Police Officer Wins First Amparo in Playa del Carmen Retirement Case

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo — A police officer in Playa del Carmen has won the first amparo, or constitutional injunction, against the city’s Public Security Department for failing to respond to his retirement request, a ruling that obligates the department’s director, Carlos Montesinos, to formally address the officer’s petition.

The ruling was issued June 19 by the Fifth District Court under case file 487/2026, and the court order was carried out over the weekend. The officer filed the amparo on April 17 after authorities did not respond to his retirement request.

With the ruling, Montesinos must now issue a coherent and legally founded response to the officer’s request. A claim filed against Mayor Estefanía Mercado Asencio was dismissed, as the court determined the responsibility lies with the Security Department director, not the municipal president.

The case is part of a broader issue raised by Orlando Muñoz Gómez, the city’s second councilman and president of the Public Security Commission. He has said that at least eight officers who have completed more than 25 years of service have requested retirement but have not received any response.

Other officers have also turned to federal courts for protection, seeking to force authorities to address their requests. However, two of those injunctions were dismissed by judges who found that authorities were still within the legal time frame to respond at the time the claims were filed. Those cases were identified as file 826/2026 before the Ninth District Court and file 475/2026 before the Second District Court.

The dismissals do not deny the officers’ underlying right to retirement; they only indicate that the courts considered the authority had not yet exceeded the legal deadline. At least five of the eight officers have pursued amparo proceedings, and with the first favorable ruling, the remaining cases may see decisions in the coming days as the officers seek to resolve their employment status after more than two decades of service.