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Protestors over Riu Hotel construction return to Cancun streets

Cancun, Q.R. — Over the weekend, protesters against the Riu Hotel construction hit the streets of the Cancun Hotel Zone for the second time in a week. Protesters continue to demonstrate against the project after a court recently overturned its definitive suspension.

Two lanes at the entrance of the Cancun Hotel Zone were affected by protesters who arrived with banners showing those responsible for the authorization of the project. According to lawyer Gerardo Solís who was leading the protest, the hotel zone lacks the infrastructure, in particular, for wastewater treatment, but also for water and electricity.

He made an energetic call to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to review, with a magnifying glass, the authorization that has been granted to the hotel complex, saying that they lack legality.

In response to the second protest, Cancun mayor Mara Lezama said the hotel was granted its permits in pervious years, before her administration, stressing that the increase in hotel density for the Cancun Hotel Zone did not occur on her watch.

She explained that the permits for the construction of the Riu Hotel were authorized by previous governments, both at the federal and municipal levels.

“This increase in density is not occurring in this administration, it is from previous years, in a PDU very far from this administration and that is the anger … where the anger is is in the authorization of Semarnat.”

She added that the protests of the non-conforming organizations are against the recent resolution of the magistrates, although she admits that the city council “was forced” to give the authorization even when the National Fund for Tourism (Fonatur) recommended rejecting the project.

“We always work hand-in-hand with Fonatur. We explained it to them, they saw the file and knew that they had to give it authorization because of the issue of the permits,” she said noting they had been issued years before.