CNN
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Jimmy Donaldson, better known as Mrbeast, is at the heart of another controversy, this time directly involved in Mexico.
Mrbeast, the world’s most subscriber YouTuber, released a video on May 10 when he visited Mexico’s most important archaeological location.
Mrbeast also visited archaeological sites in Karakmuur, Karamake’s province in Yucatan and Balamkanche.
The video, which has accumulated over 55 million views as of Wednesday afternoon, shows Mrbeast and his team around Kukulkan within other archaeological structures of Cenotes and Temples.
As the Mexican government has confirmed, some of these sites are generally inaccessible forever.
What are the controversies surrounding Mexican Mrbeast?
This controversy focuses on the fact that YouTubers were allowed to enter sites considered sacred to Mexican pre-Hispanic culture, and is often restricted.
In part of the video, Mrbeast himself stated:
In response to the controversy, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) – an agency attached to the Mexican government’s Ministry of Culture – declared that both the visit and recording had been carried out through a “formal request.”
However, these requests were not made by Mrbeast, but by the “Ministry of Tourism and the Government” Yucatan and Campeche, INAH indicated. In his video description, Mrbeast argues that the publication is “cooperation with the Mexico Ministry of Tourism.”
Mexican President Claudia Sinbaum said Wednesday that there is a permit for the “broadcast” but asked INAH to report “under the conditions under which this permission was granted.”
“And if you violate the permit, you need to decide which sanctions apply,” the president added.
Other points sparked controversy, including a drone shot that appears to be inside a temple on the top of El Castillo in Chicin Itza. In this regard, INAH said this has not happened and the shots are actually recorded outside of the structure.
There are also scenes where Mrbeast appears to descend to an archaeological site by helicopter, and he holds a pre-Hispanic mask in his hand.
According to INAH, all this was wrong or edited after the recording. “Obviously, the video includes extensive post-visual production work, hinting at the fact that producers are not descendants of helicopters, not descendants of helicopters, but rather that they have spent the night in an archaeological place, or that modern-day Mr A revealed that he had made the mistake of being false as modern-day. Reflect the theatricality of the YouTuber in question.”
How easy is it to apply for a permit? Is it true that even archaeologists can’t enter, as Mrbeast argues?
Exploration, filming and broadcasting on Mexican archaeological sites is a restricted activity that has little tolerance.
INAH said access to areas that the public has never been able to access forever while laboratories were constantly overseeing Mrbeast’s activities.
“The tour took place in public areas without affecting visitor access. In the case of Calakmul, the substructure II was also visited. It is not publicly available forever, but generally provides access by arranging scheduled visits by justification.
Sheinbaum asked INAH to provide information about the nature of MrBeast video permission. Until it is announced, its scope and the points it covers are unknown.
However, the law allows exploration of Mexican archaeological sites in the United States to be made by a very small group of institutions.
In September 2024, INAH responded to a request for citizen information requesting the “requirements and procedures” required to enter the Kukulkan pyramid of Chichen Itza.
In this request, Jose Francisco Javier Osorio Leon, director of Chichen Itza’s Archaeological Zone, “follows” in accordance with the provisions of federal law regarding archaeological, artistic and historical monuments and zones, noting that those historic histories are carried by the historians of scientists, all sorts of material tasks to discover or explore the history of histories carried by the historians, which have been carried by the scientific history. With prior permission.”
Similarly, section 31 of the Act states that approval granted by the INAH must specify “the conditions that the work must be covered and the obligations of those who carry it out.”
Details of Mrbeast’s video permission are still unknown, but INAH said that YouTuber’s videos provide “distorted” information, but its spread “may be motivated by interests from Mexico and around the world, and that it could lead to learning about ancestral culture and visiting archaeological sites.”
Meanwhile, Federal Culture Secretary Claudia Curiel de Icaza opposed the activities Mrbeast and his team had carried out in archaeological locations.
“This is not the first time this type of incident has happened, it’s revealed. Of course, we disagree. There are proper sanctions, as these spaces are not the purpose,” Culiel de Icaza said on Tuesday at a decorative and utilitarian art event.
CNN contacted Mrbeast for comment.
