The Riviera Maya, perhaps the most important destination in Mexico today, has been affected by the violence derived from disputes over drug dealing and the collection of extortion.
The Riviera Maya, perhaps the most important destination in Mexico today, has been affected by the violence derived from disputes over drug dealing and the collection of land rights, but now with an aggravating factor: the attacks have already hit directly to foreign visitors, generated alerts in countries like Germany that already warns its citizens visiting Tulum and Playa del Carmen, not to leave the hotel zone. Meanwhile, the mayor of Tulum requested support from the Federal Forces.”Tulum is not like on
Instagram ” was the photo that went viral just this week on social networks. Meanwhile, on Wednesday night the ninth violent episode in just two weeks was recorded in Tulum, where a German tourist and one from India died, allegedly in the crossfire between rival gangs in the middle of the tourist area at the Mini Quinta restaurant.
At the beginning of October, hitmen murdered a six-month-old baby and his father in Akumal, and days later a 16-year-old girl was injured in an irregular neighborhood, when assailants shot at the facade of her wooden house.
Last weekend, a man arrived injured with a firearm at the Tulum health center, where he told the authorities that an armed group tried to execute him; hours later, in broad daylight and in front of tourists and tenants, a man was executed in the parking lot of the Tulum Archaeological Zone, a place frequented by thousands of visitors a year.
In Playa del Carmen things are not very different. Just last Sunday in the Ejidal Colony, a policewoman was found dead in the trunk of a vehicle, next to her another man who was screaming for help but who in the end, after being helped, did not survive. This was the second police element killed in less than a month in the municipality of Solidaridad.
On October 10, just 10 days after the change of municipal administration, in the presence of tourists and locals, an element attached to the Playa del Carmen tourist police was executed when a couple of alleged hitmen attacked him with shots while he stood guard in a booth, at the crossroads of the famous Fifth Avenue and 38th Avenue, in the tourist area of this destination.
This last event occurred hours after a mega-operation where the Army, National Guard, Navy, FGE and the state police arrested 36 drug dealers in the tourist area of Playa del Carmen.
The State Attorney General’s Office specified that this was the result of “a confrontation between organized crime groups dedicated to drug dealing”; In an interview with MILENIO Televisión, the municipal president of Tulum, Marciano Dzul, acknowledged that the shooting originated when two groups disputed the square, since drug trafficking and the collection of a flat are two phenomena that are registered in that tourist place, therefore that requested the intervention of the National Guard, the Navy and the Army in order to reinforce security.
The mayor, who confirmed that there is already a detainee, said that “this was an event in which two groups dispute a space and unfortunately it was the turn of the diners who were in the restaurant.”
Three German nationals were injured and one more from the Netherlands, and one of the attackers who was located with the C5 cameras is also injured.
A video was released on social networks showing restaurant workers helping the two women, one of them died on the spot, while the other was transferred to a private clinic, where she did not survive.
The security areas in Quintana Roo count seven criminal organizations that fight for the square, two of them with greater financial and firepower.
According to statistics from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System, in Tulum, investigation files for drug dealing increased more than 1,200 percent, going from only 6 in 2019 to 76 in 2021. While homicides doubled in 52.3 percent compared to 2019.
Germany alerts tourists to violence
The German government recommended that its citizens target the areas of Tulum and Playa del Carmen not to abandon their safe hotel complexes, warning that “in the Mexican Riviera Maya, and particularly in Tulum and Playa del Carmen, there have been incidents and attacks, some of them dramatic, in recent weeks, which have also affected German travelers, including one fatality. These events occurred in restaurants, clubs and discos frequented by tourists. “
Through its website, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs asks its nationals that “for the transfer to and from the airport, only taxi companies based at the airport or recommended by the hotel should be used. Cars Rentals have also been stolen there repeatedly and sometimes with the use of firearms. “
Still to renew sole command
In Quintana Roo, the Single Command police model has not been renewed, promoted by Governor Carlos Joaquín González and which lost effect on September 30, with the change in the mayoralties and has not yet been restored 22 days after the arrival of the new mayors.
In this regard, the mayor of Tulum, Marciano Dzul, also said that “coordination on security matters between the municipality of Tulum, the State Government and the Government of Mexico is necessary”, but clarified that the agreement will not leave everything in the hands of the Single Command.
He also told MILENIO Televisión that he received the Directorate of Public Security with severe shortcomings, such as, for example, he received only two patrols. “Precisely when we received the municipality, they only gave us two patrols and a few days ago we managed to get the state to lend us six more” to reactivate the police.
Source: milenio.com
