YouTube Influencer Who Faked His Own Death Reportedly Just Fell 3 Floors Out a Balcony

One of Latin America’s best-known and controversial YouTubers is reportedly in intensive care after falling from a third-floor balcony in Argentina on Monday.

Yao Cabrera, an Uruguayan influencer with millions of followers on YouTube who has been at the center of numerous scandals, is in a “grave” condition, according to Argentine newspaper La Nacion. The newspaper cited both his lawyer and a boxing promoter linked to Cabrera, but the YouTuber is widely known for having faked his death previously.

The news was first reported Tuesday morning by Argentine journalist Juan Etchegoyen, who later claimed to have received confirmation from Cabrera’s father. Etchegoyen went on to say in a video that Cabrera is currently “fighting for his life.”

The accident reportedly took place while Cabrera, 24, was filming a video on the balcony of his house in Villa Carlos Paz, a popular party town outside the city of Cordoba. Cabrera, who was born in neighboring Uruguay, has lived in Argentina for many years. It’s unclear exactly what he was filming and how he fell.

Born Marcos Ernesto Cabrera, the young influencer rose to prominence on YouTube over the past decade for his constant stream of videos detailing his life and adventures from when he was a teenager. He now has nearly 9 million subscribers on YouTube, along with another roughly 9 million on Instagram.

Cabrera is known to pull pranks and other sorts of stunts on his YouTube channel as well. In October, he posted a video where he and another influencer named Rosina Valiente faked her death using ketchup in a bathtub in order to fool a third friend.

But that paled in comparison to his own faked death. In December 2020, Cabrera and his friends created a hoax video where two gunmen on a motorcycle seemingly murdered him when he was in his car.

Although Cabrera’s Instagram posted a story Tuesday morning confirming that he is in “grave” condition, VICE World News could not independently verify Cabrera’s accident.

His popularity in Latin America could be likened to the U.S. YouTube personalities Logan and Jake Paul. Like the Paul brothers, Cabrera recently decided to throw his hat into the boxing ring when he announced a televised March bout in Dubai against former Argentine world boxing champion Marcos Maidana. Cabrera’s most recent Instagram post showed the influencer training for the match at his home.

And also like the Paul brothers, Cabrera has been involved in his fair share of scandals beyond his continued fake death videos.

In 2016, authorities arrested him after he walked into a bicycle shop in a Buenos Aires shopping mall and rode one out without paying, all in the name of creating content. He spent 24 hours in prison and the video went viral.

A few years later, one of Mexico's most well-known influencers, Caeli, published a video alleging that a YouTuber tried to spike her drink while at a party in Argentina in 2018. Although she didn't name Cabrera, he was quickly identified as the alleged perpetrator and released his own video denying the allegations and claiming Caeli was just trying to get more likes on YouTube.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Cabrera was also arrested for throwing a drug-filled house party during quarantine just days after faking his death in December 2020.