Yucatán residents are not happy about a new beach attraction. So much so that the community is getting together to call out a new Poseidon figure that was installed in Progreso, Yucatán, last May, ahead of Hurricane Beryl.
The statue appears to be about three meters tall and is located five meters into the sea. It was created by Chapa Balam Díaz and made of fiberglass. The figure represents the famous Greek god that’s known as “the god of the sea.” However, what was supposed to be another attraction in a tourist location ended up becoming a controversial subject this week.
With Hurricane Beryl set to make landfall in Mexico this week, the community is now blaming the statue as the reason for the community’s polar change in climate. Some social media users believe that the new statue upset or offended the Mayan god of water and rain Chaac.
Other social media users want Chaac to replace the Greek god – and of course, there are already memes about it.
A social media user even created a Facebook group to gather people to destroy the figure on July 15. The post – that was a joke – went viral and since then was canceled due to social media users taking the destruction seriously.
Per Infobae, the organizer wrote in Spanish in the Facebook event: “Message to the community: Thank you very much for your support it was really fun to see that many people took it as a good joke and that we managed in one hour to reach 35 thousand people that I did not expect and get on three local newscasts but I have received many hateful comments and people threatening and I do not want it to get out of control tqm to all who had fun.”
Regardless of what happens with the statue, the Hurricane Beryl is currently at a Category 4 and is believed to reach the Yucatan Peninsula on Friday (July 5).