Five Teens Missing After Tulum Job Offer

Akil and Tekax, Yucatán — Five Yucatecan teenagers have disappeared after traveling to Tulum to accept alleged job offers as bricklayer assistants, according to residents of Akil and Tekax. The adolescents, aged between 15 and 17, left their communities on October 27 bound for Quintana Roo, motivated by the need to support their families financially. However, since their arrival at the tourist destination, they have been unable to communicate, and their phones remain turned off. Three of them have been identified as Joel Lizandro López Collí, Mauricio Alonzo, and Sandi Chel.

In the region, there is concern that the disappearance may be linked to criminal activities. The mother of one of the young men filed a complaint weeks after his absence, due to the fear generated by the situation.

The families assert that it was the first time the minors had left the state and that, according to comments in the community, they might have accepted the job offer to cover an alleged debt.

Collectives dedicated to searching for missing persons warned that this type of incident has become more recurrent in the Yucatán Peninsula. They recalled the case of Joan Amor, a woman who traveled from Cancún to Guadalajara in July after a job proposal and whose whereabouts remain unknown.

The collective “Xtabay” reported that it has documented at least 10 disappearances linked to job offers disseminated mainly on social media. For its part, the collective “Francisca Mariner,” led by María Patrón, explained that since 2022 they have received 15 search requests related to this same pattern: people who travel to Cancún after receiving a job offer and subsequently stop responding to calls. They even mentioned a 2023 case in which two men were found alive in Tulum after disappearing under similar circumstances.

According to these groups, in several of the reports, the recruiter posts an advertisement, contacts the interested parties, and picks them up directly at the bus terminal. In some offers, accommodation is provided as part of the alleged contract.