Cancun, Quintana Roo — Marco Antonio Sánchez Vales, the former notary public whose license was revoked by the state government and who subsequently waged a legal battle to reclaim it, died on Sunday, July 19. He was 47 years into his tenure as notary number 3 in Cancun when the state canceled his patent in August 2025.
The Council of Notaries of the State of Quintana Roo, led by notary Verónica Susana Ramírez Sandoval, announced his death. The council praised his legal and notarial legacy, calling it an example of integrity, wisdom, and commitment to law and society.
Sánchez Vales’ death comes just weeks before the one-year anniversary of the cancellation, which he had denounced as illegal. He had filed an amparo (injunction) to prevent the reassignment of his notary office and had obtained a definitive suspension from a federal judge.
In a press conference on August 26, 2025, Sánchez Vales accused the state administration of attempting to dispossess him of the notary. He argued that the cancellation was ordered outside the legal deadline and based on a resignation he had withdrawn. He also claimed that a definitive amparo suspension allowed him to continue working and announced criminal complaints for contempt against officials from the General Directorate of Notaries and the Government Secretariat.
Sánchez Vales had submitted his resignation in April 2024 for medical reasons, but when the state government failed to formalize the cancellation within the 15-day legal period, he revoked his resignation in July 2024 after obtaining a medical clearance. However, the Government Secretariat, headed by Cristina Torres Gómez, refused to acknowledge the revocation and denied his request for 200 numbered folios needed to operate, effectively blocking the notary’s activities. The notary had 20 to 25 employees and monthly operating costs of nearly half a million pesos.
He then filed an indirect amparo (1206/2024) before the Seventh District Court, which granted a definitive suspension to prevent the cancellation while the case was pending. The court also ordered the government to respond to the withdrawal of the resignation. When the Directorate of Notaries finally responded, it rejected the withdrawal, arguing that the Notarial Law does not provide for such a mechanism. Sánchez Vales filed a second amparo, contending that withdrawal is recognized in the Administrative Procedure Code and that the Notarial Law does not prohibit it.
Despite the ongoing legal proceedings, the state government published the cancellation of notary number 3 in the Official State Gazette on August 1, 2025. Sánchez Vales considered this a contempt of the definitive suspension. On August 13, the state called for an expedited competitive exam to reassign the notary, citing the resignation that had been withdrawn a year earlier. Unlike other cases, the government did not allow the transfer of the notary to his designated auxiliary, Ruy Adrián González Ramos, who had resigned a week after Sánchez Vales’ original resignation due to a change of residence.
Sánchez Vales and his legal team maintained that the definitive suspension remained in effect until the federal court ruled on the government’s compliance, and that the authorities had committed contempt, potentially subject to criminal charges.
“I never lost the capacity to practice. I withdrew my resignation and I am defending my right to continue as a notary,” Sánchez Vales said at the time.
The notary office, located on Avenida Bonampak in Cancun, ceased operations during the dispute. Employees hung banners denouncing the cancellation as illegal and warning that their jobs were at risk.
Attorney Manzano Acevedo, Sánchez Vales’ lawyer, alleged a political motive, stating that many notaries in Quintana Roo are used by front men and that the Government Secretariat likely wanted to award the notary to a friend or interest, even against the governor’s will.
The conflict prompted an expedited reform of the Notarial Law, passed by the state Congress on August 12, 2025. The reform introduced a summary competitive exam process for reassigning vacant notaries when there is no auxiliary or substitute notary, as was the case with notary number 3. The following day, the call for the exam was issued, with a five-day registration period instead of the usual ten.
The reassignment process remained suspended due to the amparo proceedings. As of the 2026 Notary Directory, notary number 3 still appears with a canceled patent and no assigned holder.
Meanwhile, Ruy Adrián González Ramos, the former auxiliary notary, was recently appointed as auxiliary notary for notary public number 84 in Playa del Carmen, Jorge Jaime Cruz Hernández, starting July 7, 2026.
With Sánchez Vales’ death, the legal challenges blocking the reassignment are expected to be dismissed due to mootness, allowing the state government to proceed with the competitive exam and award the notary to another person.
