Dorangel Vargas (born 1957) known as "El Comegente" and the "Hannibal Lector of The Andes" is a serial killer and cannibal in Venezuela. He was a homeless man who used to hunt around a park in the city of San Cristobal, Tachira State. Once caught by the police, he confessed to killing and eating 10 men in a period of two years preceeding his arrest in 1999.
In a country with hardly any serial killer history, the self-confessed cannibal Vargas has become a Venezuelan media darling. Dubbed the "Hannibal Lector of the Andes" by the local press, Vargas claims to have eaten up to 10 men in two years. He was arrested in February 1999, in the city of San Cristobal, near the Colombian border.
However, notwithstanding the large number of bones found buried around his shack, many doubt the veracity of his story. Press reports claim that he preyed on homeless men and laborers whom he clubbed to death with a metal tube, but Vargas said he was "given" the bodies by various people, including the police. Some locals speculate that Vargas was used as a scapegoat for a ring of human organ traffickers. Congress said it planned to investigate reports that Vargas is a former mental hospital patient who was arrested on similar charges four years ago but released shortly afterward.
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