Tulum crime: visitor safety guaranteed but the town suffers from drug dealing and homicides
Parties have overtaken Tulum and today this Riviera Maya tourist destination is facing an increase in crimes such as drug dealing and homicide.
Tulum has been overrun by partying and today this Riviera Maya tourist destination is facing an increase in crimes such as drug dealing and homicide. For a decade, tourists, mainly foreigners, came to Tulum in search of relaxation and contact with nature, but this has changed over the last three years.
"It took the direction of clandestine parties, rave parties, all this and of course, of course, drugs arrived, everything arrived, dealers arrived, drug dealers arrived, many cartels arrived, they began to fight and it got out of hand," said Veronica, an Italian businesswoman in Tulum in an interview with Televisa.
According to statistics from the executive secretariat of the National Public Security System, in Tulum, the investigation files for drug dealing increased by more than 700 percent going from just 6 in 2019 to 53 in 2020. While homicides increased 44 percent compared to 2019. People selling drugs in the streets, murders every day or almost every day. Some businesses have left Tulum in the face of increased insecurity.
Four restaurants and bars owned by the same group of businessmen closed permanently in May. On Facebook, they explained that they decided to withdraw from the business because unfortunately, the conditions to operate have become very uncomfortable due to insecurity. For hotel and restaurant owners, it is urgent to return to a model of ecological tourism and relaxation.
For this reason, some 80 businessmen of Tulum joined together to ask the mayoral candidates to sign a letter of commitment in which they ask the winner not to extend service hours, to respect the allowed decibels, and to create a municipal planning institute to grow in an orderly manner.
Tulum is repeating the pattern of violence already experienced in other tourist destinations in the state. To address insecurity, the State Police, together with the National Guard and the Army, reinforced surveillance in the area. There are random checkpoints and controlled access to the hotel zone.
