Victims of Crimes Against Women Protest at Playa Delfines Over Court Failures in Cancún

Cancún, Quintana Roo — Victims of crimes committed against women demonstrated at the entrance to Playa Delfines in the hotel zone, protesting what they called authorities’ failure to act, procedural irregularities and simulated proceedings in their cases, which they say have left them without justice.

The protest was led by the civil association Madres Buscadoras (Searching Mothers) and the Colectivo Femenil Xtabay Quintana Roo, which turned out to back women who have endured long proceedings and revictimization in their push for the State Prosecutor’s Office, judges of the Superior Court of Justice and federal magistrates to do their jobs and punish their aggressors.

María Patrón Pat, president of Madres Buscadoras, said negligence and omissions by the authorities continue and that officials are doing nothing to find their missing relatives. She also criticized federal judges for granting injunctions to people facing charges.

The demonstrators gathered at Playa Delfines during the morning to publicize the cases of several victims from the Xtabay collective, some of whom traveled from Chetumal to review the progress of their files.

Judges accused of shielding suspects

Ariadne Song, a lawyer and representative of the Xtabay collective, said federal and district judges are granting injunctions over irregularities committed during proceedings by so-called “wellbeing judges” of Quintana Roo’s Judicial Branch.

In one case, she said the collective is supporting the grandmother of a girl who was raped, after a district judge granted an injunction to a person charged in the case and voided the arrest warrant. Federal authorities then ordered the private hearing to be held again so the prosecutor could request a new arrest warrant — a move Song said revictimizes the girl’s family, because a year into the process they learned the original warrant had not been properly grounded.

Victim calls conviction ‘a toy sentence’

Song also publicly denounced a case that the State Prosecutor’s Office announced with great fanfare as the second conviction for digital violence in Quintana Roo. The sentence was the minimum of four years and 10 months, and the woman convicted will not spend a day behind bars — what Song called “a toy sentence.”

Quintana Roo criminalized digital violence in September 2020, and six years later prosecutors have obtained only two convictions on those grounds. The second verdict is not yet final because the convicted woman has filed several appeals seeking commutation of her sentence.

“Today I am fighting for the third instance to ratify this sentence, even if it does not benefit me. At least I want the sentence to stand, for my aggressor to serve her sentence and take responsibility, even though she will be free,” said Arely, the victim in the case. “I ask that the third instance correct this and stop making this process so exhausting.”

Rape case against IEEA official

Another case presented at the protest involves a public servant at the State Institute for the Education of Young People and Adults (IEEA) in Chetumal who is accused of rape, but so far judges have refused to open criminal proceedings against him.

Song said it is deplorable that victims must expose their private lives to demand justice, and she criticized the lack of help from the Quintana Roo State Commission for Attention to Victims (CEAVEQROO) and the State Secretariat for Women.

Wendy, the victim in that case, recalled that she filed her complaint in October 2025 and that three days later a CEAVEQROO lawyer had already contacted the accused and suggested he pay 20,000 pesos for her to drop the complaint.

Judges have twice declined to bind the suspect over for trial. The victim won an appeal ordering the hearing to be held again for a new ruling, but authorities want to conduct it by video call; she is demanding it be held in person to protect her safety.