Quintana Roo Governor Opens 2026 Notarial Certification Course as Profession Marks 50 Years

Cancun, Quintana Roo — Governor Mara Lezama Espinosa inaugurated the 2026 Notarial Update and Certification course, an initiative aimed at strengthening trustworthy institutions, promoting a culture of legality and protecting family assets across Quintana Roo.

The program, named after attorney Josefina Castro Ríos, complies with Article 14 of Quintana Roo’s Notary Law and coincides with the 50th anniversary of the notarial profession in the state, which began on November 18, 1976, when the First Legislature approved the Organic Notary Law under Decree 56.

Castro Ríos, the state’s first female notary, was appointed Public Notary No. 2 on August 14, 1978.

Officials will certify 183 notaries during the course. The group includes 116 sitting public notaries, six alternates and 61 auxiliary notaries listed in the state’s Notary Directory.

Trust and Legal Certainty

Speaking at the ceremony, Lezama said the training matters because families want their affairs handled by the best-qualified professionals.

“When a person walks into a notary’s office, what they are looking for is trust, certainty, being in the hands of someone who will help them and enforce their rights, so that legal certainty stops being a legal concept and becomes security for a mother, a father or a grandmother — the knowledge that an important decision is well supported,” she said.

The course is organized jointly by the Government Secretariat, which handles organization, development and oversight, and the board of the Council of Notaries of Quintana Roo, which selects topics and coordinates instructors. Government Secretary Cristina Torres Gómez said the sessions cover cutting-edge subjects including risk-based approaches and identity validation.

State notaries handle property sales, judicial and inheritance adjudications, the incorporation of companies, wills and other legal acts requiring the intervention of public faith.

Fifty Years Honored

During the ceremony, officials presented Lezama with a recognition marking five decades of the state’s notarial history and the contributions of generations of professionals who have accompanied Quintana Roo’s legal, social and economic development. Notaries with more than 25 years in practice also received recognition.

Among those attending were Susana Verónica Ramírez Sandoval, president of the board of the Council of Notaries of Quintana Roo; Ricardo Vargas Navarro, president of the National College of Mexican Notaries; magistrate Heyden Cebada Rivas, president of the state Superior Court of Justice; and Deputy Jorge Arturo Sanén Cervantes, president of the Board of Government and Political Coordination of the XVIII Legislature.