Third Roxana Lili Official Arrested Over Stage Collapse

Playa del Carmen, Mexico — José Luis Argüelles González, the former Director of Spectacles under ex-mayor Roxana Lili, was arrested on Thursday morning in Cozumel and immediately transferred to Playa del Carmen, where he is now held in the Municipal Detention Center.

He is accused of the crime of injury and other aggravating factors for failing to respond to the victims of a giant screen collapse during the celebrations for the anniversary of the municipality's founding on July 28, 2023, in the Fundadores park.

This is the third official from Roxana Lili's administration to be detained in less than two months. He will now share jail space with Jorge Zavaleta Pellat, the former Advisory Director, who is also being held in the Playa del Carmen Municipal Detention Center. This is in addition to the arrest of Ariadne Guadalupe Vázquez Canul, the former secretary to the ex-mayor, who is accused of dispossession and is currently jailed in Cancún.

According to the National Registry of Detentions, Argüelles González was detained at 5:30 a.m. at kilometer 3 of Avenida Transversal, in the Félix González Canto neighborhood of Cozumel. The arrest was executed by the Ministerial Police of the Attorney General's Office of the State of Quintana Roo. At the moment of his apprehension, he was preparing to go cycling to the east of the island, as he was wearing a white jersey and tennis shoes.

After his arrest, he was transferred to Playa del Carmen, where a judge from the Accusatory Penal System Control Court in this locality has required him to answer for crimes that endanger people's lives.

Hearings for the formulation of charges and linking to trial related to this case are scheduled for Friday. It is anticipated that he will be formally charged and jailed for several months.

Argüelles González is alleged to be responsible for seriously injuring a pair of pre-Hispanic dancers, a case that Roxana Lili was always aware of. The ex-mayor cynically visited the affected individuals but never provided them with a solution.

This development also raises expectations that the former mayor and renegade PAN member will soon be called to the bench of the accused.