another scandal shakes the world of salsa in Cali

The world of Salsa in Cali is still under scandal. At the untimely departure of the director of Corfecali, Alexánder Zuluaga, who had to resign from his position after the rain of criticism he received for attending a huge party in which the biosecurity protocols against Covid-19 were violated, they join now the threats made by two renowned popular artists of the city.

Indeed, on social networks, audios were broadcast this Monday that reveal a violent altercation between the famous director of the Latin Swing dance school, Luis Eduardo Hernández, ‘El Mulato’, and the dancer Ricardo Cabezas, director of the Asonalsalsa union, in which both make serious threats.

“With you I am going to teach this city a lesson as it will never forget,” says Hernández in one of the well-known audios.

While, in another dialogue, Cabezas responds: “you can send me to kill myself, but two days later you too die.”

You can read: Fine and suspension for 10 days of El Mulato Cabaret for failing to comply with biosecurity measures in controversial party

Although these are personal conversations carried out through WhatsApp, parts of them were leaked in several chats related to the world of Salsa in Cali, and later openly disseminated on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

The audios generated a stir not only because they are two people who have been linked to different processes and events of great importance for the Cali community of salsa -among them the World Salsa Festival and the events of the Cali Fair-, but also because The altercation would be related to the way in which the Mayor’s Office, through the Ministry of Culture, has managed contracting processes with artists from the world of Salsa.

A source who asked not to be identified told El País in this regard that “these are their personal problems, but what is very true is that in the middle there is a lot of nonconformity because it is known that the Mayor’s Office has privileged with large contracts and You help a person like El Mulato, who campaigned for Ospina to win the Mayor’s Office, but many artists, who have also suffered from lack of work in the pandemic, have only received crumbs. ”

Luis Eduardo Hernández, ‘El Mulato’, it should be remembered, is the artist who in February 2020 made Cali salsa shine worldwide, by being part with his company of dancers of the central show of the SuperBowl that starred the pop divas JLo and Shakira.

Winner of the highest recognitions in the world of Salsa dance and several times awarded by public and academic entities, he was chosen as the official image of the last Cali Fair.

He is also the owner of the renowned ‘Mulato Cabaret’, a nightlife establishment that generated a strong controversy in the city last Saturday, when it held a festive event attended by around 300 people who gathered and did not keep the biosecurity measures .

Videos and photographs taken at the event and posted on social networks evidenced the participation of artists and public officials, including the manager of Corfecali and organizer of the last Fair, Alexánder Zuluaga.

Also read: Why was he without a mask at the El Mulato event ?, This says Corfecali manager

The images generated great indignation and a strong wave of criticism of the Municipal Administration, which during the pandemic has restricted the operation of night establishments and has closed many of them, but in this case did not act.

The wave of criticism led Mayor Jorge Iván Ospina on Monday to ask the Corfecali manager to resign and order the closure of the aforementioned business for ten days, which was also fined for a sum close to one million pesos.

The outgoing manager of Corfecali had already been in the ‘eye of the hurricane’, on account of the Cali 2020 Fair, which despite being virtual, demanded investments of almost $ 11,000 million, which generated rejection of a large part of the Cali citizenship.

Although the Administration justified its implementation on the grounds that it was necessary to support local artists, the event invested around US $ 150,000 to pay for presentations in pre-recorded videos of various international artists.

Today, as evidenced by the comments of many amidst the scandals that have arisen, the disagreement is an open secret within a union for which the Fair was not the panacea that was announced.