Mexicans dying from adulterated alcohol as beer runs dry
18 May, 2020
Scores of Mexicans are dying from drinking adulterated liquor, a rsulting consequence the shortage of mainstream alcoholic beverages through the coronavirus pandemic, authorities say.
The to begin at least 138 deaths in recent weeks occurred towards the end of April in the western state of Jalisco, per month after the government declared a health emergency over the spread of COVID-19.
A lot of Mexico has run out of beer after factories were turn off and also other non-essential firms.
Beer stocks were depleted within a month, and in some areas the costs of that which was left doubled, according to industry sources.
A lot of the 53 deaths in central Puebla province have already been linked to a wake where persons drank moonshine containing methanol that in non-lethal doses can cause blindness and liver damage.
Twenty-three people died in the hours following the gathering in the city of Chiconcuautla, according to authorities.
The town's mayor said the favorite "refino" drink, created from sugarcane, have been adulterated.
German Hernandez said his father died after being poisoned by a glass or two known locally as "tejon" -- a blend of brandy with tejocote fruit (a type of hawthorn), in the Puebla town of Cacaloxuchitl.
"They sell it in the stores, and you can buy it and take it out. My dad started out trembling and feeling weak. He told us he felt bad, and we took him to the hospital," Hernandez told AFP.
"It has never happened before."
Deaths are also recorded in the central state of Morelos, and Yucatan and Veracruz in the east.
Mafia trade
Gangs focusing on bootleg booze want to take advantage of having less alternative alcohol sources through the shutdown.
"They often have very well-structured mafias, plus some escape the surveillance of the authorities," Ricardo Cardenas of the Federal Commission for Protection against Sanitary Risks told AFP.
"We presume that, because of this of the shortage and demand being very high, some people are providing or selling methanol rather than ethyl alcohol," said Denis de Santiago, head of Sanitary Risks in Jalisco.
Methanol is employed in fuel, solvents and antifreeze.
The country's major beer producers, Grupo Modelo -- which makes the favorite Corona beer -- and Heineken, making Sol, halted production in early April.
Alcohol sales have been banned in a few states, including Yucatan. In others, alcohol consumption can only just be purchased at certain times.
Some drinks companies have switched production to antibacterial gel they are donating to the federal government and health workers.
'Who could have thought?'
In Yucatan, where 38 people have died so far, victims unknowingly drank methanol within their usual "pajaretes" -- a common cocktail which includes milk, coffee, vanilla and brand-name sugarcane alcohol.
Humberto Macias, 36, said he saw three of his relatives die within days of the other person after drinking a pajarete cocktail, made by using a trusted make of alcohol.
"We'd always drunk it, including myself, many people. Who have thought it had been like this?" Macias said.
In the Yucatan peninsula town of Acanceh, seven persons have died from alcohol poisoning.
"It's the first time I've heard of a case such as this. I don't remember anything similar," the town's mayor Felipe Medina told AFP.
In Veracruz, Morelos and Yucatan, investigators are still trying to know what drinks the victims consumed.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com
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