Germany issues travel alert to the Riviera Maya

The German Federal Foreign Office issued a travel warning about Mexico's Riviera Maya. It does not prohibit travel to the region but advises German tourists to take precautions against insecurity and not to leave their hotels.

This week, an armed confrontation between members of two alleged criminal cells in a restaurant in the municipality of Tulum, Quintana Roo, resulted in the death of two foreigners, one of them of German origin and the other from India. The alert states that in Tulum and Playa del Carmen "there have been incidents and attacks, some of them dramatic, in recent weeks, which have also affected German travelers.

The events referred to took place in restaurants, clubs, and nightclubs frequented by tourists". The German agency recommends the use of formal cab companies, as multiple robberies with firearms in rental cars have been reported.

Ashish Ryot, brother of Anjali Ryot, a young woman murdered in the armed attack on La Malquerida restaurant, last Wednesday in Tulum, requested through social networks the support of the diplomatic authorities of his country, as well as those of Quintana Roo, to allow him to enter Mexico and repatriate the body of his relative, who resided in California and was an influencer dedicated to travel. Her Instagram account (@thestylelagoon) has 40 thousand followers. The last post was from Tulum.

The crime, which occurred in the area known as Mini Quinta, was condemned by authorities from the three levels of government, including the federal Secretary of Tourism, Miguel Torruco, who tweeted the message of reprobation. Governor Carlos Joaquín González, who was in Tulum yesterday, explained that an event of this type generates a problem for the entity, mainly when there are results in the work of crime prevention and a decrease in the indexes.

He expressed that in the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System, Quintana Roo obtained the best grades in crime reduction. The mayor of Tulum, Marciano Dzul, said he received a police force full of anomalies "due to old privileges and vices overlapped in the past municipal administration, as well as a weak structure that is evidenced by the existence of only two patrol cars".

The state attorney general's office reported that the first investigations establish that the attack was the result of a confrontation between members of criminal cells dedicated to drug dealing. The injured, also foreigners, remain hospitalized and there is one detainee, presumably a leader of one of the criminal gangs.