A city that doesn’t rest or take care of itself: the clandestine parties in Mexico City.

Despite calls from federal and local governments, CDMX residents are defying the pandemic and hosting underground parties. 

MEXICO CITY (Proceso): At 8:00 p.m. on Saturday 19, the guests of Alejandra “N” began to arrive at her house in the Fuego Nuevo neighborhood of Iztapalapa. Several tables were already set up, for ten people each, with their white tablecloths, candles, and flower arrangements in the center.

Not even 24 hours had passed since the Metropolitan Zone of the Valley of Mexico returned to the red epidemiological traffic light. Still, Alejandra defended her party: “Nobody guarantees me that I will have a birthday again, and I wanted to take advantage of it before more ugly things happen”.

The seven members of the mariachi band her boyfriend hired, played “Las mañanitas” from the back of her backyard. Meanwhile, her 40 guests, including neighbors and family members, most of whom were summoned via WhatsApp, clashed the beer bottles to toast, somewhat tightly packed together and without mouthpieces. Thus began the party that lasted until five o’clock in the morning on Sunday 20th.

On the same night of Saturday 19, Mexico City registered 4,947 hospitalizations per covid-19, of which 1,180 survived thanks to an artificial respirator; the official death toll was 19,774.

By the night of Sunday the 20th, 100 hospitalized people (58 intubated) and 152 deaths had been added to the count. Alejandra’s party is one of the dozens taking place despite the health emergency in the country’s capital and the countless calls from federal and local authorities to prevent contagion.

Information from the CDMX’s Command, Control, Computing, Communications, and Citizen Contact Center (C5) shows that from January to Sunday the 20th, 94,419 calls to 911 have been made to report disturbances or parties. The great majority of them took place in the context of the pandemic caused by covid-19.

This figure is 11.2 times more than all the reports made in 2019 when 8,423 calls were registered.

Iztapalapa, Gustavo A. Madero, Álvaro Obregón, Coyoacán and Cuauhtémoc are the mayor’s offices where the most reports have been registered.

Fragment of the report published in the 2304 edition of the weekly Proceso Magazine, whose digital version can be acquired here.