Tulum’s Security Failures Export Violence to Playa del Carmen

Playa del Carmen, Mexico — Violence that has plagued Tulum for years is now spilling into neighboring Playa del Carmen, with a recent execution highlighting how security failures in one municipality are creating dangers in another.

The murder of Katherin Coreysi, 27, on Friday afternoon in the Palmas II neighborhood serves as the latest example of this spillover effect. Coreysi was shot twice while driving to the Playa del Carmen Municipal Detention Center for a conjugal visit, with her 10-year-old son witnessing the attack from the back seat.

Coreysi was the partner of Adán Moisés, known as “El Yanki,” one of Tulum’s most dangerous criminals currently facing charges for his alleged involvement in the 2021 La Malquerida bar massacre that left two tourists dead. Despite his crimes occurring in Tulum, Moisés is incarcerated in Playa del Carmen because Tulum lacks its own prison facility.

Institutional Failures

Tulum, which will mark 18 years as a municipality in May, suffers from critical infrastructure deficiencies that force it to depend on neighboring areas:

• No prison facility, requiring dangerous detainees to be held in Playa del Carmen
• No second-level hospitals, meaning gunshot victims must be treated in Playa del Carmen hospitals
• Insufficient basic infrastructure for security, waste management, urban development and public services

These institutional shortcomings have created what authorities describe as a “spillover effect,” where Tulum’s criminal conflicts are increasingly playing out in Playa del Carmen.

The execution in Palmas II represents more than an isolated incident—it demonstrates how violence from a municipality without prisons, hospitals, planning or territorial control inevitably spreads beyond its borders.