Two events will celebrate strawberries in the Guanajuato city.
If you’ve ever traveled along Highways 45 and 45D in Guanajuato in spring, you’ve no doubt realized from the number of vendors alongside the road that this is strawberry country.
In March, the city of Irapuato has not one, but two multi-day events dedicated to the crop.
The first, called the Festival de la Fresa (Strawberry Festival), is held from March 6 to 8. A free strawberry-and-cream tasting at Plaza Miguel Hidalgo will kick off the event at 4:00 p.m. Friday.
Tours to a local strawberry farm will be offered at 9:00 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. The rest of the weekend is filled with such events as jam and dessert-making workshops, concerts by pop and traditional bands and the traditional Dance of the Toritos, most of which will take place at the city’s main square.
The complete program for Irapuato’s strawberry fest can be found on its website (in Spanish).
The other event is officially called the Feria de Irapuato, though it’s better known as the Feria de las Fresas (Strawberry Fair). The primary focus of the fair, scheduled from March 13 to 29, is a concert program (in Spanish) by nationally known acts including Gloria Trevi, Sonora Santanera and Bronco.
There will also be lucha libre bouts, a gastronomy pavilion, amusement rides, handicraft and livestock shows and all kinds of cultural and sports events. This year’s fair seeks to break the world’s record for the largest batch of strawberry jam.
Though it used to be held in June, the Feria de Irapuato has been moved to March to coincide with the 473rd anniversary of the city’s founding, as well as the fact that fields are in high production at that time.
Although strawberries are grown in much of the Bajío region, Irapuato has a particular reputation for the fruit, calling itself the World Capital of Strawberries. The crop was introduced to the area over 165 years ago by Nicolás Tejeda, who planted them in what is now the Santa Julia neighborhood. He sold his harvest in the form of ice cream, which gradually became popular in the city.
Major production started when a train station was built in Irapuato in 1960, allowing for shipping to much of Mexico and establishing the area’s reputation for sweet strawberries. The industry was nearly wiped out in the 1980s when the misapplication of fertilizer contaminated soils, forcing farmers to halt production for years. It did not truly rebound until the 2000s.
Although Irapuato is the country’s sixth largest producer of strawberries (Zamora is No. 1), those from here are considered to be of especially high quality and are regularly exported to the United States, Japan and several countries in Europe.
President López Obrador looks on as Deputy Health Minister López-Gatell announces the coronavirus cases.
Health officials have confirmed the first cases of the coronavirus known as Covid-19 in the country, one in Mexico City and the other in Sinaloa.
Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell told the president’s morning press conference on Friday that the patients have cold-like symptoms and no pre-existing ailments, so they are not high-risk.
The patient in Mexico City is a 35-year-old male who recently traveled to Italy for a conference. He returned to Mexico on February 22 with mild symptoms, and a test sample was taken on Thursday. He and his family are currently under quarantine in the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER).
“The whole family is in isolation in the institute. They do not need to be hospitalized, but they are there according to protocol,” said President López Obrador.
Health authorities are carrying out contact tracing operations on nine people with whom the man interacted upon arriving in Mexico, one showing symptoms and the other eight asymptomatic.
López-Gatell said that the case in Sinaloa was detected in the early morning hours on Friday. The 41-year-old male has been isolated in a hotel in the state, although authorities have not announced in which city.
The man attended the same conference in Bergamo, Italy, as the patient in Mexico City.
Now that the country has its first confirmed cases, President López Obrador announced that his administration will hold nightly press conferences in order to inform the public of the government’s efforts to deal with the virus.
The conferences will be held at 9:00 p.m. and led by López-Gatell.
The president said that they will present technical and scientific information “so that there aren’t distortions, so that the people have information, to guarantee the right to information.”
As for changes to daily life in the bustling capital, López-Gatell said that there is no need for school or work closures, but he recommended that people temporarily take physical contact out of their greetings.
Passengers were allowed to disembark Friday from the Meraviglia, left, in Cozumel.
“For the moment let’s not give kisses or hugs,” he said, adding that for now “there is no scientific or technical reason to close schools [and] workplaces.”
He asked people not to panic, and the president assured the public that the situation is not critical.
“We are prepared to confront the coronavirus. We have the doctors, specialists, hospitals and the capacity to deal with this case. We will deal with other cases as they develop,” he said.
Health authorities in Quintana Roo exemplified the president’s attitude of not generating panic when they made the decision to allow the passengers from the MSC Meravigliato disembark in Cozumel.
The cruise ship docked at the Caribbean port on Thursday morning after being denied access to ports in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands over fears that a crew member with flu-like symptoms could have been carrying the coronavirus.
Mexican health officials boarded the cruise liner on Thursday to examine the man and confirmed that it was not a case of Covid-19, but of the seasonal flu, the same strain that state Health Minister Alejandra Aguirre Crespo assured the public is “a viral infection common in all of Mexico.”
“No cases of the Covid-19 virus have been reported aboard the MSC Meraviglia or any other ship in the MSC Cruises fleet,” the company said in a statement.
After this morning’s announcement of the first two cases, the peso dropped 1.21% and the Mexican Stock Exchange’s benchmark S&P/BMV IPC index was down 3.39%.
The first case of Covid-19 in Latin America was reported in Brazil on Tuesday. The patient is a 61-year-old male who had also recently traveled to Italy.
The most common symptoms of the disease include fever, dry cough, muscle aches and difficulty breathing. Serious cases can lead to pneumonia.
Health experts say that the best way to protect oneself is to wash hands thoroughly and regularly, avoid touching the mouth, nose and eyes, cover the mouth with the inside of the elbow when sneezing and coughing and avoid contact with people with flu-like symptoms.
Picos Barraza, one of those behind the murder of Sinaloa journalist Javier Valdez.
One of the murderers of Sinaloa journalist and newspaper founder Javier Valdez Cárdenas has been sentenced to almost 15 years in jail.
In a historic first sentence in the case of a journalist’s murder in Mexico, a federal judge ordered the imprisonment of Heriberto Picos Barraza, also known as “El Koala,” for 14 years and eight months.
Picos Barraza was the driver of the car used to intercept Valdez on May 15, 2017, a few blocks from the offices of the RíoDoce newspaper he founded in Culiacán, Sinaloa.
The two men accused of shooting the journalist, Juan Francisco “El Quillo” Picos Barrueta and Luis Ildefonso “El Diablo” Sánchez Romero, fled the scene in the car driven by “El Koala.”
Picos Barraza’s sentencing came after he accepted an offer from the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Against Freedom of Expression (Feadle) which allowed him to avoid an oral trial. In exchange for accepting responsibility for his role in the homicide, the murderer saw his sentence reduced by a third.
Newspaper founder and journalist Valdez.
At a hearing in Culiacán on Thursday that lasted more than eight hours, the judge also ruled that Picos Barraza must pay 9 million pesos (US $457,000) in compensation to the family of Valdez, whose reporting primarily focused on organized crime.
During the hearing, federal prosecutors presented a witness who testified that he was approached by Dámaso “El Mini Lic” López Serrano, son of former Sinaloa Cartel leader Dámaso López Núñez, “El Licenciado,” who asked him to murder Valdez in exchange for 100,000 pesos. López Serrano was apparently furious at having been criticized in a story published by RíoDoce.
The witness said that he refused the offer, after which “El Mini Lic” turned to the men who did kill Valdez, who was also the author of several books on drug trafficking and a contributor to the newspaper La Jornada and the news agency AFP.
After the homicide, and amid a battle with the sons of convicted trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán for control of the Sinaloa Cartel, López Serrano fled to the United States and in July 2017 turned himself in to immigration authorities in California. He is now cooperating with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.
During yesterday’s hearing, Feadle also made an offer to Picos Barrueta to accept responsibility for the murder in exchange for a more lenient sentence. However, “El Quillo” rejected the offer of a prison sentence of 20 years and eight months because he was previously offered a term of 14 years and eight months.
Prosecutors increased the length of the sentence on offer because Picos Barrueta also faces weapons charges in Mexicali, Baja California, and Mazatlán, Sinaloa.
The sentencing of Picos Barraza, the first obtained by federal prosecutors in the murder of a journalist, is a landmark in Mexico, one of the most dangerous countries in the world for media workers.
A total of 131 journalists have been killed since 2000, according to press freedom advocacy organization Article 19, including 11 since President López Obrador took office in December 2018.
Pork exports to China are predicted to double this year due to that country’s problems with African swine fever (ASF) and the effects of the coronavirus outbreak.
Mexico sent 30,072 tonnes of pork to the East Asian economic powerhouse in 2019, making China the second biggest buyer of the meat after Japan.
The president of the Mexican Meat Council (Comecarne) believes that exports this year will exceed 60,000 tonnes, which would make China the No. 1 market for Mexican pig farmers.
Speaking after she was sworn in as Comecarne chief for a fourth consecutive year, Carla Suárez Flores said that pork exports to China increased a whopping 929% in January to 4,076 tonnes. In the same month last, Mexico sent just 396 tonnes of the meat to China.
Between 2016 and 2019, Mexican pork exports to China increased 6,300%, she said.
Suárez explained that all of Mexico’s pork exports to China are sent by just eight meat packing plants that have been certified by Chinese health authorities.
A further 42 plants are awaiting certification, which is expected to occur in coming months, she said. Their certification “will undoubtedly allow a greater presence of Mexican products in China,” Suárez added.
She highlighted that ASF, foot-and-mouth disease and avian influenza are not present in Mexico, which gives countries importing Mexican meat confidence that they are receiving a healthy product.
It is estimated that China lost between 30% and 40% of its total pork production last year due to ASF. The outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus is also having an impact on production, creating an opportunity for Mexico to boost exports.
“We’re going for more,” the Comecarne chief declared.
According to data from the Mexican Meat Council, Mexico exported 15,582 tonnes of pork last month. Japan was the biggest buyer, receiving 59% of total exports, followed by China, which bought 26%.
The third and fourth biggest buyers of Mexican pork in January were the United States and South Korea, respectively.
Cancún saw a rebound in tourism from the United States in January in comparison to the same month in 2019, according to Quintana Roo Tourism Minister Marisol Vanegas Pérez.
She said that the Cancún International Airport reported an increase of 4.1% in the total number of passengers served, rising from 2.2 million in January 2019 to 2.3 million last month.
And the trend is expected to continue as the year goes on. Vanegas said that 6.5-7 million airplane seats will be available to passengers flying to Cancún in the first half of 2020.
She said that many companies reduced the number of flights to Cancún in the last two years as they renovated their fleets of planes. Last month’s growth is a product of the recent increase in routes to the Caribbean coast of Mexico.
Quintana Roo Governor Carlos Joaquín said that the rebound is not only in tourism from the United States. The state saw a 3.9% year-over-year increase in all international visitors in January, from 1.5 million in 2019 to 1.6 million this year.
The number of domestic visitors grew 4.4% in that period, from 674,760 in January 2019 to 704,340 last month.
He added that seven of every 10 visitors that arrive at the Cancún airport are international tourists, mostly from the United States and Canada, markets that state authorities say will be very important to the rebound in tourism to the region expected for this year.
The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) has offered to reinstate generous retirement conditions for workers as long as their union agrees not to interfere in the management of the state-run company.
During negotiations to reach a new collective agreement, CFE director Manuel Bartlett presented an offer to bring back the retirement scheme that existed prior to 2016, under which male workers could retire with full pensions at the age of 55 if they had completed 25 years of service and at any age if they had completed 30 years.
Male workers currently have to complete 30 years of service and reach the age of 65, or 40 years of service without any age limit, in order to retire with full benefits.
Women could previously retire at any age with full benefits as long as they had completed 25 years of service whereas they now have to reach 30 years of service to retire at 60, or 35 years of service to retire at any age.
If the Electrical Workers Union of the Mexican Republic, or SUTERM, accepts Bartlett’s offer it will have to give up its spot on the CFE board, effectively allowing the federal government to have full control of the company.
In a letter to SUTERM general secretary Víctor Fuente del Villar, the CFE director made it clear that the “fundamental premise” of the offer is that the union must not intervene in the management of the public utility.
“[The CFE] must have an organization, management and structure that guarantee its technical and administrative autonomy in order to obtain the best results,” Bartlett wrote, adding that its internal decision-making bodies must have the freedom to act independently.
While having complete control of the CFE may look very attractive to the government, two experts warn that changing retirement conditions will come at a significant financial cost.
Carlos Ramírez, a consultant who formerly headed up the National Commission for the Pension System, told the newspaper El Economista that retirement reform at the CFE allowed the company to reduce its pension liabilities.
He said that returning to the scheme that existed before 2016 will increase costs for the federal government, which is responsible for paying the pensions of former CFE and Pemex workers.
If SUTERM takes up Bartlett’s offer and the retirement scheme reverts to what is was pre-2016, ratings agencies and CFE bondholders won’t be at all happy because the company will be financially weakened, Ramírez added.
Gerardo López, a pensions expert at the Panamerican University, said that going back to the old retirement scheme would not only hurt public finances but represent a “step backward” for the government.
“It’s a bad precedent that’s being set because when the decision was taken to modify the CFE pensions system, it was achieved through agreements with the workers and their unions in order to fix the faults of the previous system,” he said.
At the end of 2019, the CFE had pension liabilities of just under 159 billion pesos (US $8.2 billion), 56% higher than Pemex’s liabilities of 101.5 billion pesos.
In the face of Starbucks’ continued dominance among the country’s caffeine consumers, Mexico’s coffee shops are seeking new niche markets to stay a shot above the rest.
Firms like Café Punta del Cielo, The Italian Coffee Company, Finca Santa Veracruz and Cielito Querido Café have all felt the pinch from the Seattle, Washington-based global coffee conglomerate and have changed their business models to adapt.
“The arrival of Starbucks 15 years ago let loose a non-traditional dynamic for coffee consumption, it triggered a new way of approaching the idea, and there will still be spaces as each brand finds its own niche,” said Fernando Álvarez Kuri, vice-president of the consulting firm Kantar Mexico.
Operated by restaurant corporation Alsea, Starbucks has 746 units in Mexico, accounting for 51.9% of the country’s coffee shop market.
“The model that Starbucks has implemented is very successful, even though the market is more and more competitive, because it is very attractive in terms of profitability,” said Banorte analyst Valentín Mendoza.
That competition has driven other coffee shop operators to get creative.
Café Punta del Cielo, for instance, has linked up with corporations like Gayosso funeral homes, Aeroméxico and hospitals to consolidate clients.
“You have a better consumer there; people at corporations are much more practical with their consumption. You create a habit in them so that later they search out boutique products,” said the company in a statement.
The firm processes its own coffee at its plant in Puebla for consumption at its 149 locations in Mexico. This year it is hoping to improve prices and grow its presence on the shelves with products like coffee capsules and a new vanilla-flavored instant coffee.
With 390 sales points in Mexico, The Italian Coffee Company hit the road and found its niche on the country’s highways and in its home region of El Bajío, which comprises areas in the states of Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Michoacán, Querétaro, Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas.
“You can have locations, but you have to be smart and find a way to differentiate yourself,” said Álvarez. “The Italian Coffee Company is very much a brand of El Bajío and the highways. It’s a very interesting niche.”
Starbucks competitor Café Punto del Cielo.
The company said that the competition created by Starbucks offered an opportunity to adapt.
“We find ourselves today in a market in constant movement, in which we try to adapt as efficiently as possible as a company,” it said.
Many of the over 170 cafés operated by Finca Santa Veracruz are in universities and corporate buildings, but in 2020 it plans to put its coffee on wheels to bring its product to new clients.
“We stopped developing the format of coffee carts because we moved to shopping center islands and large stores, but we like the format and we think we’ll start it up again and it will take off in a short amount of time,” said the company’s founder, José Navarro.
Designed and developed by Finca Santa Veracruz, the carts will be electric and self-sufficient, with enough charge to provide services for up to 10 hours.
The Cielito Querido Café brand is hoping that a change of ownership will be just what it needs to stay viable in the market. Mexican food giant Herdez recently bought its 78 cafés from ADO for 280 million pesos (US $14.5 million).
“Cielito was taken up by a company with undoubtedly more dimension, with a balance that allows it to be more aggressive in the rhythm of opening [new stores],” said Mendoza.
Álvarez said the brand’s success will depend on how the new owner presents it to the consumer.
Like other Catholic countries, Mexico has traditionally observed the “no meat on Fridays” rule during Lent, even though this practice has an ambivalent status. The prohibition on meat has usually meant that fish or other seafood is substituted, hardly a penance given the higher cost.
Indeed, such a substitution wasn’t practical for most Mexicans until the 20th century. For much of the country’s history, average Mexicans couldn’t even afford meat, let alone seafood. It was rare in the Mesoamerican diet and through the centuries a “rich person’s” food. That fact is reflected in the saying, Cuando hay pa’ carne, es vigilia — “When there is (money) for meat, it’s (time for) abstinence.” It means that poor people cannot enjoy the good things in life, either because of poverty or religion.
Besides, Mexico is much less religious now. The vast majority still do identify as Catholics, but observance is nowhere near as strict as it used to be. The most common practices now have cultural significance. For this reason, the avoidance of meat is not as mandatory as it once was. For example, many restaurants offer fish specialties during Lent, especially on Fridays, but the regular menu items are also offered and ordered.
Despite all this, meat consumption still goes down by 30% during this season, which is an important boost to Mexico’s seafood industry. Prices rise along with demand. Seafood restaurants benefit during Lent, especially in areas where people don’t have as much experience cooking fish.
The strict observance in the past gave rise to a number of traditions that can still be seen today. Celebrations related to Carnival (a time to use up the prohibited food items before Lent) and through Holy Week can still be seen, especially in more rural communities. One reason for this is that Lent coincides with the end of the dry season in Mexico, which for indigenous people has been a time of penance and reflection as well as rituals to ensure that the coming growing season will be good.
During Lent, fish sales go up while meat sales drop as much as 30%.
One obvious reason for at least a nominal observance of fish on Fridays is the fact that Mexico has 11,000 kilometers of coastline with four major commercial fishing areas: Sonora, Sinaloa, Baja California and Veracruz. Less obvious but also important is the production of freshwater fish. Mexico’s inland waters may not match those of the United States or Canada, but with the creation of reservoirs in the 20th century, fish became available in areas that did not have it before.
In fact, aquaculture arrived in Mexico as early as the late 19th century, when rainbow trout farms were started along the mountain streams of México state to raise the protein consumption of farmers. Such trout production remains important in the high altitudes of central Mexico.
Saltwater aquaculture came much later, in the 1980s, but today 53% of Mexico’s seafood is now produced at fish farms.
Such farming can now be found in 23 of the country’s 32 states, especially in Morelos, Nayarit, Jalisco, Veracruz and Yucatán. The most common species raised this way are tilapia, trout and shrimp, but tuna, oysters, catfish and sea bass are also cultivated.
Commercial fishing in open waters is still practiced and subject to varying regulations. However, many wildlife experts and chefs encourage responsible consumption of these products and respect for harvest seasons to allow populations to recover. Websites such as Pesca Con Futuro (in Spanish) give detailed information to help consumers make conscientious choices. During Lent, more than 100 species from the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico are in season.
All seafood dishes are acceptable for Lent, but a number of prepared items, with and without fish, have become traditional for this season on both the national and regional levels.
Capirotada is a dessert often eaten on Good Friday.
One major regional variation and a throwback to the past is the popularity of preserved fish products and vegetarian options in the interior of Mexico. Even though fresh fish is far more available than it was in the past (especially in Mexico City which has the second-largest wholesale fish market in the world), traditional dishes are based on what could be had 100 or more years ago.
Preserved fish products include tuna, sardines, and dried fish — in particular, dried shrimp. One common dish is the torta de camarón seco (shrimp patties). It is enjoyed throughout inland Mexico, but there are regional variations. In the center of the country, the dish contains romeritos (seepweed), in the north it has egg and red salsa, and in Guanajuato it comes with nopal cactus.
Following in importance is the use of beans, either as the main protein source or as a way to stretch expensive fish. Fava beans and lentils appear in many areas. In the Sierra Tarahumara, chacales is a traditional soup made with corn and lentils and cooked in a pot underground. White beans are common in Oaxaca.
For those regions where they are historically consumed, insects are also acceptable for Lent. These include central Mexico and Oaxaca, where chapulines (grasshoppers) are popular year round. Some other items that are in season around Lent include escamoles (ant eggs) and in several southern states jumiles (beetles or stink bugs).
Freshwater fish features prominently in Lenten dishes in those few inland areas with significant production. Perhaps the most famous of these are the charales (neotropical silversides) of Lake Pátzcuaro, small sardine-like fishes that are eaten dried or fried. They can be prepared many ways, including simply on a tortilla with salsa.
Vegetarian dishes include tortas de papa (potato patties), tamales with cheese or vegetable fillings, stuffed chiles and vegetables such as quelites (the name for several varieties of leafy greens) and romeritos. Cheese is also acceptable to eat during Lent, though despite its availability, it doesn’t take a central role during this time. This may be because in the past dairy was also forbidden (along with alcohol).
One dish that truly seems to be consumed nationwide this time of year is capirotada. This is a dessert made with slices of stale bread that has been fried, then covered in a syrup made with piloncillo (sometimes agave), raisins and nuts, and finally sprinkled with cotija or other salty cheeses.
Banxico cited the coronavirus as a factor in its forecast.
The Bank of México cut its growth forecast for 2020 on Wednesday, citing weakness in the global economy, trade tensions and the outbreak of coronavirus as factors.
The central bank is now predicting GDP growth of between 0.5% and 1.5% this year, a 0.3% cut at both ends of the range compared to its previous forecast in November.
The downward revision came a day after the National Institute of Statistics and Geography announced that GDP contracted 0.1% in the fourth quarter of last year (it previously reported that growth was 0%) and confirmed that the economy shrank 0.1% across all of 2019.
“The revision for 2020 responds, in part, to a lower growth base to that previously expected,” the Bank of México (Banxico) said in its quarterly report for the October to December period of 2019.
“This outlook anticipates a more gradual recovery of domestic demand throughout the forecast horizon, in a context in which the global economy continues showing weakness and U.S. industrial production expectations have been revised downwards once again,” Banxico said.
The central bank said that global trade tensions, such as the ongoing trade war between the United States and China, are expected to have an impact on growth and investment in Mexico.
It also said that the outbreak of the coronavirus – which is now affecting large numbers of people in countries outside China, such as South Korea, Italy and Iran – could have a greater effect on growth than previously thought.
The recovery of the Mexican economy from last year’s recession – the first since the global financial crisis in 2009 – will likely take longer than previously expected due to persistent weakness in internal demand and a possible cut to the credit rating of state oil company Pemex, which already has a junk rating from Fitch.
The central bank also cut its growth forecast for 2021 albeit by a slightly more modest margin of 0.2%. The Bank of México sees an economic expansion in the range of 1.1% to 2.1% next year.
In addition, Banxico revised its expectation for job creation this year to between 440,000 and 540,000 new positions compared to a 500,000-600,000 range in its previous quarterly report. With regard to inflation, the bank is anticipating a 3.2% rate at the end of 2020 compared to a previous prediction of 3%.
Despite the central bank’s decreased optimism, Finance Minister Arturo Herrera said that the ministry he heads would not be moved into downgrading its 2020 growth outlook, which currently stands at 1.5-2.5%.
“We’re not going to lower it, we don’t depend on whether Banxico does it or not,” he said, explaining that the Finance Ministry (SHCP) uses its own models to predict growth and that any announcements about outlook revisions are made according to an established schedule.
Herrera said that the SHCP will present an economic policy document in April which could possibly include a revised growth forecast for 2020.
The minister told the news agency Bloomberg earlier this month that he was confident that the economy would bounce back this year, citing inflation and debt levels that are under control, the stability of the peso and Pemex’s halting of an extended production decline.
The SHCP’s current mean prediction of 2% growth this year, however, is about double that of most analysts and international organizations.
The International Monetary Fund is currently forecasting 1% growth in Mexico this year, while the World Bank sees GDP expanding by a slightly better 1.2%.
A cruise ship carrying a person with flu-like symptoms has been allowed to dock at Cozumel, Quintana Roo, after being denied access to the port on Wednesday.
The crew member is said to have a case of influenza A virus contracted in the Philippines, but fears of the coronavirus known as Covid-19 caused ports in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands to deny the ship permission to dock.
The Meraviglia arrived off the coast of Cozumel around 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday and was denied permission to dock after a series of back-and-forth decisions by Mexican authorities.
Quintana Roo Governor Carlos Joaquín González announced the decision in a tweet just before 11:00 p.m. on Wednesday.
“If there is a health risk, there will be no authorization for disembarkation,” he tweeted.
The ship therefore spent the night anchored three kilometers offshore, but was finally allowed to dock around 7:00 a.m. on Thursday. Mexican health authorities boarded the ship to examine the patient.
Despite statements from Quintana Roo Health Minister Alejandra Aguirre Crespo that the case is not one of Covid-19, a group of about 10 people gathered at the wharf in Cozumel on Wednesday to demand that the ship not be allowed to dock out of fear of health risks.
The operator of the Meraviglia, MSC Cruises, expressed its disagreement with the decisions not to allow the ship to moor, claiming that they were made out of fear rather than empirical evidence.
“The crew member was diagnosed with the seasonal flu and is in stable condition. … As a precaution, he was isolated from other crew members and passengers from the moment he showed symptoms and will continue as such until he recovers completely. No other cases of influenza A have been reported aboard the MSC Meraviglia,” it said in a statement.
The cruise liner is carrying 4,500 passengers and 1,500 crew members. None have been allowed to disembark. Health experts are expected to report the results of their examinations at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday and decide whether to allow those aboard to come ashore.
President López Obrador told his Thursday morning press conference that the country’s ports would not be closed out of fear of the coronavirus, calling the move inhumane.
“If there is a case [of coronavirus], we’ll take care of it. We have information that the possibility does not exist. We cannot act in an inhumane way. There are protocols to carry out, but it’s not a case of ‘You can’t dock here.’ We cannot act like that,” he said.
He called the decision to treat the sick crew member “a matter of humanitarianism,” adding that “the regrettable truth is that there are attitudes of rejection.”
