An investigation carried out by the journalist Pamela Cerdeira revealed the food robbery for the victims of the earthquake in Türkiye. In an article published in Opinion 51Sardeira explains how inserted two AirTags in essential products that would be taken to a collection center installed by the government of Mexico City. The journalist, like many Mexicans, questioned whether it was logical to send such products instead of donating to an organization on the site.
AirTags were introduced in a bag of rice and a pack of toilet paper to monitor your location. Cerdeira opened the Twitter account @whereva to publish the monitoring of the products from the day they were delivered to the collection center. Curiously, neither the rice nor the toilet paper took the plane of the Secretary of National Defense (Sedena) bound for Turkey.
According to the journalist, the paper package was sent to the offices of the Government of Mexico City, while the bag of rice was sent to a warehouse of the Ministry of Finance. After several weeks without changes of location, the toilet paper ended up in a market and the bag of rice in a public school. The latter, used by a local deputy as a food bank.
Cerdeira published a YouTube video where he tells what happened and goes to the last location of the products. In the case of toilet paper, the journalist recovered her AirTag and the seller mentions that she bought it from people on public roads. With the bag of rice there was no luck, since they did not allow him to enter the place.
What are AirTags and how do they work?
The AirTag are little smart tags that are used to track objects through your iPhone or iPad. They have a 3 cm diameter body and are resistant to water and dust. Due to their size and weight, they can fit devices such as keys, wallets, or suitcases.
Its operation is quite peculiar, since use Apple’s Find My network to send your location. AirTags send a secure Bluetooth signal that can be detected by nearby devices on the Find My network. These devices send the location of your AirTag to iCloud so you can see it on a map and know where it is.
In the case of the AirTags that the Mexican journalist inserted into the bag of rice or toilet paper, it was enough for it to be close to an iPhone, iPad or Mac to connect anonymously. Because the battery lasts more than a year, Cerdeira was able to track the objects and in one of them he activated the location by sound.
What did the CDMX government respond?
After the publication of the article and the video of the journalist, the Secretary of the Government of Mexico City, Martí Batres, declared that they will start an investigation. “In response to this report and the statements that she (the journalist) is making, we are going to inform the Comptroller General of the Government of Mexico City so that it can carry out the corresponding investigations in her case,” she said.
Batres pointed out that the provisions were delivered to the Sedena and showed an acknowledgment of receipt. “We are completely sure that Sedena, always fulfilling its duty, made the corresponding delivery to the victims of Turkey,” she mentioned.
For her part, the Head of Government of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, assured that there could be a political orientation behind the investigation. Sheinbaum questioned why it was made public until now, to which the journalist replied that she was interested in knowing the final destination of the articles. Cerdeira also considered the electoral process in the State of Mexico, so she waited for it to conclude to avoid misunderstandings.
The theft of food for victims is a constant in Mexico
The investigation of the Mexican journalist brings back to the table a problem that has become common in Mexico. The theft of food and support for victims has occurred for decades, although they became more relevant during the earthquakes that hit the country. The government of Miguel de la Madrid He was not only questioned for refusing international aid, but for not providing support to the victims of the 1985 earthquake.
A similar case occurred in 2017, when two earthquakes struck various states, with Oaxaca and Mexico City being the most affected. In social networks the theft of trucks with help on highways in Oaxaca, Michoacán and Puebla. Trucks loaded with tons of food they were stolenwhile armed groups intercepted caravans of vehicles and shot their occupants.
While some products they were resold in the informal market — as happened now with toilet paper from Sardeira — others They were used as currency in electoral processes. A particular case in 2017 was that of the then governor of Morelos, Graco Ramirez, who along with his wife was accused of preventing food from reaching the hands of the victims of the earthquake.
State police intercepted trucks with tons of aid and took them to a DIF warehouse, an institution headed by the governor’s wife. In social networks videos were released who witnessed how the trucks entered the warehouse to remain there, which provoked the anger of the population. Faced with criticism, Ramírez limited himself to saying that “they were videos that tried to deceive people.”
The technology has advanced enough to report abuse of this type and the AirTags inserted in the food for Turkey are proof of this. That a journalist like Pamela Cerdeira wonders if her donations will reach the victims has no political orientation. Decades of theft and collection to distribute them in electoral campaigns are enough to make any Mexican wary.