Playa del Carmen, Q.R. — Authorities say nearly three dozen people were taken into custody Thursday night from a blockade. The group accused of shutting down the federal highway entering Playa del Carmen from the south were arrested.
A total of 34 squatters from the irregular San Judas Tadeo settlement were arrested after blocking the highway near Centro Maya for more than three hours Thursday night. According to the police report, 18 men and 16 women were taken into custody after refusing to open the highway.
After several calls for order and amid growing tension, police officers proceeded to remove them one by one. All 34 protesters have since been turned over to the Quintana Roo Attorney General’s Office (FGE) since blocking the highway is a federal offense.
On Friday, Playa del Carmen Mayor Estefanía Mercado said there will be no more “3-hour blockades on the city’s main roads” like the Thursday night blockade on Playa del Carmen Boulevard.
Interviewed after a City Council meeting, the mayor clarified that next time, her government will not take three hours to evict the protesters.
“What I can guarantee is that the next time one of our city’s main thoroughfares is blocked, we won’t take three hours to respond. It will be much faster,” she said.
Mercado explained that the federal highway blockade lasted three hours because they tried to talk with the protesters in strict adherence to human rights, however, those talks failed.
“After the damage caused to families who arrived late, people who arrived late to work, people with medical conditions, then, it is something that we are not going to repeat,” he added.
The mayor said that Thursday’s blockade caused significant economic damage to the municipality the full extent of which has not yet been calculated. She added that police arrested 34 people who now face charges for attacks on communication routes, as well as for disobedience and resisting arrest.
While emphasizing that free expression will always be respected in Playa del Carmen, Mercado noted that the federal highway blockade was not for a legitimate cause, but rather to defend an alleged criminal accused of extortion.
“You can’t stop traffic and seriously affect families, the well-being of families, for a cause that wasn’t even legitimate. It wasn’t about housing, it wasn’t about land invasions, it was for an illegitimate cause,” she explained.
