MORELIA, Mexico (AP) — Mexico’s often violent disputes between street performers reached new levels this week when a group of guitar-wielding mariachis attacked a flame swallower.
What happened next was perhaps predictable.
According to security camera footage obtained by The Associated Press, the mariachis in their white coats initially appeared to win, knocking the flame swallow to the ground and kicking him onto the sidewalk in front of a taco restaurant called Hell.
The video then shows the mariachis – some with clothes in flames – running away. The flamethrower had doused them with flammable liquid from a small can and set them on fire. The mariachis quickly shed their clothes or extinguished the flames. No one returned to the battle.
Because competition for tips is so fierce in Mexico, artists and window washers often stake out and defend lucrative street corners. Street vendor groups in Mexico City often fight over territory with clubs and sometimes guns.
It is not clear how Sunday’s dispute began in the town of Morelia, west of the capital. Police said in a statement that no one had been arrested and that only the flamethrower required hospital treatment.
Police said he told them he had gotten into an argument with the mariachis, who then attacked him.
