( Spanish) –– The Attorney General of the state of Quintana Roo reported that there are two people detained for their possible participation in the death of four people, whose bodies were found this Monday near a hotel in the tourist area of Cancun.
The Secretary of Public Security of Benito Juárez, the municipality where the area is located, José Pablo Mathey Cruz, informed local media that all the deceased are Mexicans.
He added that the joint work of local authorities, with the help of the videos obtained by security cameras, facilitated the arrest of those indicated, who according to the official were engaged in the sale and distribution of narcotics.
The Prosecutor’s Office confirmed earlier that the bodies of three people had been found in the town, for which an investigation folder was opened. Later, he added that they found another body.
In 2021, Mexico’s government said the National Guard would be permanently deployed in and around Cancún following a surge in violence related to organized crime, Reuters reported.
There were a series of violent incidents in the Caribbean coastal area. At the beginning of 2022, two people died after being shot at a hotel in Playa del Carmen.
There were reported shootings at the end of 2021 in the tourist areas of Puerto Morelos and Cancun.
Is it safe to travel to Mexico? This is what you should know
There are 32 states in Mexico, and the US State Department has “no travel” warnings in six of them, including the state of Tamaulipas, where Matamoros is located.
Seven Mexican states are listed one notch below in the State Department’s “reconsider travel” category and 17 in “extreme precautions.”
“Crime and kidnapping” is the cause of warnings in some states in each of those three categories, including Tamaulipas. The rest of the advisories list “crime” as the reason not to travel, reconsider, or exercise caution.
The states of Campeche and Yucatán, in the Yucatán peninsula, recommend “taking normal precautions.”
Countries like Canada and the United Kingdom have also detailed travel advisories related to Mexico.
Both receiving an influx of travelers for spring break in the United States, Playa del Carmen and Cancun are in the state of Quintana Roo, where the State Department advises travelers “to exercise caution due to crime and kidnappings”.
The State Department notes in its advisory on Quintana Roo that violence and criminal activity can occur anywhere, “even in popular tourist destinations.”
“Travellers should maintain a high level of situational awareness, avoid areas where illegal activity occurs, and move quickly away from potentially dangerous situations,” the advisory warns.
This report was made with information from ‘s Marnie Hunter and AJ Davis
