Isla Mujeres Land Regularization Paused for Six Neighborhoods

Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo — The regularization of at least six neighborhoods in Isla Mujeres has stalled as candidate selection and campaigning for upcoming municipal and state elections get under way, leaving hundreds of families without legal certainty over their land.

The affected areas include La Guadalupana, the island’s oldest settlement, where residents have spent 21 years waiting for property titles. Families called the situation unjust. The neighborhood still lacks sewer service, even though Aguakan, the local water utility, committed in July to connecting its 180 families. Resident José Cahuich said officials had promised in 2018 that the service would be available the following year, after sewer networks were installed.

Gervasio Cajun, one of the settlement’s founders, said residents had received numerous political promises over the past 21 years, almost none of which were kept. “The settlement became a political football,” he said. He warned he would not tolerate another deception and said he planned to confront the candidates and demand that they fulfill their commitments before the vote.

José Hernández said his family had been hopeful in 2024, when municipal and state officials visited the neighborhood to do field work and verify measurements and boundaries as part of the announced regularization process. But nothing advanced, he said, and the process is now frozen.

La Curva, the island’s second informal settlement, has also made no progress seven years after its creation. The settlement grew out of a dispute over private land involving relatives of former mayor Paulino Adame Torres, who subdivided about two hectares where roughly 150 families now live.

Antonio, a resident, said no institutional procedure exists to legalize the land because the ownership dispute is still unresolved. He said residents were already paying for their plots and would file the necessary paperwork once a judge resolves the dispute.

On the mainland, around Ciudad Mujeres, regularization efforts in four neighborhoods have also stalled.