Ernesto Azarkevich
02/24/2020 - 11:45
- Clarín.com
- Society
After the accidental death of two tourists in the Salto Mariposa, the Deliberative Council of Puerto Iguazú sanctioned an ordinance by which the Municipality is requested to place a fence in place and also signs that warn visitors about the risks involved retrace the path that leads to the waterfall that is about 80 meters from the Tres Fronteras Landmark, where the Paraná and Iguazú rivers converge.
The secretary of Government of the Municipality of the City of the Falls, Marcela González, said that warning signs had been placed in the place "but the people took them out". The official said that the same vendors that are located in the area of the Milestone were those who removed the signage because they thought it frightened visitors. "Now it was repositioned and I ask everyone's collaboration so they don't get them out," he said. On the placement of railings, he said that it will be done "later, so that the place is safer" and that this work was already under analysis of the architects of the municipality.
It was the councilman Domingo Martínez who toured the Salto Mariposa and quickly developed a project to demand that the Municipality take the necessary measures to safeguard the physical integrity of tourists who decide to go down to the coast of the Paraná River to know the small waterfall, which has Almost thirteen meters high.
The project of the official councilor was approved unanimously in the last session of the Deliberative Council but so far only the posters were placed. Martínez explained that the jump is not within the “official” tourist offer, but about three years ago it began to be visited spontaneously by visitors who traveled through the Tres Fronteras Landmark and learned from the comments of the traders there installed .
The Butterfly Jump, where two tourists have already died.
“In the project I ask that they place fences, some iron cords so that visitors do not have access to the place of stones because that is where the falls occur. In that place, if a person loses his balance he has no place to hold on and they end up falling, ”Martínez said.
In the last three months two tourists died from falls that suffered in the waterfall, while a woman from Chaco had better luck, since she suffered only minor injuries.
The waterfall, not very large, precipitates from about thirteen meters high in the middle of the jungle and then flows into the Paraná River. The property belongs to the State, which in turn gave it to the Province.
The Butterfly Jump, where two tourists have already died.
The decision to provide safety measures to Salto Mariposa was taken after the death of Yago Pablo Minervino, a physical education teacher at Parque Patricios. The young man had arrived as a backpacker to Puerto Iguazú and suffered the fatal fall on Sunday, February 16. Minervino, who traveled a large part of South America by bicycle over two years, suffered hip and spine fractures, as well as a severe blow to the head. The injured was assisted by Volunteer Firefighters and transferred by a Prefecture boat to the port, from where he was referred to Samic Hospital. Despite the efforts of doctors, Yago died last Wednesday.
Last November, it was a 23-year-old from Cordoba who suffered serious injuries, also because of a fall from the top of the jump. Facundo de Lara died just a few hours later at the Puerto Iguazú Hospital.
GS