Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo — A foreign resident of Isla Mujeres lost his round-trip flight to Camagüey, Cuba, worth 11,000 pesos ($600), after a Ultramar ferry employee refused to let him board the last vessel of the night, claiming the system was already closed.
Lázaro Rodríguez Ruiz, a Cuban-born musician who has lived on the island for years, was scheduled to fly out at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday, July 1. He arrived at the maritime terminal on Tuesday evening to find the ferry packed with fans returning from a Mexico-Ecuador World Cup match at the Fut Fest in Playa Centro. He decided to wait for the next and final boat of the day.
When the ferry docked, porters loaded passengers’ luggage. As Rodríguez Ruiz prepared to board, the traffic manager — in a hurry to go home — refused to accept his ticket, saying she had already shut down the system and would not turn it back on. Despite his pleas, she insisted the boat was about to depart.
Ironically, while Rodríguez Ruiz tried to reason with the employee, crew members unloaded his luggage, taking far more time than it would have taken to let him board. The incident was reported on social media: “They preferred to unload the suitcases rather than let the passenger on, making him lose 11,000 pesos for his plane tickets, even though he begged to be allowed to board… the cashiers did get on, right in front of him, so I guess they should have stayed too if no one else could board.”
“The lack of brain of the person who didn’t let him on, leaving him after his luggage was unloaded there, in a closed station. The same with two women who were also stranded, lying outside the facilities, because we know it closes completely, exposing them to nighttime risks.”
As a last resort, friends tried to arrange a private boat, pooling money to pay for it. But due to Mexico’s decisive victory over Ecuador, no captains were available — all were celebrating.
Rodríguez Ruiz was forced to stay. He will work to save money for another ticket, while the people in Cuba waiting for the medicine and other goods he was carrying will have to endure longer, all thanks to the “empathy” of the Ultramar employee.
