Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo — The Gran Consejo Maya of Quintana Roo has publicly backed the Xcaret tourism company following a Mexican Supreme Court ruling against the firm for using indigenous Maya cultural symbols, while criticizing the court’s president for denying them a hearing in the case.
The indigenous council members appeared at a protest in Playa del Carmen on Saturday, arriving in a van owned by Xcaret and parking near the city hall. They joined approximately 150 canoeists who were demonstrating after Xcaret canceled the Sacred Maya Journey event scheduled for May 15, citing the ongoing cultural appropriation controversy.
Simón Caamal Coh, president of the Gran Consejo Maya, distanced his group from the legal proceedings that have affected Xcaret’s interests and directly accused other members of his community of orchestrating the conflict against the company owned by magnate Miguel Quintana Pali.
“The Gran Consejo Maya and the communities we represent do support the cultural and artistic activities carried out by Grupo Xcaret,” Caamal Coh told the canoeists. “It’s not as some have wanted to make it seem, just to deceive people that the Maya are against Xcaret. The only ones who are dissatisfied are a few individuals.”
He specifically criticized Supreme Court President Hugo Aguilar Ortiz: “We want to tell the minister president of the Supreme Court that he has failed us. He promised to listen to us and didn’t keep his word. He overrode our words, our customs, and the will of our peoples. It hurts more because he comes from indigenous roots. It’s not correct to speak of justice without speaking to the people.”
The dispute originated in 2022 when the Gran Consejo Maya filed a complaint with the National Copyright Institute (Indautor) about Xcaret’s cultural appropriation of patrimonial symbols in its tourist attractions. According to reports, Xcaret reached an agreement with the indigenous assembly in 2023, but Mexican authorities continued legal proceedings under the recently created Federal Law for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of Indigenous and Afro-Mexican Peoples and Communities.
In February 2025, a federal judge in Mexico City granted Xcaret a definitive suspension through an injunction, allowing the company to continue using Maya patrimonial symbols. However, on March 26, the Supreme Court ruled against Xcaret and revoked the federal judge’s measure.
A dissident group led by Alejandro Cauich May, a Maya general from the Tixcacal Guardia ceremonial center, has called for an audit of the Gran Consejo Maya. During the March 26 session, Minister Yasmín Esquivel Mossa noted that the council had signed a contract with Xcaret for 15 million pesos to permit use of the cultural symbols.
When questioned about this on Saturday, Caamal Coh declared the allegation false. The council members eventually left in the Xcaret vehicle while canoeists continued expressing their disappointment with the court ruling that disrupted their participation in the canceled event.
Guillermo D. Cristy, a canoe master for nearly two decades, lamented the cancellation, which left more than 300 people without the opportunity to recreate the pre-Hispanic open-sea crossing to Cozumel island for religious purposes.
On Thursday, Xcaret announced it had decided to suspend the Sacred Maya Journey to avoid further controversy, not because it was obligated to remove patrimonial symbols from its attractions, as the full effects of the Supreme Court ruling remain unclear until the official resolution is published.
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