Mexico: Official fired for mocking indigenous women on Facebook
Carlos Leal, uploaded this picture of indigenous women lining up for government assistance on his Facebook profile and wrote “it smells real bad.” (Screen capture: Facebook)
By MANUEL RUEDA
Channel: Latin American Affairs
A Mexican government official was fired this week for making fun of indigenous Mexicans on his Facebook profile, and telling his online friends that a group of poverty stricken indigenous women “smelled amazingly bad” as they lined up for government assistance in a community center, in the state of Michoacan.
Carlos Talavera Leal, an up-and-coming bureaucrat from Michoacan and a member of President Felipe Calderon’s National Action Party, worked for Oportunidades, a government-sponsored program that gives scholarships and healthcare support to low-income women across Mexico.
On Monday, he attended an event in which officials signed people up to the program and posted a picture of dozens of indigenous women lining up for government support on his Facebook page, which he titled shulo que huele, which roughly translates to: “it smells really bad.”
After some of Leal’s friends commented on the image and also made fun of the indigenous women in it, Leal, who is 26 and dons a slick suit and sunglasses in his profile picture, shared his own thoughts on indigenous women.
“Hygiene is not their thing,” he wrote, “the good thing is that I’m almost done and I can go back to the office.”
Leal’s comments were picked up by a local news agency, and then made it to national newspapers, prompting the Social Development Ministry – which runs Oportunidades - to cancel Leal’s contract, and issue a public statement supporting the “dignity of all people.”
But many perceived Leal’s comments as another example of the centuries-long disdain shown by government officials and Mexico’s upper classes towards indigenous people in the country, unleashing a wave of Twitter responses, which were grouped under the hashtag, #CarlosTalavera.
“Carlos Talavera Leal: bad smells can go away, but being insensible, superficial and stupid, is unfortunately harder to remove” said Twitter user @NataliaBriseno.
“This is one more reason not to vote for the PAN” wrote user @huanalverto, referring to Leal’s membership in the National Action Party.
Perhaps overwhelmed with the comments, Leal temporarily shut down his Facebook and Twitter accounts. On Wednesday however, he re-launched his accounts and issued an apology on his Facebook page.
“I accept my mistake and issue my most sincere apologies to anyone this could have offended,” Leal wrote. “The comments I made can only be attributed to myself, and do not in any way represent the opinions or feelings of my political party or of any government officials,” he added.
Some of Leal’s friends laughed at his depiction of “smelly” indigenous women, and also made sly comments about the image uploaded by Leal. (Screen capture: Facebook)
After newspapers picked up on Leal’s comments, some Facebook users began to make sarcastic pictures mocking Leal, and even produced a Youtube video. (Screen capture: Facebook)
