Aquarium workers and their families are protesting the May 15 closure by the Environment Attorney’s Office. Yerania Rolon (Yerania Rolon)
The government of Cuitláhuac García this Thursday opened the doors of the Veracruz Aquarium, which he himself had closed nine days ago. In an event that appeared to be primarily a political act, Morena secretaries and political officials once again hosted one of Mexico’s most important marine conservation centers. The reopening is still happening amid controversy over the closure and change of management. This week, the executive released a decree allowing the trust, which had managed the aquarium for 30 years, to be wiped out in order to place it in state hands. The patronage she led and environmental organizations have since protested what they describe as “a political movement” dangerous to the species.
First thing in the morning, and accompanied by a group of elementary school children, the environmental prosecutor Sergio Rodríguez cut the ribbon that allows entry to the Aquarium of the Port of Veracruz. As if it were the inauguration of a new building, the Veracruz government has boasted about the reopening of the state’s top tourist attraction. After the fact, the first tourists entered as if nothing had happened. But in these nine days, the political debate has turned around their aquariums.
The aquarium was founded in 1992 with the support of the Veracruz government, which has always remained the owner. It was decided to set up a trust and civil society that would be responsible for the administration of the centre. Very soon it turned into a successful project: with its income it was able to pay the high maintenance costs and still had a profit margin of about 20 million pesos ($1 million). Over the years, the number of visits and square meters has grown: before the pandemic, it reached a million visitors a year and currently has more than 7,500 square meters in which it houses about 5,000 species and numerous specimens of sharks, penguins or dolphins. In addition, the aquarium has become a reference center for the breeding and handling of manatees and jellyfish. It also served as a rescue and control center for the so-called Red Tide.
This conservation measure has been challenged by the current governor. While celebrating a New Year’s Eve party in 2019 and the death of an endangered and therefore protected manatee, García found the arguments to close the enclosure on May 11. It is necessary to investigate what happened, the president said. However, without prior inspection or audit, the decree was published on Tuesday, stripping administration of the site of its trust.
The decision was very controversial within the board of trustees that ran it – made up of 10 businessmen, including some magnates of the region, such as the Pazos family – but also within the environmental organizations that looked after endangered species. . “We call on the state government not to use the Veracruz Aquarium as economic or political spoils for anyone. We demand that animal and species conservation continue to be a priority,” the Association of Zoos, Breeders and Aquariums of Mexico wrote in a statement, calling the aquarium a “model facility.”
The change of manager brings with it some professional doubts: the permits and approvals for the operation of the aquarium are in the name of the now-defunct civil association, the environmental prosecutor’s office did not have among their tasks the management of an institution such as the aquarium, or the economic object that is intended for it to process the new permits while the facility was closed. The executive has not responded to repeated questions from this newspaper on these issues.
Subscribe here to the EL PAÍS México newsletter and receive all the informative keys to current events in this country