Hugo López-Gatell, the main face of the Mexican response to the coronavirus, is facing criticism after photos over the weekend captured him on vacation amid an increase in cases in the country.
Local media published images of López-Gatell, Mexico’s undersecretary of health, sitting at an open-air restaurant at Zipolite’s relaxed beach resort, located in the southern state of Oaxaca. The area has mandatory rules on face masks.
In one of the photos, he was captured sitting at an outdoor bar with a woman – both without a mask.
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In another photo, taken a few days earlier, on a flight from Mexico City to the beach resort, López-Gatell was seen talking on his cell phone without a mask covering his nose and mouth, according to reports.
His actions were considered hypocritical, as he repeatedly asked Mexicans to stay home, while reporting on the number of pandemic victims in the country. His daily updates on the risks of the virus caused some to compare him to Dr. Anthony Fauci in the United States
“He’s traveling at the worst of the pandemic,” tweeted political journalist Denise Dresser about López-Gatell, according to the newspaper. “He is far from where he should be: with health personnel, running the vaccination campaign, setting an example.”
Mexican leader in response to the coronavirus, Hugo López-Gatell, points to a vial of the COVID-19 vaccine during his first applications to health professionals at the General Hospital of Mexico City, early Thursday, December 24, 2020 (AP Photo / Eduardo Verdugo)
But unlike Fauci, López-Gatell previously criticized the media for “being an alarmist” after Mexico surpassed the bleak 100,000 deaths from the virus last November.
“The epidemic is terrible in itself, you don’t need to add drama to it,” said López-Gatell. “Putting statistics on the first page doesn’t help much, in my opinion.”
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In response to the reaction of the photos, López-Gatell said he was not wrong for going to Oaxaca to see friends and relatives. He noticed that the virus alert level was lower there.
Meanwhile, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador – who has been criticized for not wearing a mask many times – downplayed López-Gatell’s actions, calling him “a good public servant”.
“It is good that there is this scrutiny, but a civil servant also has rights,” said López Obrador.
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By the end of Monday, Mexico had reported at least 1,455,219 confirmed cases of coronavirus and more than 127,757 deaths from the virus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The Associated Press contributed to this report