Who is Toño Berumen, former Mercurio manager singled out for harassment of young men

After the statements of Sasha Sokol, who revealed within the framework of International Women's Day that she had been the victim of a “crime” by Luis de Llano, with whom she had a romantic relationship marked by abuse of power as a 14-year-old teenager, emerged Mauricio Martínez's testimony.

The theater actor denounced on his Twitter account that in his youth, looking for an opportunity as a singer, he auditioned with Toño Berumen, in which the producer of musical concepts went “where he shouldn't have” and played him.

In addition, Martínez revealed that the former entertainment entrepreneur has a video camera placed in his bathroom in order to capture the young people Berumen invited to shower during the audition process.

Martinez has already gone to the Attorney General's Office of Mexico City to make a formal complaint of abuse against the former representative of youth groups such as Magneto, Mercurio, and Kairo, and says he has more than a dozen testimonies that other victims have sent him through social media.

The former representative of singers and businessman has been away from the spotlight for some time and dedicates his life to his spirituality and the Catholic religion. However, he is now in the public eye following the complaint that Martinez filed against him.

Toño Berumen is originally from Mexico City and studied marketing and advertising in New York. On his return to the country he worked at the record companies Melody and Polygram, and in 1981 he jumped to the creation and promotion of musical proposals as a representative of the group Menudo.

From then on, he developed his career in the creation of musical groups made up of young teenagers, following the “Boy band” model, which was popularized around the world by groups such as New Kids on The Block and Backstreet Boys. Magneto, Mercurio, Kairo, M5 and Tierra cero are some of the groups that grew up under the businessman's baton, along with soloists such as Fey, Marisela, Alberto Vazquez, Danna Paola in their childhood years, Lucero and Pedro Fernández who also made dumbbells with the accused.

The producer and manager was responsible for choosing the members of the groups, the songs of their albums, the musical concept and image, and even specific details, such as asking his artists to change their first names to a more “marketable” one, or as in the case of Fey, to download for a few years in order to achieve a identification with the adolescent public.

In an interview with El Universal in 2006, the person accused of the alleged harassment of young people highlighted that he dedicated his life to work, so he had not married. “Of course you live in solitude, that's why I decided to stick more to the church and some charities such as programs with mothers suffering from AIDS, orphanages and nursing homes,” he said.

In that publication, Berumen emphasized that the career of manager and especially his career “is lived in solitude” and entails a long list of sacrifices.

Such was his approach to the Catholic faith that in 2012 he collaborated in the coordination to make the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico possible, and in 2019 he was the representative in the country of the Vatican Museums, as well as responsible for the installation of the replica of the Sistine Chapel in Mexico.

Despite the remarks of Martinez, and another graduate of Operación triunfo, Jesús Falcón, who uncovered the harassment he suffered while auditioning for him; Elias Chiprut, a member of Mercurio, said he only has good things to say about the former manager.