MEXICO CITY (AP) – Authorities in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula have complained on Friday that tourists are not wearing face masks as Mexico prepares for a wave of Easter Week visitors.
The caretaker chief of police in Quintana Roo on the Caribbean coast patrolled the streets of Tulum resort, reminding people to wear masks and complaining about how few people did it.
“It is unfortunate to see how much things have become undisciplined,” said Lucio Hernández Gutiérrez. “It was really frustrating to see hundreds of people walking around without masks on their faces,” he said, adding that tourists were the worst criminals.
“It’s embarrassing that we have to get to this point, to ask people (to wear masks) when we have to be aware of the risks we face,” he said.
Federal authorities have decided to close the site of the Chichén Itzá Maya ruin in neighboring Yucatan State on April 1-4 to avoid the possible spread of the coronavirus. The sprawling temple complex is the second most visited archeological site in Mexico and usually attracts about 1.8 million visitors a year.
And for the second year in a row, the most famous reenactment of Christ’s crucifixion in Latin America will take place without spectators in Mexico City. The multi-day ceremony will be broadcast instead,
The show has attracted about 2 million viewers in recent years, but authorities said such large crowds would be too risky during the pandemic.
The detailed performance took place in Iztapalapa district in 1843, but was closed to the public in 2020 for the first time in 177 years due to the virus. It was first carried out in 1843 after a cholera outbreak threatened the then rural hamlet.