Quintana Roo AG Tightens Security Grip in Top Tourist Zones

Cancún, Quintana Roo — In less than a month, Quintana Roo Attorney General Raciel López Salazar has placed three trusted allies in key security positions across the state’s most critical tourist municipalities: Benito Juárez (Cancún), Solidaridad (Playa del Carmen), and Tulum. The appointments of Jaime Padilla Barrientos, Carlos Alberto Montesinos García, and Edgar Aguilar Rico—all with ties to Chiapas or prior professional connections to López Salazar—signal a strategic consolidation of institutional control.

Key Appointments Aligned with López Salazar

Cancún: Jaime Padilla Barrientos

Appointment: On July 16, 2025, Padilla was unanimously approved by the City Council as Secretary of Citizen Security and Transit.
Background: A retired military officer with over 30 years of experience, Padilla previously worked under López Salazar in the Chiapas Attorney General’s Office and the Puebla Secretariat of Public Security.
Education: Law degree from the University of Southern Mexico (Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas), with specializations in criminology and the accusatory penal system.

Playa del Carmen: Carlos Alberto Montesinos García

Appointment: On August 1, 2025, Montesinos assumed the role of Secretary of Citizen Security following the resignation of Raúl Tassinari.
Background: Montesinos served as a district attorney in Chiapas under López Salazar’s tenure as attorney general and later worked with him in Puebla as Director of Intelligence and Investigation.
Career Highlights: Former district attorney in Quintana Roo and head of the state delegation of Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (FGR).

Tulum: Edgar Aguilar Rico

Appointment: On July 2, 2025, Aguilar was unanimously confirmed as Secretary of Public Security and Citizen Protection.
Background: Though no direct prior collaboration with López Salazar is documented, Aguilar’s technical expertise and Chiapas origins align him with the attorney general’s political network.
Experience: Former head of the Criminal Investigation Unit in Chiapas and coordinator of the state’s 911 emergency system.

López Salazar’s Political Trajectory

Raciel López Salazar began his career in Chiapas, holding key roles in the state’s Attorney General’s Office before serving as attorney general from 2009 to 2018 under governors Juan Sabines Guerrero and Manuel Velasco Coello. His political ties to Velasco, a former PVEM (Green Party) governor, were instrumental in his rise. López Salazar later left the PVEM and joined Morena, Mexico’s ruling party.

A Network of Institutional Control

The simultaneous placement of these three officials in Quintana Roo’s top tourist hubs underscores López Salazar’s strategy to strengthen operational coordination between local security forces and the state Attorney General’s Office. Two of the appointees—Padilla and Montesinos—have direct prior working relationships with López Salazar, while Aguilar’s background reinforces the attorney general’s influence.

The move consolidates oversight of security operations in the region’s most economically and criminally active municipalities, ensuring alignment with López Salazar’s leadership.