Cancún Mayor Says Federal Permits Covered Playa Delfines Fiber Optic Work

Cancún, Quintana Roo — Recent maintenance work on a fiber optic cable at Playa Delfines — the subject of a complaint filed with the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Profepa) over risks to sea turtle nesting and damage to the coastal dune from sand compaction — was authorized by the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat), municipal officials said.

In an interview, Benito Juárez Mayor Ana Patricia Peralta said the work carried federal permits and that municipal Ecology Department staff supervised the operations to prevent any harm to sea turtles.

Fernando Haro, the city’s director of ecology, said the installation of the submarine cable had an Environmental Impact Statement (MIA) approved by Semarnat in 2012, and that an extension was granted this year for the maintenance work.

“There was a Semarnat authorization; they had an environmental impact statement from 2012 for the installation of the submarine cable, and this year they were granted an extension of the MIA to carry out the maintenance work on it,” Haro said.

Peralta said the work has finished and that Haro was present during its execution, coordinating with those in charge of the operation.

“We were in coordination with them, handling any eventuality; the truth is we had no incident at all with the turtles,” the official said.

The mayor acknowledged that the presence of heavy machinery on the beach was unusual but insisted the activities were monitored.

“It did look striking to see machinery, which is normally not seen on the beach, but everything was perfectly well supervised,” she said.

Peralta clarified that the authorized work was not under municipal jurisdiction, though the site was monitored.

“And obviously also with all the corresponding permits, which don’t even depend on the municipality — they depended on federal permits,” she said.

Even with the authorization in place, environmental groups that filed the Profepa complaint are now asking why the work was carried out during the height of sea turtle nesting season rather than afterward.