Playa del Carmen Residents Demand Action After Molotov Attack on Taxi Union

Puerto Aventuras, Quintana Roo — Residents of this resort town are demanding that authorities take real action against organized crime after hooded attackers firebombed the local taxi union’s offices and briefly abducted two drivers.

The attack took place Friday night at the offices of the Lázaro Cárdenas del Río taxi union in Puerto Aventuras, where assailants threw Molotov cocktails. The attackers seized two taxi drivers and later released them. The same night, at least 10 shots were fired at offices in Tulum, prompting a large police deployment. No one was injured in that shooting.

Speaking about the incidents, residents and local business owners said patrols alone will not curb the violence and called for an overhaul of the city’s security strategy.

A Call for a Comprehensive Approach

Lawyer Javier Gómez said eradicating or fighting criminal violence requires a comprehensive approach that combines social crime prevention, the use of police intelligence and stronger institutions. Otherwise, he warned, the climate of violence will only worsen in the city, as it already is.

Gómez also called for rebuilding the social fabric through investment in education, culture, sports and job opportunities for young people in vulnerable areas. Police forces, he said, need strengthening and professionalization, including better working conditions, salaries and equipment, strict vetting and continuous training. He added that authorities should deploy digital tools, advanced video surveillance systems and data analysis to dismantle criminal gangs strategically, and speed up criminal proceedings to reduce impunity, ensure complaints are handled quickly and see that victims are compensated. Municipal authorities, he said, should strengthen the local police with prevention training and closer ties to the community.

Business Owners Question Police Response

Merchant Julio César González said what is needed is political will, vision and a genuine commitment to serving the public, arguing that cutting the number of patrols is pointless if officers are not professionally trained to handle residents’ demands.

Fellow merchant Arael García said criminals keep attacking the population because of structural failures in the municipal government. He suggested that people may be infiltrated within the police ranks to avoid arrest, noting that no one has been detained after criminal attacks anywhere — which he described as a sign of presumed police complicity.

Accountant María Luisa Martínez said she has lost confidence in the municipal police, the Quintana Roo State Prosecutor’s Office and the judges who issue lenient rulings. “If we were doing badly before, now we are worse; there is a terrible crisis in public security and in the administration of justice,” she said.

Resident Gabriel González said the municipal government should address the social roots of crime — reducing poverty, improving access to education and offering decent jobs to steer young people away from criminal groups. Instead, he said, local authorities have focused on buying votes, deceiving people and handing out food baskets, mostly to those close to the government, while residents living in precarious conditions are forgotten.

Coordination and Intelligence Called Essential

Lawyer Mario Alberto Fernández said closing ranks against crime requires institutional coordination and permanent joint work among federal, state and municipal governments. He argued that authorities must rely on intelligence and force to investigate and dismantle organized crime’s finances and protection networks rather than making isolated arrests.

Crime, he said, takes advantage of government vacuums and structural failures such as those in Quintana Roo. He added that the government must strengthen local police forces and the federal government must strengthen the National Guard with community policing and constant training.

Fernández said there is a serious problem in the justice system and in the fight against impunity: victims do not report crimes for fear of reprisals and because of obstacles at the Prosecutor’s Office. He described the judicial system as rotten.

Merchant Rogelio Basurto said security failures come from the top, while those below simply follow orders. Surveillance booths sit abandoned, he said, and the proximity police and mounted police units were dismantled. Instead of strengthening crime-fighting efforts, he charged, the current government has wasted tax money paying artists to keep people quiet. “What is happening is reprehensible,” he said.