Tulum, Q.R. — The mayor of the municipality of Tulum says city council recognizes that several communities they support do not belong to them. During a recent council meeting, the board recognized that the communities of San Silverio, Yalchén and José María Pino Suárez are part of Felipe Carrillo Puerto and not Tulum.
In turn, Dzul says they will stop supporting them. The issue was discussed after years of ongoing debate about the three communities that Tulum supports but which legally belong to the neighboring municipality of Felipe Carrillo Puerto.
During the Monday night council meeting, the board agreed to modify the Bando de Buen Gobierno to update the delegations and sub-delegations of the municipality of Tulum.
Once done, it will mean the communities, who have been serviced by the municipality of Tulum, will have those services cut. Dzul says that for years, they have provided basic subsidies and services to the towns such as public lighting, police payroll and maintenance.
However, since the mayor of Felipe Carrillo Puerto has refused to hand them over, Tulum will pull their support and ensure each municipality is, as the law points out, responsible for only their communities within their municipalities.
“San Silverio, Yalchén and José María Pino Suárez belong to Felipe Carrillo Puerto, so they can pay for lighting, the payroll of the police and the personnel who carry out maintenance,” he said. “Tulum has carried this for these 14 years since the creation of the municipality,” he clarified.
The boudaries were clouded when, in 2008, Tulum became its own municipality. Duzl says that when that happened, the three communities of San Silverio, Yalchén and José María Pino Suárez were legally removed, but Tulum continued to provide them with services.
The boundry issue arose again this year when an initiative was launched to officially include the three communities as part of the municipality of Tulum. However, Dzul says that for political reasons, Felipe Carrillo Puerto Mayor Mary Hernández will not agree to hand them over since that would shrink her territory and lower her municipal budget.
According to Dzul, during their discussions, Hernández proposed an “exchange” of the three communities with Tulum if Tulum gave Felipe Carrillo Puerto the community of Punta Allen.