With virtual meetings becoming the ‘new normal’ following the coronavirus pandemic, several bizarre incidents have gone viral. But nothing perhaps beats a politician in Mexico who was caught using her photograph to quietly sneak out of a Zoom meeting.
Valentina Batres Guadarrama, a Congresswoman from Mexico City, was recently caught trying to sneak out of an official meeting by using a photo to make it look like she was still in the meeting. The incident occurred on Friday during a congressional online meeting.
Guadarrama was caught on tape using Zoom’s background photo feature to set a photo of herself to prove that she is still seated. Amused colleagues watched as the Morena party leader attempted to sneak out of the meeting, even as her arm kept jutting into the still background photo.
The incident went viral when Jorge Gavino, of the Democratic Revolution Party, shared a recording of it on Twitter. “Deputy
Valentina. And I thought that you were paying a lot of attention to my speech when I realized that that attentive look was a photograph". He followed it up with a “blowing head" emoji to express his surprise.
Diputada @valentinabtg: y yo pensando que usted le estaba poniendo mucha atención a mi discurso, cuando me di cuenta que esa mirada atenta era una fotografía. pic.twitter.com/AqjsMD9HBo— Jorge Gaviño (@jorgegavino) September 19, 2020
This is not the first time government officials have been caught in embarrassing moments during a Zoom call. In August, a government official in the Philippines was caught having sex with his secretary during a regular virtual session.
The incident came to light as the official, Captain Jesus Estil of the Fatima Dos village council in the province of Cavite, appeared to be unaware that his camera was on.
Footage shows that the person had sex in a far corner of the room while the meeting was on.