A reporter was physically attacked and berated by a tourist on a Mexican beach as she filmed a group of sunbathers who were defying social...
A reporter was physically attacked and berated by a tourist on a Mexican beach as she filmed a group of sunbathers who were defying social distancing advice amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Doraliz Torreón, a reporter for Mexican news outlet Paralelo Informativo, was walking along the sands of a resort in Puerto Vallarta on Monday to show how people were still gathering in groups despite warnings from world health officials.
'The people shouldn’t be at the beach,' Torreón said while panning the area.
The camera then zooms in on a man who was yelling at her, as she quipped, 'here we see a man today who is turning a blind eye and who also wants to be aggressive.'
But the man, who appears to have an American accent, can then be seen charging at the reporter.
A tourist (left) in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, attacked Mexican journalist Doraliz Torreón on Monday while she was filming beachgoers defying coronavirus preventive measures. His friend (right) followed up by threatening her with a closed fist
Doraliz Torreón, a reporter for Mexican news outlet Paralelo Informativo, was filming beachgoers in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, when she was physically and verbally attacked by two English-speaking male tourists
'Nobody want you filming us,' the man said before he placed his hand over her phone and shoved her.
'F*** off. Go. We don't want you here,' he continued before she told him that she was on the spot working on a story.
'No you're not working. You are filming people on the beach,' he snapped back as he went face-to-face with Torreón. 'You don't need to be filming us at all, period. You need our permission. We're not giving you permission. F*** off.'
Two English-speaking tourists in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, were bothered when a local reporter was filming them and other beachgoers while working on a coronavirus story
After Torreón told the man she would be reporting the incident to the local authorities, a second individual entered the fray and asked her how much she was going to pay them.
"You heard what we said, get lost,' he told Torreón while gesturing at her with a closed fist.
It is unknown if either individual was a citizen of the United States, but the incident drew the attention of Christopher Landau, the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico.
'What a shame! I don't know if he was a citizen of [the United States] or [Canada], but the truth is that all countries have rude and ill-mannered people,' Landau wrote on his Twitter account Tuesday.
'My apologies if he is one mine. We are not all like that. I have urged [American] tourists to return to their homes. Who comes up with vacationing during a pandemic?'
The coronavirus epidemic has killed 141 people and sickened 2,785 others in Mexico as of Wednesday. At least 633 people have recovered from the deadly bug.
The virus has produced 87,469 deaths and infected 1,495,051 in 184 countries.