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Wearing the green jersey of Mexico\u2019s national soccer team and a FIFA tie, he waddled into the room ahead of\u00a0President Claudia Sheinbaum, took a seat facing reporters and quickly became the star of her Monday morning news briefing.<\/p>\n
Merl\u00edn the duck\u00a0\u2014 Mexico\u2019s unofficial\u00a0World Cup\u00a0mascot \u2014 didn\u2019t take any questions; his owner, Carla G\u00f3mez, did that for him.<\/p>\n
G\u00f3mez, a street vendor who sells water and soft drinks, introduced her family with pride and determination, presenting them as representative of countless other working-class Mexicans. \u201cWe are the working part\u201d of Mexico, she said.<\/p>\n
Sitting beside the lectern, with Merl\u00edn at the center, were her sons, Carlos, 22, and Cristian, 14, who \u201cdoesn\u2019t rest after school\u201d and helps her every day by selling goods and carrying packages.<\/p>\n
Merl\u00edn, he said, is \u201cthe boss of our little business. He\u2019s the one who follows behind us, making sure we\u2019re working and doing things the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family takes great care with his diet, feeding him small fish, crickets and, on Sundays, even a meat taco.<\/p>\n
G\u00f3mez said she was moved by the way Merl\u00edn captured the hearts of World Cup fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been the best thing that has happened to us in this life,\u201d she said, though she noted that other ducks the family had owned also became local celebrities in Mexico City\u2019s historic center, including Bruna, who wore tennis shoes.<\/p>\n
G\u00f3mez said she believes the family went viral because people saw in them \u201ca hard-working family, a family that gets up every day to make ends meet.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president eventually had to cut off questions to move the news conference along, but not before trying to pet Merl\u00edn and posing for a photo with the family.<\/p>\n
The scene had barely ended when social media filled with criticism of the president\u2019s decision to welcome the duck while relatives of\u00a0missing persons\u00a0\u2014 who have been demonstrating and seeking a face-to-face meeting with her since the start of the World Cup \u2014 remained unheard.<\/p>\n
Wildlife advocates also warned that the popularity of pets like Merl\u00edn can have unintended consequences. In a Facebook post, the Wildlife Rehabilitation Unit of Pachuca, a city about 90 kilometers (55 miles) north of Mexico City, cautioned that fame can fuel \u201cimpulse purchases and abandonment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnimals do not need owners for fashion; they need responsible caretakers,\u201d the government-run agency wrote.<\/p>\n
Merl\u00edn, at least, appears to have found them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Mexico #Citys #unofficial #duck #soccer #mascot #stole #presidential #press #briefing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wearing the green jersey of Mexico\u2019s national soccer team and a FIFA tie, he waddled into the room ahead of\u00a0President Claudia Sheinbaum, took a seat facing reporters and quickly became… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10757,6439,10755,10756,1641,4707,991,4769,1864,10754,1965],"class_list":["post-8659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-briefing","tag-citys","tag-duck","tag-mascot","tag-mexico","tag-presidential","tag-press","tag-soccer","tag-stole","tag-unofficial","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}