Mayor’s Mother Buys Million-Dollar Home Amid Poverty

Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Mexico — In one of the poorest municipalities in Quintana Roo, where many families are still waiting for the delivery of a “safe room” measuring just 3 meters by 3 meters, those close to power appear to live in a very different reality. While hundreds of citizens hope for a minimal improvement in their living conditions, the mother of Municipal President Mary Hernández, and current president of the municipal DIF system, María del Carmen Solís Sánchez, continues to acquire high-value properties.

According to official documents, in December 2024, Solís Sánchez closed on the purchase of a house in the exclusive Selvanova condominium in Playa del Carmen, with a value of 3 million 736 thousand pesos, a property she paid off in practically five months. The transaction was made in consecutive payments that total an amount starkly contrasting with the economic situation of the municipality her daughter has governed since 2021.

The purchase is registered in the public deed number 10,179, filed at Notary Public 82 in Playa del Carmen, and lists the construction company Construcciones Aryve as the seller, the developer of a housing project aimed primarily at foreigners and high-income nationals. According to the condominium’s advertising, many of its buyers are Americans, retired Canadians, and investors interested in vacation rentals.

The first payment of 25 thousand pesos was made in August 2024, followed by 200 thousand pesos, 850 thousand pesos, and finally, a bank transfer for 2 million 661 thousand pesos. All payments originated from bank accounts in the name of the mayor’s mother.

This is not the first property acquired by Solís Sánchez. In 2017, she had already been benefited with a public deed in the VIVAH subdivision for just 50 thousand pesos, thanks to the Secretariat of Territorial and Urban Sustainable Development during the government of Carlos Joaquín González, for a plot of land that was the property of the State Government.

The case highlights a worrying contrast: a family in power with access to million-dollar homes, while the most needy population survives on promises of minimal living spaces. The gap between the welfare discourse and the million-dollar plunder by some public officials appears to be widening, with no official explanation to date about the origin of the money used for the acquisitions.