted man was placed under the orders of the Judge of Guarantees and the Penitentiary System, which will decide where he should serve his sentence.  The murder of Abel Augusto Gallardo Castañeda uncovered the clandestine business that uses payment for so-called extraordinary medical shifts in the public health system as a guarantee.  On August 3, 2023, Cabrera Tello shot Gallardo Castañeda twice, causing his death. The incident occurred in Chitré, Herrera, when Cabrera and Gallardo were inside a pick-up truck, the same vehicle that the perpetrator used to transport the body and surrender to the police.