Mayan Communities in Playa del Carmen Seek Territorial Resolution

Three Mayan communities are involved in a controversy over territorial boundaries in Playa del Carmen, leaving approximately two thousand inhabitants of indigenous communities in a state of defenselessness.

Hermelindo Be Cituk, state coordinator of the Plural National Indigenous Assembly for Autonomy (Anipa), reported that in addition to Punta Laguna, Hidalgo and Cortés, and Felipe Carrillo Puerto are also in the same condition due to border conflicts.

All these localities, according to references from the cartographic map of the National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics (Inegi), are located within the municipal territory of Playa del Carmen.

The interviewee commented that the lack of official accreditation regarding which municipalities or state this population belongs to creates legal uncertainty, primarily for obtaining support.

“These communities are part of Playa del Carmen, but there is no full recognition as such, nor are they visited by authorities, and from there comes the legal uncertainty because although some are credentialed, there is also no full access to services,” said Be Cituk.

These communities are located southwest of Playa del Carmen, near the boundaries with the municipalities of Tulum, Lázaro Cárdenas, and the Yucatecan municipality of Valladolid. With this last government, there has been greater conflict because last year, the city council of this municipality issued a statement asserting that Punta Laguna is part of its territory.

“It is a disgrace because these territories are of enormous beauty, they harbor important resources, lagoons, ecotourism can be exploited, in short, a wealth of their own people due to their millennial culture.”

Be Cituk advanced that they will seek mechanisms to enforce the self-determination of indigenous peoples and that they be the ones to choose which municipalities they want to belong to, although the roots are greater with Playa del Carmen.