Former AMPI Playa del Carmen President Faces Fraud Case Over Undelivered Land

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo — Héctor Enrique Domínguez Mañueco, former president of the Mexican Association of Real Estate Professionals (AMPI) in Playa del Carmen, is fighting a fraud prosecution over a land sale worth more than 1 million pesos and has secured a provisional suspension from a federal court.

Domínguez Mañueco was arrested on Aug. 29 after a buyer filed a complaint accusing him of failing to deliver on a real estate project in Tulum, a dispute that dates back several years, according to court records reviewed by Sol Quintana Roo.

A control judge in Playa del Carmen’s accusatory criminal system charged him with fraud, but he was released. The judge then imposed arraigo-style restrictions that limit his movement within Quintana Roo while the case proceeds.

On Sept. 9, the Third District Court of Quintana Roo, part of the federal judiciary, admitted an amparo petition filed by the businessman and granted him a provisional suspension under docket 1118/2026. He was required to post a 5,000-peso bond for the measure to take effect.

“The provisional suspension is granted,” the court order published on Sept. 10 states.

Domínguez Mañueco is scheduled to attend an incidental hearing on Sept. 21 at 10:35 a.m., when a judge will decide whether to make the suspension permanent or revoke the protection he has obtained.

The constitutional challenge is moving forward in parallel with the criminal case in Quintana Roo’s accusatory system.

Dispute Traces Back to 2021 Land Purchase

According to the judicial file, a buyer signed a purchase agreement in 2021 in which Domínguez Mañueco acted as representative. The deal covered a 1,000-square-meter lot, identified as number 42, with delivery set for March 11, 2023, after the buyer paid more than 1 million pesos.

When delivery stalled, the buyer went to verify the status of the land in January 2024 but found no subdivision of the lot, the file shows. A check of the Public Registry of Property and Commerce likewise turned up no record of a folio real for the property, according to the records.