Cancún, Quintana Roo -
In less than a month three foreign tourists have died along Mexico's famed Riviera Maya, including a 40 year old American tourist from Los Angeles, a 21 year old Canadian woman on vacation with a girlfriend and a 44 year old man visiting Playa del Carmen with family.
MGR reported the deaths May 9 in Body of Canadian tourist remains unclaimed in Cancún.
In two of the cases, female visitors went drinking in Cancún hotel zone bars in the hours immediately before their deaths. In the Playa case the male tourist had been drinking as well, but whether in his room or an establishment has not been reported. What unites the tragedies is that in each instance the victims fell from balconies, two of them while trying to climb or jump from one patio to another. In an earlier case 21 year old Canadian Rogers Christopher Mark fell from his second floor hotel room at the Great Parnassus Cancún on Jan. 5.
Considering the huge number of travelers Cancún and the Riviera Maya host annually, four deaths would seem statistically insignificant. The cynical explanation is that some people can't hold their liquor. But in two stories today Quintana Roo's Por Esto newspaper suggests that profit driven bars may be responsible for the deaths, plus other cases where tourists got desperately ill after imbibing.
In order to expedite the intoxication process and maximize profits, adulterated liquors are often used in drinks, the paper says, some of which contain deadly methanol, also known as wood alcohol. Ice cubes made with diethyl ether are also common, according to Por Esto's off the record interviews of unidentified bartenders in Cancún's sprawling hotel zone.
Ether has a long history of recreational abuse. An Urban Dictionary piece on the effects of ether consumption says "it makes you behave like the village drunkard in some Irish novel." According to Por Esto, its use is common in many bars and night clubs, especially during happy hours when clients are offered a flat price (typically 350-500 pesos, or about $30-$40 dollars) to drink without limit.
The bizarre behavior exhibited by the two female victims, the tourist from Los Angeles and the young Canadian woman shortly before their deaths are consistent with and typical of ether poisoning, said the paper today. Por Esto claims that federal consumer agency authorities have done little to ensure the safety of alcoholic beverages served in many establishments, especially during happy hours and late night promotional events which are an unregulated mainstay of the Cancún tourist trade.
June 13 - Bad booze from Belize, say Quintana Roo health officials
Mar. 28 - Two Canadians, two Mexicans and a bar tab of $9,415
May 16 - Mexico drops another notch in gross tourism receipts
© MGRR 2013. All rights reserved. This article may be cited or briefly quoted with proper attribution or a hyperlink, but not reproduced without permission.
Wow. So it's not just Rohyphenol they are using.
ReplyDeleteI'm confused... exactly how does expediting the intoxication process maximize profits? If anything, it would stand to reason that it would have the opposite effect on the bottom line.
ReplyDeleteThe more people drink and the more they feel the effects of such, the more they're likely to say, "hey bartender, another round, please." What they're unlikely to do is say, "let's see, I think I'm good and drunk now, so I'll call it a night and go back to my hotel."
DeleteDon't analyze it too much, just go to your local watering hole and observe (over a glass of mineral water or fruit juice, perhaps).
"Don't analyze it too much, just go to your local watering hole and observe (over a glass of mineral water or fruit juice, perhaps)".
DeleteRight. I have, off and on, throughout the years and mostly while training, pounded the club soda and mineral water while my friends hammered down booze - it's a revealing field trip. Honey, do I, drink THAT much?
I would guess this is standard practice in other tourist and resort areas of the world, you think?