At Least 20 Cuna Maya Neighborhoods Seek Municipalization in Cancún

Cancún, Quintana Roo — More than 20 neighborhoods in the Cuna Maya area have approached the Benito Juárez municipal government to begin the municipalization process, a step that could eventually bring public investment for basic services.

Noraa Garza Ramírez, director of the municipality’s Institute of Regularization and Housing, said the outreach from residents of those neighborhoods took place in July.

“July was an interesting month. We had more than 20 neighborhoods in the Cuna Maya area,” Garza Ramírez said. “Cuna Maya is now an area where we are beginning to work on regularization, and people will likely see work there soon.”

However, she said some areas are further along in the municipalization process than others. Three neighborhoods are already set to receive the property titles for their homes.

“Three of them already have their deeds — they’ve signed them — and they will be the first to come out,” she said. “So we start there. We begin with whichever ones we can with the deeds, and little by little we’ll see the issue of future investment.”

Those three neighborhoods join 148 other neighborhoods in Benito Juárez that already hold property titles and are moving to the next stage: donating their roadways to the municipality.

“That is a step we always take when a neighborhood comes to us and we start the titling process,” she said. “We automatically proceed with the donation of the roadways so that when the funds are available for investment, there won’t be any legal obstacles.”

The remaining 17 neighborhoods must begin the titling process to provide legal certainty over property ownership, she said.

Garza Ramírez acknowledged that completing municipalization for all 20 neighborhoods this year will be difficult, since it involves extensive technical and legal work in coordination with other areas and there is currently no infrastructure to provide services.

“We need to have the important connection points for drainage, water and electricity,” she said. “So this will likely be done in the coming years.”

She reiterated the invitation for other neighborhoods that have not yet been municipalized to approach the institute to begin the regularization process, which would allow public funds to be allocated for services.