- 🌴 Quintana Roo security report: President Sheinbaum held Friday’s mañanera in Tulum alongside Quintana Roo Governor Mara Lezama and security officials who presented the state’s security report. National Public Security System chief Marcela Figueroa said Quintana Roo’s homicide rate fell 85% between September 2024 and June 2026, while 3,794 arrests were made for high-impact crimes in the state between October 2024 and June 2026.
- 🕊️ Tulum goes two months without homicides: Figueroa reported no homicides in Tulum in May or June, and none so far in July, a turnaround for a municipality that ranked among Mexico’s most violent as recently as last year.
- 🏖️ “Tulum Reborn” tourism actions announced: Tourism Minister Josefina Rodríguez unveiled 10 measures under the strategy, including free entry to Jaguar National Park for Mexicans, halved archaeological site admission and a new tourist support model with the National Guard.
- 🌊 Combating sargassum: Sheinbaum and Lezama highlighted efforts to contain the large quantities of sargassum washing up daily in Quintana Roo. Lezama said that over 700 million pesos have been spent on the problem.
- 🌎 Strong earthquake off Chiapas coast: Officials confirmed a powerful earthquake struck off Chiapas Friday morning. No damage was reported, but the Navy Ministry advised avoiding Pacific coast beaches for six hours due to tsunami risk.
Why today’s mañanera matters
President Claudia Sheinbaum held her Friday morning press conference in Tulum, a beach town on the Caribbean coast of the state of Quintana Roo.
She was accompanied by a large group of officials, including Quintana Roo Governor Mara Lezama, Security Minister Omar García Harfuch, Interior Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez and Environment Minister Alica Bárcena.
“Today we’re going to speak about two very important issues for Quintana Roo and the country,” Sheinbaum said at the start of the mañanera.
“The first is the security report for Quintana Roo and the second is a series of actions we’re going to take to guarantee tourism in Tulum and access to beaches and the archaeological zone,” she said.
Some of Mexico’s best-known tourism destinations are located in Quintana Roo, such as Cancún (the state’s largest city), Playa del Carmen and Cozumel, an island in the Caribbean Sea that is a top stop for cruise ships.
Thus, any major security problems in the state can have a negative impact on Mexico’s national tourism numbers.
Currently, however, the security situation in Quintana Roo, per official statistics, is much improved compared to recent years, as is the case in the majority of Mexican states, with 29 of the 32 federal entities recording annual declines in their homicide rates in the first six months of 2026.
The government attributes the decline in homicides — 31.1% nationally in the first half of the year — to its security strategy, which is based on four central tenets, including the strengthening of intelligence and investigative practices and a bolstering of the National Guard, the federal security force that was established in 2019.
Beyond the state security report, today’s mañanera was also significant as officials spoke about efforts to combat Quintana Roo’s sargassum problem.
Homicides have declined significantly in Quintana Roo
National Public Security System chief Marcela Figueroa presented a graph that showed that homicides have trended down in Quintana Roo since the current federal government took office in October 2024.
She highlighted that there was an average of two homicides per day in Quintana Roo in September 2024, the final month of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s presidency, while in June 2026 there was an average of just 0.3 murders per day in the state.
The decline in June compared to September 2024 is 85%.
Figueroa also presented a graph that showed that the homicide rate in Quintana Roo last month was the lowest of any June between 2015 and 2026. The homicide rate last month was 57% lower than in June 2025.
In the first six months of 2026, there was an average of 0.4 homicides per day in Quintana Roo. Figueroa highlighted that the reduction in the daily homicide rate between the first half of this year and the first half of 2025 was 60%.
No homicides in Tulum in May and June
Figueroa presented data that showed there were no homicides in Tulum in May and June.
“Tulum, we have to say, has gone two months without homicides,” she said, adding that there haven’t been any murders in the municipality so far this month.
Tulum has previously ranked among Mexico’s most violent municipalities. For example, as Mexico News Daily reported last October, Tulum was Mexico’s 20th most violent municipality in the 12 months to the end of August 2025 based on its per capita homicide rate.
Foreigners have been killed in Tulum, including in an armed attack that occurred at a beach club in February 2024 and in a shooting in October 2021.
Almost 3,800 arrests in QR since Sheinbaum took office
García Harfuch reported that between Oct. 1, 2024 and June 30, 2026, a total of 3,794 people were arrested in Quintana Roo for allegedly committing high-impact crimes such as murder, kidnapping, violent robbery and extortion.
He also reported that authorities seized 762 firearms and 6.68 tonnes of drugs in the state in the same period. In addition, authorities dismantled one clandestine methamphetamine laboratory in Quintana Roo, García Harfuch said.
Rodríguez announces 10 actions for ‘Tulum Reborn’ strategy
Tourism Minister Josefina Rodríguez announced 10 actions related to the “Tulum Reborn” (Tulum Renace) tourism strategy that was launched last November. Among the actions she announced were that:
- Entry to the Jaguar National Park, which opened in September 2024, will be free for Mexicans.
- The cost of entry to the Tulum archeological site will be halved. Entry will cost 80 pesos for Mexican visitors and 265 pesos for foreigners.
- A “model of care and support” for tourists will be implemented in collaboration with the National Guard.
- A new public transport system will be developed.
- A “comprehensive program” will be developed to attract new flights to the Tulum Airport, which opened in late 2023.
Rodríuguez also reported that 10 new public accesses to beaches in Tulum had been opened.
“Today the beaches belong to the people,” she said.
Sheinbaum and Lezama highlight efforts to combat sargassum
Sheinbaum noted that the accumulation of sargassum along the coastline is a problem in Quintana Roo.
Environment Minister Bárcena said Thursday that a seemingly incredulous amount of 9,000 tonnes of the seaweed washes up on Quintana Roo beaches on a daily basis.
Sheinbaum said that hoteliers in Quintana Roo and Governor Lezama have done a lot of work to reduce the amount of seaweed that reaches beaches.
“There are a lot of beaches that are clean thanks to [sargassum] barriers [in the sea] and other actions that awhave been taken as well as the work of the Navy Ministry to capture sargassum,” she said.
“Now we want to address sargassum with more resources so this isn’t an issue for beach tourism in Quintana Roo,” Sheinbaum said.
Lezama, who took office in September 2022, said that more than 700 million pesos (US $39.9 million) have been spent on addressing the sargassum problem in Quintana Roo. Some of that money, she said, has been used to purchase large and small vessels that collect sargassum at sea before it washes up on beaches.
Lezama said that state authorities collaborate closely with the Mexican Navy and the federal Environment Ministry on efforts to combat the sargassum problem.
“We’ve worked on the containment [of sargassum],” she said before describing the seasonal arrival of the seaweed as a “natural phenomenon.”
Government acknowledges strong earthquake off the coast of Chiapas
At the end of the press conference, reporters noted that a strong earthquake had occurred off the coast of Chiapas.
Navy Minister Raymundo Pedro Morales said there was a 6.8 magnitude earthquake, citing the strength initially reported by the National Seismological Service (SSN). The SSN later reported that the quake, which occurred at 8:48 a.m. Mexico City time, measured 7.4 on the Richter scale.
Morales said that no serious consequences had been reported. He advised people to move away from Pacific coast beaches due to the risk of a tsunami.
Just before 10 a.m., Sheinbaum said on social media that she had spoken to the governors of Chiapas and Tabasco, and noted that no damage had been reported.
“The Navy Ministry recommends not approaching beaches in the next six hours due to the tsunami risk,” she wrote.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
