CFE: Illegal Hookups Caused Playa del Carmen Blackouts

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo — The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) said Tuesday that power outages that left thousands of residents in three residential developments in the dark Monday night were caused by illegal connections, not routine service failures.

Residents of Xcacel, Misión de las Flores and Las Palmas I blocked Avenida Constituyentes to demand the restoration of electricity. CFE crews conducting inspections found cut lines and unauthorized hookups, along with an open switch that had been tampered with by third parties.

According to the utility, the same electrical circuit also supplies the informal settlement known as In House, where officials detected alterations to the infrastructure for suspected illicit connections. The outages also knocked out traffic lights on several roads, causing traffic chaos.

Luis Herrera Quiam, secretary general of the Solidaridad municipality, said local authorities are working with CFE to resolve the problem and prevent it from happening again.

Merchant Santos Aguilar said residents who pay for electricity are being affected by informal settlements that hook up without paying. “These are the consequences of allowing land invasions without services,” he said. “The municipal government should face the consequences, and CFE should cut those illegal connections because they are not paying but are affecting the population.”