Mexico on Wednesday promised to set up a “tourism battalion” of 1,500 agents to protect the Caribbean Gulf’s pearls of Cancun and Toulom by December 1.
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President Andres Manuel Lபpez Obrador announced at his daily news conference that a total of 1,500 agents of the National Guard, a kind of military organization created in March 2019, or Gendermary, will be mobilized to “strengthen the security” of coastal resorts. Wednesday from Cancun.
Two young German and Indian tourists were killed in a shooting in Tulum in late October.
Another shooting sparked panic among U.S. tourists from a luxury hotel in Porto Morelos near Cancun in early November. Authorities say two suspected drug traffickers were killed in a fight between two gangs over a drug market.
Defense Minister Luis Crescenzio Sandoval said a “tourism battalion” would take office on December 1 in the region, also known as the “Riviera Maya”.
The Riviera Maya and the Yucatan Peninsula are major tourist attractions in Mexico, making it the seventh most visited country in the world. Tourism accounts for 8.5% of the GDP of the world’s 15th largest economy.
President-elect Lopez Obrador, who was elected in 2018, began the construction of the 1500 km “Mayan Tourist Train” to enhance the region’s coastline and the Yucatan Peninsula. The train has to go through Cancun and Libra.
This primary project of its unique six-year commission is competing with the Mayan communities in the region.
