Cancun, Q.R. — Illegal street vendors are a never ending issue reports Cancun’s director of commerce. Jesús Alberto Ayuso Magaña says that even though they have toughened laws and intensified operations, they have not had a lot of positive results against the practice of the informal trade.
He says that on average, four street vendors are denied access to Cancun’s public beaches every two hours. He explained that since the beginning of the Easter holiday period, operations have been concentrated in the hotel zone and beaches accesses to avert the illegal vendors.
He says part of the problem lies in territorial powers since the city inspectors do not have jurisdiction in the federal maritime land zone, which is under the National Guard.
“The surveillance is only in the accesses and the hotel zone, in the well-known beaches such as Tortugas, Langosta, Delfines, Chac Mool, Ballenas and what is Plaza Forum, Marlín and the San Miguelito accesses.
“We have three inspectors in the hotel zone and on each shift, honestly, we are removing four vendors every two hours at these beach accesses,” he explained.
He added that as they move forward to remove the vendors and prevent them from entering the beaches, they just use other paths to gain access. He says that city officials have seized the vendor’s items and applied fines that range from 300 pesos to 5,000, yet, new illegal vendors continue to arrive.
“Although we draw up the verification records, we find them again and it is super complicated. If we run them from the beach accesses, they go to the beach through the federal zone where we cannot do anything,” he explained.
He says the city is working on the regulation of a street commerce along Tulum Avenue where vendors will pay a registration fee to work throughout the municipality, however, there are always areas where vendors without permits are set up.
