Searching Mothers Lift Six-Day Blockade of Cancún Hotel Zone, Warn They Could Return

Cancún, Quintana Roo — The Madres Buscadoras collective lifted its six-day blockade of Cancún’s hotel zone before noon on Thursday, after state officials agreed to sit down for talks, and warned it will block roads again if the government fails to show up.

The group had widened its protest area earlier in the day, then cleared the roadway, leaving only a single canopy tent at a turnaround next to the median.

María Dolores Patrón Pat, president of the collective and mother of Francisca Mariner, said officials called the night before to arrange a meeting. “They told us we would have an approach with them today, and I tell the victims that if they are finally going to hear us, we will once again give them the benefit of the doubt and wait for that attention, but in the meantime we are going to open the road, so they can also see that we are interested in talking with them,” she said.

The demonstrations intensified over the weekend amid outrage over an injunction granted to the man accused of killing Francisca Mariner. That court ruling, along with what families describe as irregularities in investigations into missing persons, pushed relatives to protest and shut access to Kukulcán Boulevard.

During the closure, the Benito Juárez municipal government hung informational banners and deployed traffic officers to steer drivers onto alternate routes including Enrique Savignac, Sayil, Bonampak, the Nichupté bridge and Puerto Cancún. State Police and municipal traffic personnel kept a presence at key intersections to keep workers and tourists moving, though the Nichupté bridge backed up badly on Thursday after access through El Table was also closed, until that entrance was reopened.

The protesters said they did not leave for security reasons following earlier incidents, but because of their commitment to speak directly with state government representatives.

“Everything is completely unblocked, we are at a turnaround, where is the security booth?” they said. “If the authorities fail to hold the meeting or show a lack of will, we will take road actions in the city again.”