Mexico's Caribbean engine — Cancún, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, Chetumal, and the 130-km Riviera Maya corridor where 20 million tourists a year meet the reality of a state still figuring itself out.
Playa del Carmen
Dozens of families signed contracts, made payments, and waited for their condos. Then their properties were transferred to strangers. The SUUT real estate scandal in Playa del Carmen is a warning for every buyer in the Riviera Maya.
Quintana Roo
Eleven thousand sharks are killed globally every single hour. But on a tiny island off Cancun, 32 former shark fishermen put down their nets and picked up snorkels — building a sanctuary that has protected over 30,000 sharks and become a model the entire Caribbean is scrambling to replicate.
Crime
A Hungarian drug trafficker on Interpol's most-wanted list thought Cancún's chaos would hide him forever. He was wrong. The full story of how European intelligence, Mexican federal forces, and a Red Notice tracked János N. across an ocean and into a handcuff on a Caribbean street.
Xcaret
Mexico's Supreme Court just told the country's biggest eco-park empire it can't use Maya symbols anymore. The tourism industry is screaming. Indigenous communities are celebrating. And nobody knows where the line between homage and appropriation actually falls.
Crime
On Friday evening, Belizean special forces intercepted a cocaine-laden Cessna at a Mennonite settlement just miles from Quintana Roo's border. The haul: 551 kilograms. The pilots: Mexican. The implications for Mexico's Caribbean coast? Enormous.
Cancún
Mexican authorities are tackling crime and sargassum, the Cancun airport is packed with tourists, lucha libre is rocking Isla Mujeres, and an ancient Mayan town is getting a cultural facelift.
Crime
Quintana Roo's week: drone-equipped police, sargassum as a regulated resource, a teetering Telmex pole, and CFE workers detained over "suspicious vibes" amid digital crime reporting and looming storms.
Quintana Roo
Quintana Roo blends beach life, bureaucratic whimsy, and cultural flair—from sargassum regulations and planetarium bus routes to crocodile discoveries and a mayor-turned-uncle splashing in seaweed-free waves.
Cancún
Mexicanist dispatch: seaweed’s now a “fish,” crocs Airbnb the suburbs, free drinks where sargassum scares tourists, plus wrestling kids, tax-break hammocks and taco-flavored tennis.
Cancún
This Cancun newsletter covers summer tourism booms, a Superman-themed plane, new bus routes to ancient ruins, massive security operations, bizarre local crimes like gym phone theft and a child support conviction, environmental efforts, and current weather warnings.
Quintana Roo
Quintana Roo is actively managing tourism growth and enhancing security while addressing key legal and governmental issues, including water rights and infrastructure development, alongside diplomatic exchanges like the Mexican President's call with Donald Trump.
Mahahual
An intense, collaborative sargassum cleanup involving the Navy, businesses, and the community began on Mahahual beaches ahead of the crucial Holy Week tourist season.