Playa del Carmen Launches Municipal Child Protection Program

Playa del Carmen, Mexico — The Playa del Carmen municipal government, led by Mayor Estefanía Mercado, has begun work on a comprehensive child protection program aimed at addressing issues affecting youth in the city.

The first institutional working session for the Municipal Program for the Comprehensive Protection of Girls, Boys and Adolescents (PROMUPINA) took place this week. Yamile Domínguez Álvarez, the municipal executive secretary of SIPINNA, explained that the program will identify priority problems affecting children and adolescents in the municipality to address them with a cross-cutting, rights-based approach.

Domínguez stated that PROMUPINA will have a general objective, strategies, and lines of action based on diagnoses from various municipal departments, using existing programs from the Municipal Development Plan as a foundation. She emphasized that the program will not create new initiatives but will prioritize existing ones that need to be addressed comprehensively to ensure the integral development of children and adolescents.

During the session, Domínguez provided examples of how PROMUPINA will be structured, covering topics such as comprehensive health and mental health, education, prevention of child labor, attention to migrant children, and the creation and strengthening of safe spaces and parks with adequate infrastructure for early childhood, among other areas.

She also highlighted the need to strengthen inter-institutional links with state and federal agencies, organizations, and civil associations to address problems that, while not directly under municipal jurisdiction, require a coordinated response to avoid duplication of efforts and maximize the impact of resources.

Domínguez noted that each department will serve as an executing agency in its areas of competence, working in coordination with other municipal areas. Once the draft PROMUPINA is completed with input from all agencies, it will be presented for approval to the SIPINNA System, then to the City Council, and finally published in the Official Gazette.

The first working session included secretaries and heads of various departments, including councilors Alma Angelina Rodríguez Medina and Saúl Jamin Barbosa Heredia; Secretary of Social Justice and Citizen Participation Rusbel Pat; Secretary of Civic Justice and Human Coexistence Andrea Piña Valle; and municipal directors including Félix Teh, Eleaquín Castro, and Julián Lara, among other officials.