There are times when the people need to shout “Enough!” in the face of injustices to minorities who do not have the resources to defend themselves; minorities that may be of a human, animal or plant nature, but that cannot be saved from the harassment and abuse that some majority of power exercises over them. An example of this heroic act is the release of the nurse sharks on Isla Mujeres on May 4, 2017.
Anonymously and in the early hours of the morning, four cat sharks that lived in captivity at Playa Tiburón, on Isla Mujeres –Quintana Roo– were released after suffering very poor conditions in which they were subjected. According to the Mexican Animal Liberation Front and some activists, the sharks were forced to pose in the sun for several hours to be photographed with dozens of tourists. A shark received dozens of tourists a day for six hours; and for only 100 pesos, the animal could be handled, photographed, and taken out of the 150 cm deep, 5 square meter pond.
Those in charge of such an act were residents of the community on Isla Mujeres, as they noticed that the animals “were in a corral in the sea, they only opened the cage for them to come out.”
In the words of Xane Vázques, the liberation “is an example of the exhaustion of a conscious and informed society that fills the void and the omission of functions of authorities, who only occupy office space at very high costs for taxpayers.” Furthermore, according to Víctor Hirales, president and founder of Derecho Sin Fronteras, “These types of actions avoid all bureaucratic and political obstacles to immediately address situations in which the authorities prevent the enforcement of someone’s rights, in this case those someone are the Sharks. That action was perhaps the only hope for those sharks not to die locked up and exploited.”
Prior to the direct release, according to the president of the civil association Grupo del Mayab, Araceli Domínguez Rodríguez, various complaints had already been filed with the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection – Profepa – in the case of the cat sharks; However, the agency did not act to resolve the situation: “Profepa does not exist here. “Wild animals in Quintana Roo suffer constant abuse.” For his part, Hirales adds that the Ministry of the Environment and –Semarnat– “is hijacked by administrators not suitable for this matter, with opacity and inefficiency in the distribution of resources. “It is not an error, they incur administrative and criminal liability as public servants for their negligence and omission.”