Between the almost white sand and the very blue sea, two soldiers passed every ten minutes, with huge weapons in hand. Nobody seemed to care though. The dozens of tourists were enjoying the late afternoon on Lagarto beach, in Cancún, to the sound of pop music, as if the agents weren’t there.
Military personnel patrolling beaches are nothing new in Mexico, but security was strengthened in December, with the creation of a Tourist Security Battalion, after serious crimes in tourist areas.
In October, a German woman and an Indian woman died at a restaurant in Tulum, 131 km from Cancún. According to the authorities, an armed group invaded the place to kill rivals, and the exchange of fire hit them.
In November, gunmen arrived by speedboat and killed two men in Puerto Morelos (38 km from Cancún). The chase began on the beach and entered a resort, with tourists running for cover – some of them posted videos on social media as they sought shelter. At the time, a hotel was accused of generating the problem for having given a guest, at his request, the contact of a drug dealer linked to a cartel different from the one operating in the region. The enterprise denies.
This Friday (21), two Canadians were shot dead after an argument at a resort in the Riviera Maya. According to preliminary investigations, a gun was fired amid an argument between guests at the Xcaret hotel – the suspect and the victims have criminal records in Canada. The site told Reuters that the incident appears to be isolated.
In previous cases, authorities have pointed out that the shootings were motivated by fights between rival groups to control drug outlets. “Members of the cartels stay on speedboats watching the activities of their traffickers on the beaches, so as not to let members of other organizations work there,” explains Eduardo Guerrero, a public security consultant who has worked in the government. “There is a lot of instability in the criminal market, because small groups are always avoiding being absorbed by the larger ones.”
Guerrero believes that the local elections, held last year, had an impact on the increase in violence. “The new mayors change the command in the area of security, and that messes with pacts between authorities and criminals. The groups do violent acts to show power and gain strength in negotiations.”
For Luis Sánchez Díaz, a researcher at the NGO Causa en Común, cartels may want to influence elections even if they do not have direct agreements with politicians. “A candidate who promises a more open fight against crime can bring more problems than one who does not emphasize this in the proposals”, he comments.
In the state of Quintana Roo, which includes Cancun, Tulum and other tourist cities, at least six groups are fighting for space and new businesses — half of them are linked to transnational organizations. The region has grown significantly: since 2016, around 20,000 new hotel rooms have been opened, and the supply is approaching 120,000. Several gated communities are also being built, and the federal government plans to open, at the end of 2023, the Maia train, which will connect coastal cities.
“In Tulum, there is a peculiar subtype of tourism: US millionaires who are a bit ‘hippies’. They are carefree about their appearance, but they have a lot of money and demand expensive drugs. Many are retired and seek sexual services from young people, which also generates a human trafficking market”, says Guerrero.
Tulum has the highest homicide rate in the region: 133 per 100,000 inhabitants (in the state of São Paulo, the rate was 7.3 in 2020). The state of Quintana Roo has seen a spike in violent deaths since 2017 — with a slight recent improvement — and most crimes occur in neighborhoods a few kilometers from tourist areas.
Despite the increase in the police force, drug sales continue openly. On Fifth Avenue, in Playa del Carmen (70 km from Cancún), “coca and marijuana” are offered in broad daylight. Sellers approached the report of the leaf three times in five minutes — one of them seconds after the passage of a vehicle, in which an armed agent was standing in the dump, with a rifle in his hand.
At night, in two of Cancún’s main clubs, the scene was repeated in the bathrooms. A salesperson is usually on hand and approaches nearly every customer who enters. When the customer accepts, he is taken into a sanitary cabin to close the deal. Buyer can taste the item before paying.
“Many places saw that they could profit from this, because, by allowing drugs to be sold there, they can keep part of the gains. But there are also cases in which traders are coerced into accepting the presence of drug trafficking”, explains Guerrero.
As a restriction measure due to the pandemic, clubs on the main roads have closed earlier, around 11 pm. But the party continues until dawn in the back streets, as in an out-of-season Carnival. There are tourists from many parts of the world, including many groups of Americans who travel to say goodbye to singleness and get drunk without much restraint.
According to The Washington Post, authorities in Quintana Roo had meetings with US consulates and other countries to ask them to advise their citizens that it is illegal to buy drugs in Mexico.
“Tourists need to be aware of the effects their demands have on local communities,” says Christian Ascensio, a doctor in sociology and a researcher on violence at Unam (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México). He believes that hoteliers should also be more concerned with the impacts on their surroundings. “Often, ‘walled’ tourism is promoted: the traveler arrives from the airport, takes a transfer and stays the whole trip without leaving the resort.”
Several of these places in Cancun have huge structures, with several restaurants and bars. One of them has two indoor clubs and a casino. The daily rates, with meals included, can exceed US$ 500 (R$ 2,700). Inside the resorts, the report did not witness the sale or consumption of drugs in common areas and, when asked about security, employees said that there was nothing to worry about, as there was a lot of police in the region.
On the road that connects the city to other beaches, the scenario is different. The trip to Playa del Carmen takes about an hour, and on the way, the leaf saw rare police cars. “A police car stopped us on the road, said our car was out of order and our documents would be seized,” said Avril Adams, 26, who traveled from Toronto, Canada, with two friends, and was driving a rental car. “They said we could pay right there and leave. They asked how much we had. We paid an $18 bribe and they let us go.”
Although the value (equivalent to 368 Mexican pesos or about R$100) is low for an American tourist, it is equivalent to two days of work at minimum wage in Mexico. On forums such as Trip Advisor, tourists report leaving up to US$200 (R$1,090) with police after being stopped on the roads. When contacted, the Public Security Secretariat of Quintana Roo declined to comment.
On the road, signs announce new developments and luxury condominiums, in a sign that the expansion is going strong. The consolidation of Cancun as the main Mexican tourist destination is recent: the place was a fishing village until the 1970s, when hotels began to be built. The business was consolidating until, in 2019, the state received 15 million travelers – in that year, before the pandemic, the sector earned Quintana Roo US$ 14 billion.
Tourist numbers have nearly halved in 2020, even as Mexico has kept its borders open during the pandemic. Last year there was a recovery, and 12.5 million people came to the region. The figure represents half of the total number of travelers who visited Mexico in the year.
“Of the jobs lost in the pandemic, 80% were recovered. It was very important for the economy to keep access open to tourists, following the protocols”, says Bernardo Cueto, secretary of Tourism of Quintana Roo. The state has 1.8 million inhabitants .
The growth, however, has attracted criminal groups. Over the past decade, a Romanian mafia has established itself in the region and has earned $70 million a year from bank fraud alone, according to Mexican authorities. The crooks installed equipment to clone credit cards and obtain the password at ATMs in tourist areas. Part of the illicit money was invested in local real estate.
Florian Tudor, the Shark, appointed as the leader of this mafia, was arrested in May 2021. He is in the maximum security prison El Altiplano, the same prison from which El Chapo already escaped, in 2015. Investigations indicate that relations with politicians helped the gang. then go unpunished for years.
Another illegal business that has grown in the region is the so-called “floor charges”: criminals demand a monthly fee from merchants in exchange for protection. Those who don’t pay suffer reprisals and can be killed.
Security experts point out that the solutions to contain the violence include increasing the presence of the State, improving the working conditions of the police, fighting impunity and bringing agents closer to the population, so that there is mutual trust and complaints do not go unanswered. “There are many cases of impunity, in which the population complains of extortion and nothing happens. There are also cases of people who have been imprisoned for years without having a sentence”, comments Sánchez, from Causa en Común.
The biggest risk for Cancún is having the destination of Acapulco, which came to be avoided by tourists after gang clashes and violent actions in the 1990s and 2000s. Before that, the Pacific resort attracted celebrities, was a destination for millionaires and was featured in a special of the series “Chaves”, reprized for many years in Latin America. Today, it is unknown if the characters would sit on the sand under the sunset.
.
