Cancun, Q.R. — Hundreds of National Guard arrived in Cancun by air Wednesday night. The additional security elements are being added to the state’s existing forces. They will be deployed mostly in areas in the northern region.
On Wednesday night, a total of 250 National Guard landed at Terminal 1 of the Cancun International Airport to reinforce security in Playa del Carmen, Isla Mujeres, Puerto Morelos, Cancun and Bacalar.
The recently arrived 250 are half of the 500 expected. General Héctor Jiménez Aldana, of the 34th Military Zone, confirmed that in Quintana Roo, the Mixed Operations Bases or Bases de Operaciones Mixtas (BOM) will operate to help reduce crime.
The BOM are Inter-institutional forces made up of Mexico’s military, naval and state police forces. General Jiménez Aldana reported that the BOMs have also been operating in the troubled northern states of Mexico and have produced positive results.
“We have been working with a strategy that was implemented in very conflicted areas in the north of the country that has worked and has reduced crime rates which are based on the Mixed Operations Bases,” he explained. General Jiménez Aldana did not say when the next 250 were expected to arrive.
