Mexico activates military battalion in the Riviera Maya, its jewel of the Caribbean, after organized crime attacks

The government of Mexico announced on Wednesday the activation of a battalion of more than a thousand soldiers in the southern state of Quintana Roo after the recent armed attacks in the Riviera maya, one of the jewels of the Mexican Caribbean, which left four dead, including two foreign tourists.

As of December 1, it will begin to operate in the Riviera maya and other municipalities of Quintana Roo a battalion of 1,445 elements of the National Guard as part of a support plan to reinforce security in the tourist region, which will include the installation of a barracks in the town of Tulum, announced the Secretary of National Defense, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, from the southern city of Cancun.

During the morning presidential conference, Sandoval said that a special unit of the Navy with a hundred elements will also participate in the plan and that intelligence work will be reinforced to deal with criminal organizations.

The reinforcement of security in Quintana Roo comes after the violent events that occurred on October 20 in Tulum that left two foreign tourists dead and three others wounded by gunshots. On November 4, on a beach in Petempich Bay in Puerto Morelos, two men perished after an armed attack amid dozens of tourists of about 15 men allegedly linked to drug dealing gangs, according to authorities.

At least 11 people allegedly linked to criminal organizations were arrested for the events.

“That cannot be repeated. We have to prevent that from happening. That is why it is the plan to reinforce security, ”said President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, referring to the violent events that occurred in Tulum and Puerto Morelos.

The image of Cancun and the Riviera Maya, two of Mexico’s tourist gems by the thousands of local and foreign visitors they receive each year, has been hit by recent violent incidents that have been associated with gangs linked to the Sinaloa cartels. and Jalisco Nueva Generación, among other groups, who dispute the control of the retail drug sale not only in marginal areas but on the beach and in the most exclusive hotels.

At the beginning of the month, the attorney general of Quintana Roo, Oscar Montes de Oca, reported that the authorities have detected that 12 drug gangs operate in Tulum and Puerto Morelos.

The security policies developed by López Obrador during the first three years of his administration have been questioned by opponents and analysts who maintain that there is no defined plan and that they only apply isolated actions, with the support of the military, who have not contributed to solve the problem of crime.

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