Graffiti Artists Erase Cancún’s ‘Wall of Corrupt Politicians’ as Activists Prepared to Restore It

Cancún, Quintana Roo — A group of young graffiti artists holding a permit from the Benito Juárez city government painted over the “Wall of Corrupt Politicians” under a bridge on Avenida José López Portillo, erasing an exhibition that had occupied the spot since 2017 and replacing it with an abstract mural.

The artists moved in ahead of members of Activistas Cancún, the group that created the display — formally titled the Wall of Corrupt, Thieving and Genocidal Politicians of Mexico and widely known as the “Wall of Shame.” The activists had begun reconditioning the site on Wednesday, building a berm to keep out rain and repainting the surface so they could mount new photographs alongside the faces already there.

Instead, the graffiti crew arrived and pulled down the photographs, coated the entire wall in mustard yellow, and quickly sprayed lines and drawings over the surface, leaving no trace of the original display.

Members of Activistas Cancún confronted the group, who showed them a municipal permit authorizing the work. José Alfredo Pech Tzek, president of Activistas Cancún, said the young men turned aggressive and that one of them picked up a piece of lumber and threatened them. A passenger van pulled up and its occupants showed they were loaded with stones, he said.

Municipal police arrived at the scene but limited themselves to keeping order and did not intervene in the removal of the mural.

Pech Tzek said the activists had no intention of clashing with the graffiti artists, but wanted to preserve a wall that was in the process of being restored. “We explained to them that this was our history, that we had to remember those who did us so much harm, but they paid no attention,” he said.

Several walls stand beneath the bridge, but the graffiti group chose precisely the one occupied by the political display, which the activists say points to an intent to wipe the exhibition out.

The wall carried photographs of former Mexican presidents and state governors as well as several Quintana Roo politicians, among them figures from the Green Party, including Pablo Bustamante and Juan Carrillo Soberanis.

Another group vandalized the wall repeatedly in past years, and the activists always restored it. According to Pech Tzek, each time the activists repainted, they made the images of the Green Party politicians larger, which eventually led those attempts to stop.