Mayor Vows Faster Action After 34 Arrested in Highway Blockade

Playa del Carmen, QR — Authorities reported that nearly three dozen individuals were detained on Thursday night following a road blockade. The group was arrested for allegedly closing the federal highway leading into Playa del Carmen from the south.

A total of 34 illegal occupants from the irregular settlement of San Judas Tadeo were arrested after blocking the highway near the Centro Maya for more than three hours on Thursday night. According to the police report, 18 men and 16 women were detained after refusing to open the roadway. Following multiple calls to disperse and amid rising tensions, police officers proceeded to remove them one by one. The 34 protesters have since been turned over to the Quintana Roo Attorney General's Office (FGE), as blocking a highway is a federal offense.

On Friday, the Mayor of Playa del Carmen, Estefanía Mercado, stated that there will be no more "three-hour blockades on the city's main roads" like the one that occurred on Thursday night on the Playa del Carmen boulevard.

Interviewed after a Municipal Council meeting, the mayor clarified that the next time, her government will not take three hours to evict protesters. "What I can guarantee is that the next time one of the main roads in our city is blocked, we will not take three hours to respond. It will be much faster," she stated.

Mercado explained that the federal highway blockade lasted three hours because authorities attempted to dialogue with the protesters in strict adherence to human rights; however, those conversations failed. "After the damage caused to families who arrived late, people who were late for work, people with medical conditions, then, it is something we are not going to repeat," she added.

The mayor said Thursday's blockade caused significant economic damage to the municipality, the full extent of which has not yet been calculated. She added that police arrested 34 individuals who now face charges for attacks on means of communication, as well as for disobedience and resisting arrest.

While emphasizing that freedom of expression will always be respected in Playa del Carmen, Mercado noted that the highway blockade was not for a legitimate cause, but rather to defend an alleged criminal accused of extortion.

"You cannot stop traffic and seriously affect families, the well-being of families, for a cause that was not even legitimate. It was not about housing, it was not about land invasions, it was for an illegitimate cause," she explained.