Friday, July 18, 2025

Government announces new tourism security battalion as part of National Guard

The National Guard will patrol tourist destinations in Quintana Roo with a new tourism security battalion. 

The new force will be formed of 1,445 National Guardsmen and begin operations on December 1 to combat crime in the Riviera Maya, which encompasses Tulum.

The latter destination has seen a rapid rise in violence, with an 80.5% jump in homicides in the first nine months of the year in annual terms.  

Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval announced the formation of the new security force at President López Obrador’s morning news conference on Wednesday, held in Cancún. He said the battalion’s priority will be serving the municipalities of Benito Juárez (Cancún), Solidaridad (Playa del Carmen) and Tulum, locations with the state’s highest crime rates.

The force could be replicated in other parts of the country that are dependent on tourism. “It will be possible to take this model that we will use here … to apply it in other areas of the republic, in the main tourist centers …” he said.

The president confirmed that violence in the area in recent weeks had triggered the creation of the battalion. “They are painful events because nationals and foreigners lost their lives. That cannot be repeated, we have to prevent that from happening, that is why we have the plan to reinforce security,” he said.

Business organizations called on the government earlier this month to reinforce security in the state after shootings in Tulum and Puerto Morelos.

The armed forces has seen its list of duties grow significantly under the López Obrador administration. Apart from security, military personnel have distributed gasoline, textbooks, vaccines and medication and are in charge of border surveillance, the detention and inspection of migrants and the construction and operation of the new Felipe Ángeles airport, set to open next year near Mexico City.

With reports from El Universal and Expansión Política

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
A man stands by an open suitcase in an airport revision area

Foreign national caught with over a million pesos of ketamine in Cancún airport

0
Officials confiscated 2 kilograms of ketamine, a controlled substance in Mexico.
two people walkin gby a for rent sign

Can rent control stop gentrification? Mexico City officials plan to find out

9
Political leaders in the nation's capital have reached into their anti-gentrification toolkit and come up with an approach that goes straight to the heart of the problem.
cell phone with Uber

Mexican authorities slam Uber’s price hike: ‘Unilateral and irresponsible’

2
The ride-hailing app insists that the rise is necessary after recent labor reforms gave its drivers full employee rights, including IMSS membership.
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity