Mara Lezama Strengthens Institutions to Combat Extortion in Quintana Roo

Cancun, Quintana Roo — Governor Mara Lezama Espinosa has reinforced institutional capacity to combat extortion in Quintana Roo, closing a training project aimed at strengthening prevention, investigation, and prosecution of the crime.

Speaking at the conclusion of the “Training and Strengthening Project for Combating Extortion,” Lezama emphasized the need to address the root causes of violence and crime, and to stop normalizing them. The event was attended by Orlando Camacho Nacenta, national director of Mexico S.O.S. and coordinator of the National Network of Citizen Security and Justice Tables.

“Given the statistics, no one can sit idly by,” Lezama said. “Quintana Roo is one of the few states working in a coordinated manner to respond to citizens.”

The governor urged parents to dedicate time to their children and to peace-building. “That is also a fundamental part of ensuring that everything we are doing truly yields results,” she added.

The project, developed in coordination with Mexico S.O.S., produced a comprehensive diagnosis of extortion in Quintana Roo, trained 340 public servants, and created five specialized protocols to standardize the handling and investigation of the crime. Officials noted that Quintana Roo was among the first states to train security and justice operators on the new Federal Law on Extortion.

A second phase of the project will be implemented in the municipalities of Playa del Carmen and Puerto Morelos.

Attendees included Public Security Secretary Julio César Gómez Torres, project coordinator Rommel Moreno Manjarrez, State Supreme Court President Heyden José Cebada Rivas, and the director of the Cancun Institute of Technology, Carlos Tiburcio Martínez Martínez, as well as members of the armed forces.