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When drug gangs are vying for control in an area with booming growth and rampant corruption, what can be done?  And how many travelers are aware of this danger?

A note from the writer: The goal of this article is not to inflame prejudice or promote fear. Rather, it’s the idea that the people of Mexico deserve to thrive and that the violence, rampant corruption and inaction by local and international agencies to curb these continuing dangers needs accountability.

Colombian Keisy Suarez went on holiday with her American boyfriend to Tulum. Romance and relaxing were the items on their agenda for the week, so when she accidentally left her cellphone in their taxi the holiday got off to an unfortunate start. What happened after turned it into a nightmare. Being scared of your personal safety is never on a holiday plan.

Even though she got her cellphone back she told me emphatically, “I will never go back to Tulum.”

So what made it so bad? Encounters with something travelers are calling ‘taxi cartels’.

Suarez’s innocent mistake unearthed a side of Tulum that until recently was only talked about amongst friends recounting their terrible holiday stories: the local taxi transportation industry has safety concerns. In fact it can be a dangerous thing. So much so that on January 23, the U.S. Department of State put out a security alert specifically for Quintana Roo about taxi and Uber services there.

It’s not just that Suarez left her phone in the taxi. You see, the transaction was just ending when she realized it was still inside, yet as she called out to the driver and to get back in, he took off fast. It was more of a theft.

After Suarez’s phone took off she and her boyfriend got to the business trying to get it back, an experience over the next four days they called “cartel” like. Having paid in cash for the taxi - which was its own extortion, as the driver demanded $50 for a drive of a couple minutes, for which they paid nearly half in the end - and the cellphone being turned off, they were relieved their next taxi driver seemed sincere in wanting to help them. What they discovered was actually finding the cell phone not that hard because the taxi drivers know each other. There’s a network. A cartel.

“There’s only one company in town," Suarez told me. "Everyone knows everyone and there are always several on every corner. It’s a small world.”

The ever presence of taxis makes sense since Tulum’s tourism industry, growing for years, has seen a boom post Covid.

“This summer, Playa Del Carmen and Tulum smashed records, as they received 822 thousand vacationers between the months of June to August, as reported by the Riviera Maya Hotel Association (AHRM).”  Cancun Sun, September 2022. 

That is compared with 625,000 visitors in 2019. The fact is Tulum is on track to grow even more. Since 2019 the Riviera Maya (an area including Tulum) has added 7000 hotel rooms, and a new international airport in Tulum is set to open at the end of this year. There’s also a regional train service including Cancun that’s under construction. Quintana Roo is growing fast.

The plan for more people to come makes sense as Tulum has some of the most beautiful beaches and cultural sites in the world. Besides, who doesn’t love Mexican food and culture? Sadly a growing issue in Tulum is the same one much of Mexico struggles with: violent crime.

But back to the phone…The ‘nice’ driver had good news: he’d located the phone, though it was going to cost $600 dollars to get it back. After brokering for $400, when the nice driver showed up at their hotel with the phone her boyfriend offered a hundred dollars.  The  driver said no way and he made a final offer: take this hundred dollars for your trouble or it’s nothing.  That’s when the nice taxi driver threatened him. You don’t want to do this, you won’t be safe here, we know where you are, that kind of thing.

Did you remember how I said all the drivers knew each other and they are on every corner? Going out to dinner, seeing the sights, or strolling in the daytime no longer seemed like a good idea.

“It was scary," Suarez continued as she told the story. To go anywhere you need a taxi and we weren’t comfortable in our hotel anymore. It’s a nice hotel but... It’s a small town and everybody at the hotel knows the drivers. We’re outsiders.”

They ended up switching hotels and tried to enjoy the rest of their holiday, hard to do when you’re also on guard.

Taxi Cartel Tales (and More) from 2020

An American that moved to Tulum in September 2020 to be out the U.S. during Covid, spent many months living in the area. In an interview they told me they moved for the cheap cost of living and beauty of the area, especially with work instability a main concern at the time. Yet after a few months they cut their stay short saying, "I don’t really want to ever go back.”

They want to remain unidentified due to their work and lifestyle.

“Taxi cartels are thing. They can lock you in if you don’t pay what they want. It’s known how they are and they do this to force you to pay. They ask for insane rates. It can get scary. If you don’t pay they could get security [cops] involved, and you don’t want to have to pay more extortion to them or potentially end up in jail, just for someone harassing you.”

While they mentioned how they met many nice people, and point out that many people never have anything bad happened, they say that the common issue of taxi harassment and danger is a known fact of life in Tulum. And that’s on top of the gang violence and corruption Mexico is sadly known to have.

“It’s horrible how crazy it is there. Everything is corrupt. I kept the windows rolled down the whole taxi ride and then I’d open the door when I arrived as I went to pay, just to have an out if they hassled about the price, which happened. It’s not ok and then there’s no one to help.”

“Tulum in particular has become a center for drug consumption in the Riviera Maya. Ten gangs have carved up sales in the area, Mr. Montes de Oca said, and when they encroach on each other’s territory, what “begins as a minor crime, selling drugs, ends in tragedy.” New York Times, February 2022

In a piece about the shooting and culture, the Daily Beast writes how it’s not called ‘bribery’ at parties and events, it’s called ‘tips.’

This person was also at the fatal Vagalume Halloween shooting on Halloween evening 2020.  One person died in their arms as others were writhing in the ground injured. The shooting left two dead and three injured, according to reports. The night started with an estimated 500 people dancing and partying on a beautiful Tulum night.

They recounted what it was like after the shooting.

“It was a while before I heard any sirens, maybe 10 minutes. There were like 20 rounds. It was horrible. But help didn’t come right away at all. And then when I got home that night as we slept someone broke into our place and stole lots of stuff. Thankfully that was all though.”

While the world was concerned about the super spreader event there at Art with Me a couple weeks later, sadly the uptick in local violent crime and general criminal atmosphere hasn’t gotten as much.  It’s a sad fact that when victims are locals it gets less press attention around the world.

“There was an 80% increase in intentional killings in 2021. While it once was easy to avoid cartel violence if you stayed away from drugs in Mexico, shootings involving cartels in clubs and restaurants popular with tourists have become common.

In October 2021, tragedy struck after a gang leader ran into a popular restaurant at peak dining hours to avoid a rival gang member shooting him. Instead, the shooter followed him in and killed two tourists and injured three more.“ Travelers Worldwide, January 2023

At one point while sitting at the beach trying to relax, Suarez saw military patrolling on the beach with rifles. Since everybody was just sitting and drinking and relaxing she was surprised when several officers started to surround a man who was alone, and had been laying there peacefully.

“They ordered him stand and hold his hands up. It wasn’t okay,” she said. The harassment was inescapable. So too was feeling like there was any real help.

Which is why the current taxi issues and alert might bring Tulum’s growing crime issues to greater attention. With more hotels being built in the area around town, like the two new Hilton properties last year, reliable taxis and transportation will be needed to thrive. Harassing and assaulting customers cannot be a norm.

Tulum’s Boom and Crime

It’s not a surprise that where more visitors go, there’s more crime. It’s just that it’s expected to be more of the pickpocket variety, not assault and violent crime.  One usually stays home to avoid that.

However, the issue of violence in Quintana Roo has sadly has been increasing along with the boom and construction, something the new U.S. State Department alert indicates.

“A report by Mexican news outlet La Reforma, from earlier this year, indicated that at least five cartels are now operating in the Riviera Maya and reports of violent crime in Tulum alone had gone up 783 percent since 2019.” Daily Beast, November 2021

In August 2022, four bodies were found in the Tulum hotel area according to The Cancun Sun.

While those victims were not tourists, the violence of locals occurring in a tourist neighborhood that is growing in popularity is still an issue. Sadly the fact that the violence was not of tourists can give visitors of false sense of security.

“A recent Bloomberg article highlighted another incident in which the crimes of rival gang members came dangerously close to tourists visiting Tulum.  In this situation, which took place back in February, two drug dealers were shot and killed in an upscale restaurant.  It is a very real example of how the turf war between gangs affects tourists, and businesses, which are commonly forced to pay these gangs for protection.“ The Cancun Sun, August 2022

When I asked the state department for details and criteria on how they drew up this Quintana Roo taxi security alert they didn’t respond. What made the taxi issue now reach the level of an alert for this area is unknown. It is also unclear how long this alert will likely last, what is needed for it to come down, or what it coming down actually means.

What is clear from these travel stories is taxi dangers are not a new issue in the area, just that it has reached some threshold. The U.S. State Department wants citizens to be on alert and aware of dangers if they go, beyond what are already in place for Mexico. Safety, as the site says, is their primary concern. But how many travelers take these alerts to heart?

“Since the outbreak of violence in tourist areas, Quintana Roo law enforcement officials have moved quickly to announce arrests in each case. In December, an additional contingent of about 1,500 members of Mexico’s National Guard began patrolling the beaches in a sign of how seriously the federal government has taken the threat to Mexico’s tourist industry.

But many question how sustainable that approach is. “For me, it’s just a facade,” said Fabiola Cortés, a lawyer and journalist who helped expose the dealings of Quintana Roo’s previous governor. He is now in jail, facing trial on corruption charges. “When high-impact events take place, they just detain anybody.” New York Times, February 2022

When she got back home Suarez was telling her trainer what happened, only to find her trainer also had a scary experience with taxis in Tulum. In this case, their taxi was chased by a truck. The truck at one point approached the driver of the taxi and they were talking, seemingly in cahoots. They somehow convince the taxi driver to let them out and they walked, relieved it was just a scary incident and nothing worse. Like Suarez, they too don’t want to return to Tulum.

With U.S security alerts about taxi safety, ‘taxi cartels’, incidents of gang violence in public places, and local officials being part of the problem, how Quintana Roo’s boom goes remains to be seen.