US issues security alert for Quintana Roo

 January 25, 2022

Source: Mexico News Daily

The U.S. government has issued a security alert for Quintana Roo due to the recent spate of violence in the state.

The U.S. Consulate General in Mérida issued the alert, which highlighted tourist hotspots for their criminal activity. “In light of recent security incidents and criminal activity in popular tourist destinations including Cancún, Playa Del Carmen, and Tulum, U.S. citizens are reminded to exercise increased caution when traveling to the state of Quintana Roo. Criminal activity and violence may occur throughout the state, including areas frequented by U.S. citizen visitors,” the alert read.

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Covid-19 cases rise in Mexico tourism areas

01/05/2022

Source: NBC News

LA PAZ, Mexico — COVID-19 infections are rising across Mexico, especially in two states home to major tourism destinations on the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean that were busy during the holiday season.

According to data from the federal government, Quintana Roo, where tourists flock to Cancun, Tulum and other spots along the Mayan Riviera, and Baja California Sur, which draws beachgoers to the twin Pacific resorts that make up Los Cabos, are both experiencing some of their highest infection totals since the start of the pandemic.

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Official: A Dozen Drug Gangs Fighting for Mexico’s Caribbean

11/08/2021

Source: US News

The shooting of two suspected drug dealers at a resort on Mexico’s Caribbean coast is part of a fight among about a dozen gangs to carve up the lucrative market of selling drugs to tourists and locals, an official said Friday.

The chief prosecutor of the coastal state of Quintana Roo said that two main gangs are fighting for control of Puerto Morelos, just south of Cancun. Thursday’s shooting occurred on a beach just yards from luxury hotels.

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Citizens protest residential project in protected area of Quintana Roo

08/23/2021

Source: Mexico Daily News

A conservation area in the Bacalar region of southern Quintana Roo is under threat by a 950-home residential development, claim local citizens who have filed a complaint against the project.

Arrivée Lagon Bacalar will include condominiums, a commercial area and 400 lots for residential construction in Buenavista, a community on the shores of Lake Bacalar, also known as the lake of seven colors.

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Americans Are Flocking to Mexico. Should They Be?

07/16/2021

Source: The New York Times

Mexico’s reputation as an alluring travel destination both before and during the pandemic has met a sobering reality: Despite growing vaccine efforts, the coronavirus is surging, especially in tourist hot spots.

Though the U.S. land border with Mexico has been closed to nonessential travel since the start of the pandemic, vacationers can fly into the country with no quarantine or testing requirements, opening the door to unvaccinated travelers who might contract the virus in Mexico and bring it back home, or for any traveler to pass it on to a Mexican citizen.

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Major Mexican tourist destination at ‘imminent risk’ of lockdown

05/19/2021

Source: SFGate

In a major announcement last week, the governor of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo warned that the state had seen five straight weeks of increased COVID-19 rates following last month’s spring holidays. The dramatically rising case numbers led him to warn that Mexico’s number one tourist destination is at risk of “imminent” lockdown, according to the Associated Press. 

“Rates in most of the rest of Mexico have been declining,” reported the A.P., “but Quintana Roo depends on tourism for 87% of its economic activity, and has instituted no travel bans or testing requirements.”

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Mexico to Close Its Famous Mayan Ruins After Tourists Violate Mask Policy

03/31/2021

Source: Travel & Leisure

Tourists behaving badly on vacation in Mexico have driven officials to shut one of the country’s most popular archaeological sites over the Easter holiday weekend.

According to the Associated Press, officials in Mexico plan to close Chichen Itza on the Yucatan Peninsula from April 1 through April 4 in hopes of curbing the spread of COVID-19.

“It is regrettable to see how undisciplined things have become,” Lucio Hernández Gutiérrez, acting police chief in Quintana Roo — a state that’s home to hot spots like Tulum, Cancun, and Cozumel — said, the AP reported. He pointed to tourists as the worst offenders, saying “It was truly frustrating to see hundreds of people walking around without face masks.”

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Mexico: Woman who died in police custody also was abused

03/30/2021

Source: Yahoo! News

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Salvadoran woman who died in police custody over the weekend in a Caribbean beach resort had also suffered abuse by her companion, who has been arrested, Mexican authorities said Tuesday.

Quintana Roo state Gov. Carlos Joaquin did not specify whether the abuse allegedly suffered by Victoria Esperanza Salazar was sexual or physical.

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Mexico ruling party routed in regional vote on graft, gang violence

6/6/16 Reuters

Mexico’s ruling party lost several bastions in Sunday’s regional elections to the center-right opposition, dealing a heavy blow to President Enrique Pena Nieto for failing to crack down on corruption and gang violence.

The rout will help set the tone for the next presidential election in 2018, underscoring deep discontent over graft scandals and a sluggish economy, and throwing the contest open to contenders from both the left and right.

Early results from gubernatorial races in 12 of Mexico’s 31 states on Monday showed Pena Nieto’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, heading for defeat in seven of them, a result far worse than most polls had forecast.

Projected losses included two oil-rich strongholds in the Gulf of Mexico, Veracruz and neighboring Tamaulipas, both of which have been plagued by gang violence for years, as well as Quintana Roo, home to Mexico’s top tourist destination Cancun. All three have been run by the PRI for over eight decades.

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U.S. sanctions Mexican businesses and individuals for drug trafficking links

8/20/15 Reuters

The United States sanctioned 21 Mexican businesses and individuals on Wednesday, saying they were part of the business network of a powerful drug cartel in the country.

The 15 businesses and six people provided support and services for the Los Cuinis drug cartel, the U.S. Treasury said in a statement. The cartel was itself sanctioned by the U.S. government in April for cocaine and methamphetamine trafficking.

The businesses targeted on Wednesday include an upscale boutique hotel, two real estate firms, and a shopping center in the south-central Mexican state of Jalisco, as well as a shopping center in the southeastern state of Quintana Roo.

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