Tulum Businessman Alleges Retaliatory Tax Hikes After Criticizing Mayor

Tulum, Quintana Roo — A restaurant owner with nearly a decade in business in Tulum has accused the municipal government of retaliating against him with inflated tax bills after he publicly criticized the administration of Mayor Diego Castanon Trejo.

Walter Balam, whose case was featured in a national report by TV Azteca, said that starting this year he began receiving disproportionately high charges for various permits and taxes related to his businesses.

According to official documents he provided, Balam was billed 27,004 pesos for trash collection at a tennis court. When he compared rates with other taxpayers, he found that a larger establishment was charged only 4,717 pesos — a difference the municipal authorities, affiliated with the Morena party, did not justify.

Balam also said that to change the name and operating license of his restaurant, the city demanded a payment of over half a million pesos, which he claims could only be made in cash.

The TV Azteca report noted that cash-only payments open the door to potential irregularities such as money laundering, bribery, and tax evasion. The report drew parallels to the case of Diego Rivera Navarro, the former mayor of Tequila, Jalisco, from the Morena-Green Party-Labor Party coalition, who was arrested in February on suspicion of extorting taxpayers and having ties to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Balam linked the fee increases to public complaints he began making against the Tulum city council in November 2025.

“Those who speak out are punished,” he said, explaining that when he tried to meet his tax obligations in February, he was hit with significantly higher amounts.

According to his testimony, after he posted the excessive charges on social media, the amounts were reduced — but only on the condition that he remove the posts denouncing the situation.