Nearly 300 residents, business owners, professionals, merchants, and civil society representatives in Tulum have formed Tulum Unido, a citizen movement pressing the municipal government for greater transparency, public participation, and accountability.
According to a statement released by the group, the coalition went public this week as it opened a signature drive and prepared to hand local authorities a formal petition on how the municipality grants business operating licenses. The organizers say the movement emerged in response to the situation Tulum faces today, and they describe their approach as peaceful and propositional.
The launch matters now because Tulum Unido is not staying on paper. Its members are collecting signatures in a public plaza this week and asking City Hall for a written answer, which turns a general call for transparency into a concrete test of whether the administration will respond.
A coalition drawn from Tulum's businesses, neighborhoods, and original communities
The group says it brings together a wide cross-section of local society. Its ranks include business owners, workers, professionals, merchants, representatives of civil organizations, and residents of colonias, communities, and pueblos originarios across the municipality.
Among the participating groups are representatives of the Playas Libres movement, along with business owners and neighbors from different zones of Tulum. According to the collective, the aim of pulling these sectors together is to work in favor of what it calls a just, transparent, sustainable, and prosperous Tulum for everyone.
Tulum Unido's first demand centers on the business license process
As one of its first actions, the movement drafted a citizen document, an oficio, tied to the process for issuing operating and functioning licenses for commercial establishments. The group says the document lays out proposals and requests meant to guarantee procedures that are fair, transparent, and consistent with current law.
Business licensing is a sensitive point for a municipality whose economy runs on tourism, hospitality, and small commerce. By starting there, Tulum Unido is targeting a process that directly affects how residents and entrepreneurs open and keep their businesses running.
What the petition asks the Ayuntamiento to do
Beyond submitting the document, the collective is asking that its proposals be reviewed by the competent areas of the Ayuntamiento and that the municipality issue a response in writing. It is also calling for a working table that would bring together municipal authorities, business owners, and organized citizens to discuss possible solutions to the problems it raises.
The group reiterated that broad participation from society will be central to pushing changes that benefit the municipality and to building a government with stronger transparency and accountability.
The offices and commissions that received the document
The oficio is addressed to the municipal president of Tulum, Diego Castañón Trejo, who took office in 2024. Beyond the Presidencia Municipal, the collective says it also routed the document to several other municipal bodies.
According to the group, those recipients include the Secretaría General del Ayuntamiento, the Tesorería Municipal, the Dirección General de Ingresos, the Dirección de Fiscalización y Cobranza, the Dirección de Desarrollo Económico, the Dirección de Mejora Regulatoria, and the Contraloría Municipal. The document was also turned over to the Hacienda and Anticorrupción commissions of the Cabildo de Tulum.
Signature collection at Cancha Maya
To build support before the petition reaches the mayor's desk, Tulum Unido scheduled a signature drive for Wednesday, July 1, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Cancha Maya. Organizers are inviting residents to sign on and, in their words, strengthen citizen participation.
Whether the municipal government answers in writing, and whether it agrees to the proposed working table, will be the first measures of how far the movement can push. For now, the response from City Hall remains pending, and the signatures gathered this week will accompany the document when it is formally delivered.
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