The siblings Jesús, Hernán, and Mariadela Gamero Toro filed a constitutional appeal with the First Civil Superior Court of Nueva Esparta requesting the reinstatement of their father, Hernán Gamero (66), who suffers from memory loss. Jesús Gamero, one of Hernán Gamero's three legally recognized children, had previously held custody. However, his guardianship was revoked by the Third Civil Court of Nueva Esparta (T-3-INST-0090-25), which appointed a person who allegedly does not have legal recognition as his daughter, as required by the Civil Registry Law, according to investigations.
The request by the Gamero Toro brothers to regain guardianship of their father is made within the framework of the civil interdiction proceedings they initiated after verifying, through medical studies, that Hernán Gamero suffered from an illness, according to documentation submitted to Últimas Noticias.
One of the first decisions in that case was issued on September 22, 2025, by the Third Civil Court of First Instance of Nueva Esparta, presided over by Judge Yris Millán. The court granted the provisional interdiction of Hernán José Gamero Rivas, stating that he "is in a habitual state of severe intellectual disability due to memory loss and cognitive impairment, which renders him unable to care for himself." Consequently, the aforementioned civil court appointed his son, Jesús Tadeo Gamero Toro, as his interim guardian, with respect to the administration of his assets, among other matters.
In that civil interdiction proceeding, three of Hernán Gamero's natural daughters requested to intervene: María José Marcano (31), María Desiree Marcano (24), and María Esperanza Marcano (28). However, they did not provide "suitable proof of their acknowledgment of paternity," as reflected in the case file. A sister of Hernán Gamero, identified as Aleida Benilde Gamero Rivas, also requested to intervene in the proceeding regarding the administration of his assets.
This request was accepted by the aforementioned Third Court of First Instance in Civil Matters of Nueva Esparta on April 7th, presided over by Mariannys Velásquez Salazar. The court incorporated the Marcano sisters, as well as Aleida Gamero, into the proceedings, "since the evidence they provided... proved their blood relationship to the person suffering from dementia...". Consequently, the court revoked Jesús Gamero's appointment as guardian of his father and appointed María Desiree Marcano (24) in his place.
That decision by the civil court was enforced by a criminal court, the Second Control Court of Nueva Esparta (case file OPO4-2026-590), on April 17. On that day, the Second Prosecutor of the Public Ministry, Fabiola Arocha, accompanied by police officers, raided the home where Hernán Gamero was located, in the Jorge Coll Pampatar urbanization (Nueva Esparta). The officers took Hernán Gamero into custody, handed him over to his new guardian, María Desiree Marcano, and arrested the 60-year-old's relatives: Adela Margarita Toro López and Elpidio José Febres.
This decision was denounced by Jesús Gamero as a "violation of constitutional rights and guarantees" and for this reason, he filed the amparo action before the First Superior Civil Court of Nueva Esparta.
In the writ of amparo, Jesús Gamero argues that criminal courts are being used to try to resolve conflicts that are being litigated in civil courts, a situation that was prohibited by the Constitutional Chamber, according to sentence 343 of last March 25.
To elaborate on this point, Jesús Gamero stated that the raid carried out by prosecutor Fabiola Arocha to remove his father from custody occurred because the Marcano sisters had filed a criminal complaint against him, accusing him of the alleged unlawful deprivation of their father's custody. In this regard, Jesús Gamero says that this action violated the principle of the natural judge, "which constitutes a constitutional infraction."
Based on these arguments, the Gamero Toro siblings filed a constitutional appeal requesting that the appointment of María Desiree Marcano as guardian be overturned. They also requested the reinstatement of Jesús Gamero as their father's provisional guardian, as decided in the interdiction proceedings.
In its initial ruling, the First Civil Superior Court of Nueva Esparta admitted the amparo action and, consequently, scheduled a hearing for the third business day following the last of the ordered notifications. Currently, the formal notification process for the aforementioned hearing is underway, at which the Civil Superior Court of Nueva Esparta will hear the parties and decide whether to revoke or uphold María Desiree Marcano's appointment as guardian of Hernán Gamero, among other matters to be resolved.
Those summoned for that hearing are: the Marcano sisters, Jesús Gamero and the judge in charge of the Third Court of First Instance in Civil Matters of Nueva Esparta.
the lawsuit
The Gamero Toro brothers allege that crimes under the Penal Code were committed in the issuance of documents that were later incorporated into the civil interdiction proceedings. These crimes include: making false statements before a public official, conspiracy, and use of a false public document.
These crimes were allegedly committed by María Desiree Marcano, María Esperanza Marcano, Aleida Benilde Gamero Rivas, and María Magdalena Gamero. These individuals processed paternity acknowledgment certificates with the Civil and Electoral Registry Commission of Delta Amacuro state, which were issued by that public entity without Hernán Gamero's fingerprints, as required by the Civil Registry Law.
Jesús Gamero considers this procedure to be "a fraudulent action" and therefore filed a complaint (private accusation) against the aforementioned women, so that the Public Prosecutor's Office would open an investigation to establish the corresponding criminal responsibilities.
The established procedure states that the complaint must be filed with the Judiciary, which, in this case, due to the distribution mechanism, fell to the First Court of Control of Nueva Esparta. This court formally admitted the complaint on June 5th and consequently forwarded the case file to the Superior Prosecutor's Office of Nueva Esparta so that it could proceed with the appointment of the respective prosecutor who will be in charge of investigating whether or not the Marcano sisters are involved in the crimes alleged by Jesús Gamero. To date, this step has not been taken. And that is why last Tuesday, lawyer Carlos Santander submitted a document to the office of the Attorney General, Larry Davoe, requesting, among other things, that "the assignment of case number OPO4-P-2026-000624 to the Second National Jurisdiction Prosecutor's Office be expressly ordered in order to maintain the unity of the criminal investigation, prevent the adoption of contradictory decisions and prevent the improper diversion to the Immediate Case Purging Unit from generating defenselessness for the victim or the unjustified dismissal of the admitted complaint."
Santander, the Gamero family's lawyer, is "extremely concerned" that the complaint document has been sent to the Immediate Case Purging Unit, a department where it could be excluded from the assignment of a prosecutor to investigate the complaint.
Observing this procedure, Santander warns that it is a "maneuver at the regional headquarters (of the Public Prosecutor's Office in Nueva Esparta) that seeks to arbitrarily dismiss or archive the case… attempting to ignore the final ruling issued by the First Court of Control of Nueva Esparta." The document in which Santander outlines this situation was received by the General Secretariat of the Public Prosecutor's Office last Tuesday.
If the old man had no money, no one would claim him; he'd be dying alone in a nursing home. Hypocritical children... they pretend they're fighting over taking care of the old man...