Without financial resources, food, or a place to sleep, dancers belonging to the San Marcos Folkloric Dance Company in Mexico have spent more than 48 hours stranded at the Sofia airport in Bulgaria after having represented Mexico in an International Folklore Festival held in different European countries.
However, what seemed like it would be a rewarding and unforgettable experience ended up becoming a nightmare for the 17 dancers who are now requesting help to return to Mexico.
Through a video posted on their social networks, the Folkloric Dance Company denounced that they were victims of a scam by Luis Adrián Mora Fuentes, who is the director of the Femexart Association (Mexican Federation of Arts).
“We need your help because we were scammed by this person, there are no return flights and there will be no return flights. We no longer have money for food, everything we have bought, both flights and short trips, has come out of our pockets,” said one of the dancers in the video broadcast on social networks.
According to what was stated by the dancers stranded in Europe, the organization of the festival provided $750 thousand pesos for the tour to be carried out, however, this amount was not used since the expenses were borne by the dancers.
So what happened to that amount of money? The dancers accuse the director of the Mexican Federation of Arts (Femexart) of having kept it, in addition to the fact that they were not informed about the salary they would receive, so they assume that this money was also kept by Luis Adrián Mora Sources.
“He no longer answers messages, he no longer answers calls, we are blocked from social networks by him and we really need his help,” declared one of the dancers from the San Marcos Folkloric Dance Company.
Additionally, the Mexican dancers pointed out that they had several false flights that were not even paid for and for which they only had a supposed reservation.
In an interview with the media, the spokesperson for the San Marcos Folkloric Dance Company explained that the Festival Organization would be in charge of paying the dancers’ per diem (food, lodging, and transportation) for what would be the Mexican Federation of Arts ( Femexart) who would cover the costs of flights from Mexico to Europe.
However, everything began to turn cloudy when five flights for the 17 dancers were not paid for by the Mexican Federation of Arts (Femexart), which represented an expense for the dancers of just over $80 thousand Mexican pesos.
The spokesperson for the San Marcos Folkloric Dance Company also stressed that they understood that the Festival Organization would pay Luis Adrián Mora Fuentes a little more than $50 thousand pesos, however, the director of Femexart also kept the money from the flights not covered and the presumed salary that the dancers should have received.
The group of 17 Mexican dancers stranded in Sofia, Bulgaria, requested the intervention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) and requested help from the Mexican Consulate in the European country, however, unfortunately, they did not obtain the expected response since that, according to their own statements, Embassy personnel refused to provide them with support since there are too many people.
“We spoke to the Mexican Consulate in Bulgaria, but they told us that they couldn’t do anything for us because there were too many people. We have been investigating and it seems that they are not in the business of taking people,” stated the spokesperson for the San Marcos Folkloric Dance Company in an interview with the media.
Given this situation, family and friends of the company’s dancers demonstrated this Thursday, September 8, in front of the National Palace to request financial support to bring them back to Mexico and sanctions for the director of the Mexican Federation of Arts (Femexart).
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