A social media post by a nightclub in Mexico City has gone viral for its explanation of its entry fee policy, which charges American visitors US$300 in what the club calls “a political stance.“
Mexican citizens and those from other Central and South American countries pay $14, while people from elsewhere pay $20.
An Instagram statement shared by the Japan nightclub in the Roma Norte neighbourhood, located just west of the city’s centre, said, “It’s not that ‘we charge gringos more’ it’s that we offer discounts to people that need it,” adding that American visitors simply don’t receive the discount.
The post explains that Americans pay a full-price 5,000-peso entry fee; people from any other country get a 93 per cent discount; Mexicans and Latin Americans receive 95 per cent off, while students and teachers receive 97 per cent off, meaning they pay just 150 pesos (CAD$12) for entry.
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The club’s owner, Federico Crespot, told The Guardian that the staggered pricing was introduced in response to strained relations between Mexico and the U.S., where the Trump administration has targeted Latin American immigrants residing in the country.
“This is a response to a year of insults directed at us — as a country — by the United States,” he said.
“It’s very much a response to the many attacks against Mexico from Trump,” he continued, adding that it was also a reaction to rising prices as a result of gentrification in Mexico City.
In a follow-up post on Wednesday, the nightclub said its policy “in no way reflects any animosity or negative feelings toward American citizens as individuals.”
“This is a political stance,” it explained, adding that the club had taken the approach to prompt conversation about the treatment of Latin Americans in the U.S. and the negative impacts of foreign tourism on locals.
“We believe that the citizens of a country are the ones who elect and remove governments. We believe in voting, protesting, and grassroots organizing to achieve these goals, and we encourage American citizens to take the reins of their country,” the statement continued.
The nightclub’s posts follow a wave of backlash against American tourists and other foreign visitors in Mexico City, whose presence is driving up rents and pricing out locals in neighbourhoods like Condesa and Roma.
Protests broke out last July and at times became violent, with some marchers smashing windows and carrying signs that read, “My city is not your Airbnb.”
The violence marked a furious end to a more peaceful march that mostly called out the masses of American tourists who have flooded into Mexico’s capital in recent years.
Demonstrators march at a protest against gentrification and tourism in the Tlalpan neighbourhood of Mexico City on July 20, 2025. Mexico City’s government presented a plan to fight gentrification following a recent protest from citizens who accused foreigners moving into the capital of making it more expensive and displacing longtime residents and merchants.
Alejandro Cegarra/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Graffiti over shuttered businesses and strewn across walls read, “Get out of Mexico” and “Gentrifiers and Colonizers.”
Some in attendance held posters that said, “Gringos, stop stealing our home,” while demanding local legislation to better regulate tourism levels and introduce stricter housing laws.
Tension had been mounting in the city since U.S. “digital nomads” flocked to Mexico City in 2020, many to escape COVID-19 lockdowns in the U.S. or to take advantage of cheaper rent prices in the Latin American city.
— With files from The Associated Press
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