{"id":26673,"date":"2024-07-12T16:39:28","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T22:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-gods-must-be-angry-mexico-cancels-poseidon\/"},"modified":"2024-07-12T22:39:28","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T22:39:28","slug":"the-gods-must-be-angry-mexico-cancels-poseidon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-gods-must-be-angry-mexico-cancels-poseidon\/","title":{"rendered":"The gods must be angry: Mexico \u2018cancels\u2019 Poseidon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tourists
Tourists take pictures of Poseidon sculpture before the arrival of Hurricane Beryl in Progreso, Yucatan Mexico, July 4, 2024. Martin Zetina\/The Associated Press<\/span>Martin Zetina<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

MEXICO CITY \u2013 The gods must be angry \u2013 or just laughing at the hubris of humanity.<\/p>\n

Authorities in Mexico have slapped a \u201cclosure\u201d order on a 10-foot-tall aquatic statue of the Greek god of the sea Poseidon that was erected in May in the Gulf of Mexico just off the town of Progreso, Yucatan.<\/p>\n

Mexico\u2019s Environmental Protection Agency said late Thursday that the statue, which appears to show an angry trident-wielding Poseidon \u201crising\u201d from the sea a few meters from the beach, lacked permits. In the few months it has been up, tourists had gathered to take pictures of themselves with it as a striking background.<\/p>\n

But it was symbolically \u201cclosed\u201d Thursday \u2013 and could be removed altogether \u2013 after a group of activist lawyers filed a legal complaint saying the statue of the Greek offended the beliefs of local Maya Indigenous groups who prefer their own local god of water, known as Chaac.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s always been dangerous for humans to get involved in battles between deities. But this one appears to be all about present-day humanity, combining \u201ccancel culture,\u201d social media storms, lawsuits and the one truly fearsome, overpowering force in today\u2019s world: Instagram selfie-fueled tourism.<\/p>\n

True to form, Mexico social media users took to, well, social media, to crow about the decision, with at least a dozen posting slogans like \u201cChaac 1, Poseidon 0.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are arguments on both sides.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoseidon is a Greek god who is alien to our Maya culture,\u201d according to the legal complaint filed recently against the statue. \u201cI have a human right for my Maya culture to be preserved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carlos Morales, whose Indigenous Strategic Litigation group brought the complaint, says he wants the Poseidon statue removed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want Poseidon removed from the beach at Progreso because it is foreign to the Maya culture, and because it did not meet the requirements\u201d of getting an environmental permits, he said.<\/p>\n

Technically, under Mexican law, any building project that could alter the ecosystem must file impact statements and get approval, though the government routinely violates its own rules and often slaps the little-feared \u201cclosure\u201d stickers on private projects long after the damage is already done.<\/p>\n

The federal government, little known for its concern for the environment, appears to be responding more to pressure groups, which appears to be what happened this time around.<\/p>\n

Mexico\u2019s Environmental Protection Agency \u201cdid nothing until we filed for a constitutional injunction,\u201d Morales said. \u201cNow they carried out a \u2018closure\u2019 action, which is pretty symbolic \u2026 because they were going to be embarrassed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Usually, the agency levies a fine or orders environmental studies, and then the project is allowed to continue. Only in rare cases do authorities order demolition or removal.<\/p>\n

The office of environmental protection acknowledged that the Poseidon statue had been erected by the Progreso municipal government without proof of environmental impact studies. The office said it would \u201ccontinue the administrative process (regarding the statue) to determine the appropriate actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The town government was contacted for comment, but had not immediate reaction.<\/p>\n

Critics of the statue cite a series of recent storms in and around the Gulf \u2013 Tropical Storm Alberto in June and Hurricane Beryl this week \u2013 as proof that Chaac, a fanged, hook-nose deity who isn\u2019t quite as Instagram-friendly as Poseidon, is angry.<\/p>\n

Defenders of the statue \u2013 which strikingly shows Poseidon\u2019s body rising mightily from a relatively, calm, open stretch of water near the beach \u2013 also have their arguments, though they might not hold up as well in court: it\u2019s pretty, and it\u2019s good for business.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an attraction for our town and it draws attention,\u201d said Lizeth Alvarado Ju\u00e1rez, 28, an employee at a hotel in Progreso. \u201cThere are people who come from Merida (the state capital) just to see the Poseidon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Concerns about the threat to Mayan culture are overblown, she said, noting that \u201cthe culture is doing fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Battles between the gods just aren\u2019t what they used to be. \u201cIt\u2019s all about the memes,\u201d Alvarado Ju\u00e1rez said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

their own local god of water, known as Chaac<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-26673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26673"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=26673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}