A New Year's party, a dead manatee and millionaire income: the government's struggle for the Veracruz Aquarium

A history of decades of struggle for power is hidden among the turtles and corals of the Veracruz Aquarium.

This week the last chapter has been written: the Government of Cuitláhuac García has closed the aquarium, has extinguished the trust that was in charge of the establishment and by decree has made it pass into state hands.

The president's arguments point to bad practices, including the celebration of a New Year's party in the facilities and the mysterious death of a manatee.

For its part, the board of trustees, which has been in charge of management for 30 years, describes this closure as a political movement that has nothing to do with caring for the animals, but rather with the income generated by the establishment.

While everything is resolved,

More than 30 years ago a diver, an admiral and his children adapted the project of a large aquarium designed for Havana, in Cuba, to the Veracruz coast.

On November 13, 1992, with the support of the state government, the Veracruz Aquarium was inaugurated.

It cost around seven million pesos and its value has multiplied since then.

The establishment has grown over the years and has become the main tourist attraction in the State.

The number of visitors in 2017 reached more than 2,600 people per day, almost one million each year.

The model became a success, moreover, self-sustaining.

The aquarium, before the pandemic, could generate around 100 million pesos a year (about five million dollars), according to internal sources to EL PAÍS.

With these income, maintenance expenses were covered, which reached up to 80 million between the salaries for 130 employees, food and animal care, and the electricity bill generated by the use of 100 pumps and 100 refrigerators.

But there was still a margin: 20 million free pesos each year.

That amount —which is equivalent to one million dollars— was managed by the civil association Acuario de Veracruz and its patronage, made up of about 10 businessmen from the region, among whom are Marcelino Fernández, owner of the La Parroquia restaurant, or the Pazos family. , owners of the radio station XEU.

Internal sources assure this newspaper that these members "never saw a peso."

"Their work was voluntary, they never took a ticket," they say.

The money, they explain, was reinvested in the aquarium and in improving its activities and facilities.

The Veracruz aquarium in a file photograph, from the year 2011. Diego Simón Sánchez (Cuartoscuro)

Cuitláhuac García's version is different: "They let [the aquarium] operate to a private administrator who only defends her private interests, does not contribute anything to the public interest and does not report all the economic income she obtains."

The Government, which has been the owner of the establishment from the beginning, has an honorary role within the board of trustees, it could request reports and audits, but it was not included in the management decision-making and therefore did not have access to the budgets either.

The icing on the cake is in the existence of some 130 million pesos in the trust fund, according to the same sources.

With the trust extinct since Tuesday, the Government has also not given details of the discovery or the destination of that money.

A biologist, who asks to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, concludes: "The aquarium is loot."

J Balvin among the fish and the mystery of the manatee

In December 2019, a private party was held for the board and employees in one of the aquarium's main fish tanks.

The images of the event with colored lights everywhere, alcohol and songs by J Balvin have today become a loaded weapon for the Government.

Personnel who were at that party acknowledge to EL PAÍS that the volume of the songs was high, but that in no case did it endanger the species.

"The problem would have been more that the vibrations could loosen the glue that joins the two acrylic sheets, but the fish that were in those tanks were not affected," he says.

And he adds that events, such as catwalks or galas, are common in aquariums around the world, including those in Mexico City, Boston or Baltimore, in the United States: "It is a frequent form of financing."

The Veracruz aquarium manages some 5,000 specimens, among which it boasts a sawfish —a practically extinct species—, 15 large sharks, 20 penguins, four dolphins and the big stars: eight manatees.

These animals, vegetarian and large, are a protected species in Mexico, of which there are only about 1,000 copies left in the entire country.

Very sensitive to temperature, elusive and peaceful, manatees have become an emblem.

For this reason, when they die, the protocol is clear in the aquarium: the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Profepa) must be notified in less than 48 hours, safeguard it, perform a necropsy and certify the cause of death.

I share to you

the official statement about the Aquarium of the Port of Veracruz and attached photos of how the animals in the aquarium were treated by a small group of people who even held parties with lights where not even 'flash' can be used.

And so they left the manatee in their charge: pic.twitter.com/ASNtogbO9V

– Cuitláhuac García (@CuitlahuacGJ) May 17, 2022

The Government accuses the aquarium of hiding the death of one of them.

In an anonymous complaint, apparently made by an employee of the establishment, it is criticized that Arbolillo, a manatee rescued five years ago, died on April 1, after the aquarium's veterinarians left the animal without treatment, which was already sick and refused. to eat or drink.

The board rejects this version and describes it as "misrepresented": "Animals have a life cycle."

The case has escalated so much that the governor has come to show images of a charred animal on his social networks, which he assures correspond to this manatee.

Neither of the two versions has provided evidence or data to support it.

The closure and the decree

On May 11, a red tape covered the doors of the aquarium: closed.

The news hit like a bomb in the region.

The measure of the Morenista government was finalized a few days later when, with the publication of a decree, it announced the extinction of the Veracruz Aquarium trust.

In that decree, the Executive announces that from that moment "the direction, control, administration and supervision of assets and resources" will correspond to the State Attorney for Environmental Protection (PMA), and the establishment will be renamed Aquarium del Port of Veracruz.

The decision entails some technical doubts: the permits and authorizations for the operation of the aquarium are in the name of the civil association now stripped, the PMA did not have among its functions the management of an establishment such as the aquarium, or the economic item destined to process the new permits while the establishment remains closed.

Several environmental organizations, such as Earth Mission, have criticized this abrupt closure.

The Association of Zoos, Breeders and Aquariums of Mexico has also come to the defense of the center, which it has described as an exemplary institution: “We call on the state government so that the Veracruz Aquarium is not used as economic or political loot for anyone. .

We request that animal welfare and wildlife conservation remain priorities.”

“There are very few aquariums that can boast security for organizations such as the one in the State of Veracruz.

The custody and care of the organisms is exemplary.

It is an emblem, it is the best aquarium in Latin America,” Jorge Escobar, president of the Federation of the College of Biologists of Mexico, told this newspaper.

"The fact that it is going through this unexpected and unjustified situation makes us very concerned because these types of processes generally do not end well, because the animals are not prepared to undergo these transition processes," says this specialist in the protection of the marine area. .

The response of the defenders of the aquarium is repeated among those consulted: there were procedures to review and resolve what was malfunctioning, even sanction, without the need to tear down what was consolidated.

The Government of Veracruz has not responded to questions from this newspaper about this decision.

Yes, he has stated in a statement that "the majority of the workers" will be kept in office.

At the moment, the days go by and there is still no date for one of the main aquariums in Mexico to reopen its doors.

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