President Claudia Sheinbaum held her Friday morning press conference in Chetumal, Quintana Roo, prior to traveling to Guatemala to meet with President Bernardo Arévalo.
“It will be a brief conference with a lot of information from Quintana Roo, because from here we’re going to Guatemala,” Sheinbaum told reporters.
“… And later, in the afternoon, we’ll return to Campeche, to Calakmul, because we’re going to have a trilateral meeting with the prime minister of Belize, the president of Guatemala and myself,” she said.
Homicides down in Quintana Roo since Sheinbaum took office
Marcela Figueroa Franco, head of the National Public Security System, presented data that showed that homicides in Quintana Roo have trended down since Sheinbaum took office last October.
She highlighted that there was an average of 0.77 homicides per day in the Caribbean coast state in July, a 61.3% reduction compared to last September, the final month of the six-year term of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Figueroa also highlighted that the murder rate in Quintana Roo in July was the lowest for that month of the year since 2017.
She presented data that showed that homicides have declined in Benito Juárez, the municipality that includes Cancún — the largest city in Quintana Roo and the state’s top tourism drawcard.
There was an average of 0.32 homicides per day in Benito Juárez last month, a reduction of 70.6% compared to July 2024.
More than 3,000 arrests in Quintana Roo since October
Federal Security Minister Omar García Harfuch began his presentation by thanking Quintana Roo Governor Mara Lezama for her “close coordination” on security issues.
He told reporters that 1,300 kilograms of illegal drugs have been seized in Quintana Roo since Sheinbaum was sworn in on Oct. 1.
In the same period, García Harfuch reported that authorities have arrested 3,258 people in Quintana Roo for high-impact crimes such as murder, extortion and kidnapping. He also said that almost 1,300 firearms have been seized.
The security minister noted that members of organized crime groups and over 200 extortionists are among the people who have been arrested in Quintana Roo in the past 10 months.
“These results are possible thanks to the coordination between the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of the Navy, the National Guard, the Federal Attorney General’s Office, the state Attorney General’s Office, the government of Quintana Roo and its authorities,” García Harfuch said.
Governor says more than 8,000 new hotel rooms to open in Quintana Roo by 2027
Governor Lezama said that 19 “new accommodation centers” (hotels, resorts and the like) with 6,339 rooms opened in Quintana Roo in 2024 and the first half of 2025.
She said that between now and the end of 2027, 23 new “accommodation centers” with 8,353 rooms are projected to open.
Eleven hotels with more than 5,000 rooms will open before the end of 2025, Lezama said.
60,000 tonnes of sargassum removed from Caribbean Sea this year
Lezama noted that a fleet of more than 30 boats works to remove sargassum from the Caribbean Sea before it reaches the beaches of Quintana Roo.
“This capacity has allowed us to collect and dispose of more than 60,000 tonnes [of sargassum] so far this year,” she said.
Gone fishing for sargassum: Mexico’s agriculture ministry declares the seaweed a national resource
Lezama also said that state officials have met with businesspeople to “evaluate and develop up to 140 products derived from sargassum.”
Sargassum has already been used to make a variety of products including building materials, shoes and fertilizers.
The Mexican government recently declared declared sargassum a national fishing resource, and there are projects to transform the seaweed into biofuel.
Sheinbaum: ‘There is no fuel shortage’
During her Q&A session with reporters, Sheinbaum was asked about fuel shortages that have been reported this week in Mexico City and states including Nuevo León and Chiapas.
In fact, the president asserted, there is no shortage of fuel in the country.
“There is fuel,” she said, explaining that the problem is related to the transport of same to gas stations.
Sheinbaum said that the issue is being resolved.
‘The beaches belong to the people’
A reporter from Cozumel complained that the Caribbean island is “losing its public beaches” because access to them is being closed off. She asked the president whether her government would address the issue.
“We’re doing it in Nayarit, in Baja California Sur and we’ll be happy to work on it in Cozumel,” Sheinbaum said.
“The beaches belong to the people, they’re national [assets] and there has to be access to the beaches for the people of Mexico. They can’t be privatized,” she said.
“In places where there is no [public] access to the beach, public access has to be opened up,” Sheinbaum said.
“And that is what we’re doing in different places and we’ll happily look [at the issue] in Cozumel,” she said.
Sheinbaum: ‘Mexico is in vogue and Quintana Roo is as well’
Asked again about the United States government’s new terrorism warnings for Mexico and the impact they could have on tourism, Sheinbaum highlighted that tourist numbers have increased this year, “despite any alert.”
The U.S. State Department updated its travel advisory for Mexico on Tuesday, warning for the first time ever of the risk of terrorism south of the border. It remains to be seen whether the new advice will result in a drop in the number of U.S. tourists visiting Mexico.
Sheinbaum didn’t express any concern.
“Mexico is in vogue and Quintana Roo is as well,” she said.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
