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Umbrella business group signs outsourcing accord but private sector is split

December 9, 2020

Aceves, left, and Salazar, right are happy with the new agreement.

Business groups are divided over a new agreement on outsourcing and subcontracting announced by the federal government on Wednesday.

President López Obrador and representatives of the private sector and the union movement signed an agreement under which they committed to improving a proposal to ban outsourcing without prior government authorization.

Carlos Salazar, president of the Business Coordinating Council (CCE), which represents 12 business groups, declared at the president’s news conference Wednesday morning that the private sector was happy with the agreement.

But three private sector groups that are part of the CCE – the National Chamber for Industrial Transformation (Canacintra), the Mexican Employers Federation (Coparmex) and the National Agricultural Council (CNA) – later said they opposed it.

Labor Minister Luisa María Alcalde said the agreement is made up of four accords.

Firstly, the government, the private sector and the union movement committed to put an end to the abuse of subcontracting. (Many workers are routinely dismissed at the end of the year because companies want to avoid paying legally required bonuses and other benefits to employees as well as prevent them from accumulating seniority.)

Secondly, the parties committed to including a fair and equitable profit sharing scheme in an improved outsourcing proposal to be considered by the Congress.

Thirdly, on the request of the private sector Congress agreed to postpone debate of the updated proposal until February 2021. (López Obrador sent his original proposal to Congress last month).

Fourthly, the parties agreed to the issuance of a call to companies to put an end to outsourcing practices that are detrimental to workers such as mass end-of-year dismissals. The Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), the National Workers Housing Fund (Infonavit) and the Federal Tax Administration will be responsible for making the plea and will take legal action against any companies found to be committing crimes related to outsourcing.

Alcalde said that the agreement is a sign of the government’s commitment to resolve differences with the private sector, which argued that the proposal presented by López Obrador last month discourages job creation and threatens economic growth.

The president thanked the private sector and union movement for entering into the agreement.

De Hoyos of Coparmex: problems in the past have been a result of poor supervision by authorities.

Salazar said the deal opens the way to more dialogue about outsourcing with both the government and workers.

“The business community will never defend any irregularity [in the use of outsourcing],” the CCE chief said.

“… [We will] arrive with better proposals for the good of the country. We have to celebrate that we can be seated at the dialogue table with representatives of workers and the authorities. I’m sure that a better proposal will be presented in the end,” Salazar said.

Carlos Aceves, general secretary of the Mexican Workers Confederation, said that workers’ conditions won’t be improved with “the stroke of a pen” but opined that working with the government and the private sector is a good idea.

“We don’t think the same but we understand each other. … We’re convinced this [agreement] is for the good of the workers,” he said.

But Canacintra, Coparmex and the CNA said in a joint statement that they don’t support the agreement.

They said it “preserves the idea of substantially prohibiting the activity of subcontracting,” only allowing it in specialized areas.

“We also reject the stigmatization of the business sector as the architects of non-compliance with tax and labor obligations,” the three groups said.

“The substantial responsibility for irregular activities that have occurred in the past rests with the lack of adequate supervision by authorities such as the Federal Tax Administration, the Labor Ministry, Infonavit and IMSS.”

The three organizations said that restricting outsourcing and subcontracting would threaten the creation and preservation of formal sector jobs, force businesses to close and reduce Mexico’s competitiveness.

It’s “absurd” to blame the abuse of outsourcing on all companies when “an absolute minority” of them have done the wrong thing, they said.

“We want to make it clear that we are in favor of legal practices that encourage the creation of jobs. … We reiterate our willingness to maintain open and frank dialogue” with the president and both houses of Congress “to achieve a law that gives priority to our position on this matter: regulation yes, prohibition no,” the business groups said.

“This dialogue must be held under the premise that subcontracting, being a legal and appropriate activity, must respect the freedom of workers and companies to sign contracts without restrictions and as best suits their interests,” they said.

“This hiring freedom must be allowed without limits other than companies’ compliance with tax and social security obligations … in such a way that workers hired under … [subcontracting or outsourcing arrangements] can fully exercise their rights.”

Source: Milenio (sp)

Drive-thru flu vaccinations offered in 3 Chihuahua cities

Michelle Aguilar

December 9, 2020

A healthcare worker administers a flu shot to a passenger in a car in Chihuahua.

The Chihuahua Ministry of Health announced that it is now offering drive-through flu vaccination facilities in the capital and in the cities of Juárez and Cuauhtémoc as a way to vaccinate the public against influenza while avoiding the spread of Covid-19.

Chihuahua city now has drive-through facilities at a children’s hospital, a convention center and at the Autonomous University of Chihuahua. Ciudad Juárez has one on Paseo Triunfo de la República Avenue, and in Cuauhtémoc, drive-through vaccinations can be obtained at the Polideportiva Cuauhtémoc, a municipal sports center.

The ministry’s subdirector of preventative medicine, Wendy Ávila, explained that the coronavirus pandemic has changed the way the state must operate its vaccination programs to avoid crowds of people forming. Recipients at the drive-through facilities will be able to get vaccinated without leaving their cars through the program, which runs until December 20.

The program is meant to vaccinate children, the elderly, and other vulnerable sectors of the population such as pregnant women and persons with asthma, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or obesity.

In addition to the drive-through facilities, Ávila said, people can get vaccinated for influenza and other diseases at the public health centers throughout the state.

Fifty-four percent of the state’s vulnerable population has already been vaccinated against the flu, as have 46% of medical workers, she said.

Locations and hours of operation for the drive-through flu vaccination facilities are:

Ciudad Chihuahua: Hospital Infantil de Especialidades, the Autonomous University of Chihuahua campus and the Centro de Convenciones Expo Chihuahua. All are open Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–2 p.m. and 9:30 a.m.–5 p.m. on weekends.
In Ciudad Juárez: on Paseo Triunfo de la Republica Avenue, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
In Ciudad Cuauhtémoc: at the Polideportivo Cuauhtémoc, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Santa Rosa cartel operator ‘La Chola’ gets 40 years

Michelle Aguilar

December 9, 2020

A woman who belonged to the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel has been sentenced in Guanajuato to 40 years in prison for sedition and aggravated attempted homicide and was fined 1.6 million pesos (US $80,000).

In addition to attacking a public servant, Mariela Josefina “La Chola” Ruiz López organized roadblocks on highways and streets that prevented police from entering the municipality of Santa Rosa de Lima during their hunt for the leader of the cartel, prosecutors said.

She also coordinated the payment of people who participated in the blockades, they said.

Ruiz was arrested in March 2019 along with the alleged financial chief for the cartel’s former leader, José Antonio “El Marro” Yépez Ortiz, and a federal police intelligence officer.

The Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel has gone through big changes since Ruiz’s arrest: In August, Yépez was arrested by federal and Guanajuato authorities and awaits trial.

In October, authorities arrested his successor, Adán “El Azul” Ochoa, who has been accused of ordering the murder of Jesús Tinajero, a mayoral candidate in the Guanajuato municipality of Jerécuaro who was killed and and body left dismembered on a highway on October 8 with a note signed by “El Azul”.

Sources: El Universal (sp)

Jalisco cartel sources its military equipment on eBay

MND Staff

December 9, 2020

The well-armed Jalisco New Generation Cartel is an e-commerce customer.

Cartel members in Mexico don’t just buy gun parts and tactical equipment from illegal arms traffickers – they also shop online.

An investigation by the United States government found that the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) purchased military equipment on eBay between 2018 and 2019 and had it shipped to Mexico from the U.S. by courier companies.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) detected at least 300 transactions in which cartel members used PayPal to make purchases on eBay in the United States.

Among the items they bought were parts for grenade launchers, rifles and other other guns as well as holographic weapon sights, night-vision goggles and bulletproof vests.

The brothers Ismael and Carlos Almada Castrillo were in charge of the CJNG’s eBay equipment acquisitions scheme, the newspaper Milenio reported.

U.S. authorities detected that Carlos Almada used about 50 PayPal accounts to conceal his identity while he purchased gun parts and tactical equipment on eBay.

He and his brother illegally imported their purchases into Mexico using two courier companies. The vendors of the equipment sent the brothers’ purchases to an address in Los Angeles and from there they were transported to Guadalajara, Jalisco.

The FBI detected that Carlos Almada used the alias Adrián Gallegos Trejo to receive his purchases at one address in Guadalajara and another in the neighboring municipality of Zapopan. He subsequently distributed or sold the items to members of the CJNG, which is usually considered Mexico’s most dangerous and powerful criminal organization.

The courier companies that transported the goods within the United States and to Mexico – M&M Cargo and Calix Packing – are both owned by a man named Julio César Mejía Calix. He admitted to the FBI that he had transported gun parts for Ismael Almada.

Milenio said that U.S. investigation documents only detail expenditure of US $2,000 on weapons and equipments purchases by the Almada brothers on eBay. However, the newspaper said that there is evidence that they actually spent much more.

In addition to the items previously mentioned, the brothers bought hidden camera and microphone detectors, anti-tracking cell phone cases, muzzle brakes and rail systems for firearms and military-grade sights. All of the items are used by drug cartels in Mexico and in some cases have been seized by the authorities.

According to Mary Lacis, an FBI and DEA agent, other cartels might be using courier services to send gun parts, equipment and cash to Mexico.

Carlos Almada was also investigated by Mexican authorities for allegedly importing cocaine to Mexico from Colombia and subsequently sending part of the shipments he received to the United States. He was arrested in September 2019 in possession of weapons and drugs.

He was found dead in his cell at Jalisco’s Puente Grande prison in March, Milenio said, explaining that his death was apparently a suicide.

Ismael Almada was also arrested and has been questioned by United States authorities. Milenio said he was freed on bail but that there is still an active cases against him in Los Angeles.

The CJNG is notorious for showing off its firepower and military-grade equipment in videos posted online.

Its leader, Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, is Mexico’s most wanted drug lord and is also sought in the United States, where a US $10-million reward is on offer for information that leads to his arrest.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Healthcare workers warn of shortage of sedatives for intubated Covid patients

MND Staff

December 9, 2020

covid patient — There is a shortage of painkillers in 12 states.

Healthcare workers in at least 12 states have reported a shortage of the sedatives they require to intubate critically ill coronavirus patients.

Medical personnel in Aguascalientes, Sinaloa, Baja California, Durango, Nuevo León, México state, Mexico City, San Luis Potosí, Chihuahua, Campeche, Colima and Chiapas face shortages, according to a report by the newspaper Reforma.

Doctors and nurses in those states say that the situation worsened two weeks ago.

“There are no medications for sedation; there is no propofol, midazolam, vecuronium or rocuronium to intubate patients,” said a doctor who works at a Mexican Social Security Institute hospital in the Mexico City borough of Álvaro Obregón.

Health workers communicate on the messaging service WhatsApp to try to identify hospitals from which they can source the medications they need, Reforma said.

Another doctor said that the situation defies all logic.

“We don’t have medications, the staff are exhausted and unfortunately we are now letting people die due to a lack of resources,” he said. “For example, there are no medications to intubate patients, … no sedatives or painkillers. There simply aren’t any!”

The doctor said that one woman died a few days ago because there were no medications to take her off a ventilator. He also said that medical personnel are not allowed to ask patients’ family members to seek out medications.

Health Minister Jorge Alcocer acknowledged that there is a shortage of sedatives due to increased global demand for the drugs brought about by the pandemic. However, he said that health authorities have found suppliers abroad and in Mexico City and that more sedatives will be made available in the coming days.

Hospitals across numerous states are under increased pressure due to a recent increase in coronavirus case numbers and hospitalizations.

Data presented by the federal Health Ministry at its Tuesday night coronavirus press briefing showed that there are 15,201 coronavirus patients currently in hospital. The national hospital occupancy rate is 39% but the rates in some states are considerably higher.

More than 76% of beds set aside for coronavirus patients in Mexico City are currently in use, according to federal data, while hospitals in four states – México state, Guanajuato, Baja California and Durango – have occupancy rates above 60%.

The Health Ministry reported 11,006 new confirmed cases on Tuesday, pushing Mexico’s accumulated tally to 1,193,255.

More than 11,000 new cases have been reported on five of the past seven days, including new single-day record of 12,127 cases last Friday.

The official Covid-19 death toll stands at 110,874 with 800 additional fatalities registered on Tuesday.

Source: Reforma (sp)

New economy minister named in cabinet shuffle

MND Staff

December 8, 2020

Tatiana Clouthier brings business connections to her new role as minister of economy.

President López Obrador on Monday appointed his 2018 campaign chief Tatiana Clouthier as his new economy minister, asserting that she will help boost economic growth and maintain good relations with the business sector and unions.

Graciela Márquez, who had been economy minister since the current government took office in December 2018, will move to the board of the national statistics agency Inegi, López Obrador said.

The president said that Clouthier, who left her position as a ruling party lawmaker in the lower house of Congress to join the federal cabinet, is “a woman with principles, integrity and honesty.”

“She will help us to continue promoting economic activity in the country and … [maintain] good relations with the business sector and the labor sector. She’ll [also] continue promoting foreign trade,” López Obrador said, explaining they were the reasons he appointed her.

The daughter of the 1988 presidential candidate for the conservative, business-friendly National Action Party (PAN), Manuel Clouthier, the 56-year-old new economy minister is a strong communicator and could act as a vital link to the private sector as the government seeks to reinvigorate an economy that has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and looks set to record its worst annual contraction since the Great Depression.

Her appointment came just five days after López Obrador announced that chief of staff Alfonso Romo, who served as a key interlocutor with the business sector, was stepping down.

Clouthier, a Sinaloa native who has lived in Monterrey, Nuevo León, for many years, has longstanding relationships within the private sector that she cultivated herself as well as through her father – who died in a car accident a year after he ran for president – and her husband, a businessman.

She served as a federal deputy for the PAN between 2003 and 2005 but left that party in the latter year to sit as an independent. In 2009 she ran unsuccessfully for mayor of San Pedro Garza García, an affluent municipality in the Monterrey metropolitan area.

Clouthier subsequently worked at a Monterrey university owned by Alfonso Romo before returning to politics with López Obrador’s Morena party, running a campaign that culminated in a landslide victory at the 2018 election.

Her appointment as economy minister was welcomed by several business groups.

Nuevo León industry association Caintra said in a statement that Clouthier knows the “industrial agenda” of the northern state and the concerns of its businesses firsthand.

Galia Borja moves from treasurer of the republic to Bank of México deputy governor. — Galia Borja moves from treasurer of the federation to Bank of México deputy governor.

The Business Coordinating Council, an umbrella organization of 12 business groups, said the new economy minister will find a “willingness” for dialogue in the private sector as well as proposals to aid the economic recovery.

The Confederation of Industrial Chambers said it was confident it would establish a close relationship with Clouthier, saying that there is a “plentiful and promising” common agenda.

Márquez, an academic and economist who had no experience in politics when she joined López Obrador’s cabinet, said she was satisfied with her work as economy minister and cited the implementation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) as a key achievement.

“The USMCA is implemented, we finished [the negotiations] and created all the regulations … for the treaty,” Márquez said.

López Obrador also announced Monday that he was nominating Galia Borja, currently treasurer of the federation, to be a deputy governor of the central bank. Elvira Concheiro, a researcher, will become treasurer, he said.

The president said the changes have nothing to do with a “gender quota” but instead are related to “the need to have men and women characterized by honesty in the public service.”

Eduardo Osuna, general director of the bank BBVA México, praised Borja’s appointment to the central bank deputy governor role.

“I think that it’s an appointment that points in the right direction [in terms of] the autonomy of the Bank of México,” he said, adding that she has the appropriate academic background to understand the bank’s challenges.

BBVA chief economist Carlos Serrano noted that it’s not the first time that a treasurer has moved into a deputy governor role at the central bank. “We saw it with Irene Espinosa,” he said.

Espinosa, treasurer during the governments led by former presidents Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto, is currently one of four deputy governors serving under Bank of México Governor Alejandro Díaz de León.

Source: Milenio (sp), El Financiero (sp)

World’s largest online math class wins a Guinness record

Michelle Aguilar

December 8, 2020

YouTube math teacher Julioprofe. — YouTube math and physics teacher Julioprofe.

A popular Colombian educational YouTuber and Jalisco’s Ministry of Education joined forces and successfully set a new Guinness World Record for an online math class with the most attendants — 213,586 of them.

And yes, there was a question-and-answer session afterward.

The record to beat was only 1,600 students, but Julio Alberto Ríos Gallego, a civil engineer known online as “Julioprofe” to his 4.39 million subscribers on YouTube, was in it to win. He had already lost a bid for a Guinness record last year when he tried to break the record for the most people attending an in-person math class at Talent Land, an annual conference in Jalisco for inventors and entrepreneurs.

He failed to reach his goal when over 800 of his participants were disqualified.

This year’s online class lasted nearly an hour on the Jalisco Ministry of Education’s virtual forum, Recrea Academy, followed by a period for questions. Ríos, who explains math and physics problems on his channel, spoke during the virtual class about how mathematics applies to other subjects.

“Imagine a box or a kit of tools that accompanies us during our lives,” he said. “Some are simple, others are more sophisticated, but all serve some purpose. Logically in the case of mathematics, these tools are going to serve to resolve situations and solve problems in different fields.”

Ríos received congratulations from Jalisco Education Minister Juan Carlos Flores Miramontes, but perhaps the most heartfelt support came from supporters online, many of whom made visual memes expressing congratulations or hopes beforehand that he would be successful.

“If you complain about the trash content on the internet,” said one Twitter user urging people online to participate in the record-breaking class, “this is the moment to support Julioprofe.”

Source: Milenio (sp)

CORRECTION: The word Columbian may refer to a Yukon River paddlewheeler, a type of grouse or a music hall in Kansas but it was not the correct word to describe Julioprofe’s nationality. He is Colombian.

Government must comply with transparency rules to root out corruption: director

MND Staff

December 8, 2020

Acuña: attacks by president have been a bitter experience.

Without transparency, the government’s quest to eliminate corruption will remain a pipe dream, warns the outgoing chief of the National Transparency Institute (INAI).

In an interview with the newspaper Milenio, Francisco Javier Acuña Llamas said President López Obrador, who has made combatting corruption the central aim of his administration, “must comply with transparency” rules to achieve his goal of a corruption-free society.

Acuña, who will step down as INAI chief on Thursday but remain an institute official for a further two years, said the president’s flagship initiatives are “strict republican austerity” and the fight against corruption.

But “without transparency and access to public information” bringing the two initiatives to fruition “could become an [unobtainable] utopia,” he said.

While López Obrador is committed to rooting out corruption, he is no fan of INAI, asserting even before he took office that it has “done nothing” and is part of a “golden bureaucracy” of underachieving yet high paid officials.

Acuña, who became INAI chief in 2017, told Milenio that being the focus of repeated attacks by the president – he took aim at the institute again on Monday – has been a difficult experience.

Indeed, he said the president’s comments have represented some of the most bitter moments of his term.

And López Obrador’s attacks have encouraged others to be critical of INAI, he said, adding: “He’s the president of the republic! There’s no stronger affront than when he hurls expressions of disapproval [at the institute] and says that we only cost [the government money] and we’re not useful. It’s terrible.”

“To withstand it you have to have a strong stomach and a lot of brains, … never respond in clumsy terms but [you have] to be firm,” he said.

Despite the attacks, Acuña said the INAI he is leaving is in good shape, describing it as “brave” institution that fulfills its duties.

It has on occasion ordered the government to release sensitive information but according to Acuña, INAI has not split from the López Obrador administration or offended it.

“On the contrary we assimilated and what [the institute] has shown is that it can do what it has to do,” he said.

It remains to be seen whether the government’s perception of INAI will change under the leadership of a new chief. For the time being, López Obrador is not showing any signs of letting up on it.

Speaking on Monday, the president said that INAI and other autonomous government bodies were created by past governments “to pretend that corruption was being combatted and that there was transparency.”

He claimed that INAI from its inception made a pact to not disclose tax reprieves granted during the 2000-2006 government of former president Vicente Fox.

Its “stellar moment,” López Obrador said sarcastically, “was when it resolved to keep secret all the Odebrecht [corruption scandal] information.”

(The Brazilian construction company has admitted to paying multi-million-dollar bribes to the previous government in exchange for lucrative contracts).

The president also railed against the high costs of funding INAI.

“How much does it cost to maintain this institute? … 1 billion pesos [US $50.5 million] a year,” López Obrador said, describing the funds allocated to it as “the people’s money.”

After accusing the officials of INAI and other autonomous institutions of living large on the public purse, the president described the organizations as floreros, or flower vases, insinuating that they are nothing more than an adornment to the real work of government.

López Obrador added that whoever is elected to succeed Acuña as INAI chief must be an honest woman or man.

Having a doctorate from a foreign university isn’t enough to get the job, he said, explaining that the successful candidate must also have “principles” and “ideals.”

Source: Milenio (sp), El Universal (sp)

Tourism makes a gradual recovery in Oaxaca, minister says

Michelle Aguilar

December 8, 2020

A state official provides hand sanitizer outside the Church of Santo Domingo in Oaxaca city.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of visitors to Oaxaca has been slowly recovering and so have the jobs lost to lockdowns, says state Tourism Minister Juan Carlos Rivera Castellanos.

“We have been going little by little, taking things as they come,” Rivera said. “The most important thing is that we are recovering the jobs lost throughout the tourism industry.”

But the news lately has been brighter: during Day of the Dead celebrations last month there was 30% hotel occupancy even with the state being yellow on the national coronavirus stoplight risk map. It’s a big improvement over September when hotel occupancy in Oaxaca city was only at 10% for the Independence Day holidays, a period when it would normally have been around 60%.

For the winter holiday season, Rivera is optimistically predicting 50% hotel occupancy and about 300 million pesos (US 415.16 million) in economic spillover. That number has been estimated at 86 million pesos for this year’s Day of the Dead holiday; last year the figure was 186 million.

Rivera believes the state’s efforts to gain certification as a healthy tourist destination, which he believes gives people more confidence to visit, are paying off.

In July, the World Travel and Tourism Council added the state to a growing list of tourism destinations it said had demonstrated commitment to the council’s standards of hygiene and sanitation.

But Oaxaca’s tourism industry had already been growing since 2017. In 2019, it surpassed the national average and broke all records for the state, according to Rivera. In the city of Oaxaca, from 2017–2019, average hotel occupancy increased from 30% to 50%. At the end of 2019, the city saw 15 million pesos in economic benefit from more than 5.5 million visitors.

In 2020, up until March, the state was continuing to see high numbers of visitors, he said.

“It has been earning recognition,” said Rivera, “such winner of the award for best city in Mexico and the world, according to the industry magazine Travel + Leisure. Recently we won the Oscar of tourism from the World Travel Awards 2020, as the best destination for an urban getaway.”

It’s hard to tell yet just how much income the state’s tourism industry has lost due to the pandemic. Rivera refers to the losses as “immeasurable.” But he is optimistic that December will continue the current uptick in the state’s visitor numbers and income and says it’s important not to calculate economic losses in 2020 but lives saved.

Sources: Milenio (sp), NVI Noticias (sp)

Four-day festival in Tulum blamed for spreading Covid

MND Staff

December 8, 2020

Masks were in evidence at some events at the Tulum festival.

A four-day festival held in Tulum, Quintana Roo, last month has been blamed for spreading the coronavirus after many attendees, including foreign tourists, fell ill.

The third edition of the Art With Me festival, which describes itself as “a community-driven festival that combines art, music, workshops, wellness and cultural experiences,” was held in the Caribbean coast resort town from November 11 to 15.

A report by the news website The Daily Beast said Art With Me is akin to “Burning Man on the beach,” referring to the annual event that draws tens of thousands of people to the desert of northwestern Nevada for a multi-day festival.

There are “towering art installations, group meditations, and a whole lot of partying,” the report said.

This year’s Art With Me event, which transformed into an electronic music festival at night, went ahead despite the coronavirus pandemic, which as of Monday had claimed the lives of more than 110,000 people in Mexico including almost 2,000 in Quintana Roo.

The festival website contains a list of recommendations to prevent the spread of the coronavirus but numerous attendees including guests and performers told The Daily Beast that almost no one wore a mask and there was little social distancing.

Video footage of nighttime parties at hotels, restaurants and cenotes (natural sinkholes) show hundreds of maskless people dancing in close proximity to each other.

It’s unsurprising therefore that many people are believed to have contracted the virus during the event before falling ill shortly after. Positive cases stemming from the festival have been detected in both Mexico and the United States.

An administrator at the Tulum Hospital told The Daily Beast that “multiple people” with Covid who attended Art With Me have been admitted for treatment. Antonio Romero said the hospital has mainly treated tourists with Covid, saying that it typically receives two to three United States citizens per day as well as larger numbers of patients from South American countries such as Chile and Argentina.

Positive Covid cases that likely stem from Art With Me have also been detected in New York and Miami.

Eleonora Walczak, the founder of a private Covid-19 care and testing company that operates in those two cities, told The Daily Beast that most of the people she tested positive in recent weeks either attended the Tulum festival or had contact with someone who did.

“What I’ve seen in my small cohort are people testing positive after coming back from Mexico – particularly Art With Me in Tulum,” she said.

“I would say that 60-70% of my positives in the last couple weeks in New York City have been a direct result of either people coming back from Art With Me, or who have been directly exposed to someone who attended Art With Me. And I test in Miami as well, and my testers there tell me that a lot of their positives are people coming back from Art With Me.”

Be Svensden, a Danish DJ who performed at the festival, said that he subsequently became ill with Covid and heard of at least 17 other people who fell ill after attending Art With Me parties.

Xwnia Wolf, a Mexican DJ who played two cenote sets, said she hadn’t heard of anyone getting sick after attending her performances but added that she was aware of “so many cases” stemming from another cenote party.

One person who got sick was a woman The Daily Beast referred to by the alias of Michelle. She said she became so ill with Covid that she couldn’t get out of bed.

“I have nothing good to say about this event,” she said.

“They served food too — all open barbecue finger food. Everyone was grabbing with their hands,” Michelle said. “All I will say is that there was not one mask and I got more sick than I ever did in my entire life after that party.”

International visitors to Tulum, which has become a very popular destination for U.S. tourists in recent years, commonly flout health guidelines including the use of face masks even though they were made mandatory by the Quintana Roo governor early in the pandemic.

Svensden, the Danish DJ, said that plenty of carefree partying is happening in Tulum outside last month’s festival – despite a ban on large gatherings of people.

Therefore it doesn’t make sense to single out small Art With Me gatherings as superspreader events “while a whole town full of people was, and still is, partying without masks and clearly not worrying or being careful in the slightest,” he said. “Art With Me and Tulum in general should be the story.”

A representative of a digital marketing company that promotes events in Tulum told The Daily Beast that “people just ignore the fact that there is a virus around.”

“[They] wear masks just because they have to in certain places like the supermarket, and live their lives as always. This happens just in Tulum – the rest of the country seems to be taking it a little more serious. I prefer Tulum’s way.”

Source: The Daily Beast (en)

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