Sheinbaum Tells Conanp Chief Not to Follow the Rule as Tulum Complaints Pile Up

President Claudia Sheinbaum opened her four day Quintana Roo tour in Tulum on Thursday by telling the head of Mexico's protected areas agency to stop applying a rule that was hurting residents.

"Governing has to be done with common sense and for the people. When the rule is placed above people and common sense, that is wrong," she told Pedro Álvarez Icaza Longoria, national commissioner of Protected Natural Areas, during a tour of Parque del Jaguar. "Do not comply with the rule. That is what I am telling you."

The exchange matters well beyond the optics of a president scolding a commissioner. Parque del Jaguar is the federal polygon that absorbed Tulum's coastal strip and its archaeological zone, and the management plan Sheinbaum ordered rewritten decides who may legally operate inside it. For the cooperatives, guides, and small operators who work that coast, the document is the difference between running a business and trespassing.

The moment Sheinbaum overruled her own commissioner in Tulum

She arrived in Quintana Roo in the middle of the afternoon and was driven to the park under a heavy security detail. She covered part of it on foot, then boarded one of the park's shuttle carts alongside Governor Mara Lezama Espinosa and a mix of state and federal officials.

According to accounts from reporters positioned along the route, she listened to an explanation of the park, asked a couple of questions, then turned to Álvarez Icaza and told him to authorize what had just been described. She took a few steps, stopped, and came back to him. The commissioner had apparently signaled that there were rules to follow.

That is when she delivered the line that set the tone for the day. He nodded and smiled.

A zoning error that left tour operators in limbo

The complaint that triggered the deadline came from tourism service providers affected by the park's management plan. They told the president that Conanp had mistakenly classified as a recovery zone a stretch of land that already carries tourism infrastructure, a designation that has kept them in limbo despite backing from the state government.

Her answer was immediate. "Pedro is going to fix it for you. You have to change the management plan," she said, and then put the commissioner on the clock in front of the people complaining about him.

He proposed two months. She rejected it outright and told him to resolve the matter before the end of July, which leaves him roughly two weeks. Those present thanked her and handed over written petitions.

A family says a 1956 claim vanished into a case file

The tensest moment of the tour came from a mother and daughter who stopped the presidential convoy to denounce what they described as the seizure of a plot their family has held since 1956 inside the national park.

"Please, we want help. They are stripping us of our patrimony through a false investigation file that the State Prosecutor's Office opened against us," one of the women said. A new owner had appeared on paper, she told the president, for land her family has held for 70 years and whose possession, she said, was granted to them by the federal government.

She also credited Governor Lezama's citizen hearing program with keeping the plot from being handed to a third party. The problem, the women explained, is that the land remains under seizure and has not been returned, even though a federal judge already granted them an amparo ordering restitution. "Since they went on vacation, we are waiting," they said.

Sheinbaum asked for a phone number after confirming that the amparo had been granted and not executed, and said the case would be reviewed.

The Tulum Times has not independently verified the family's account. The State Prosecutor's Office has not publicly responded to the allegation.

Armored units and sealed perimeters before the visit

Tulum did not look like itself on Thursday. The Security and Citizen Protection Secretariat deployed rapid reaction and high impact deterrence units at the main points of Quintana Roo's ninth municipality, with an unusual number of tactical vehicles setting high security perimeters around the official delegation.

The armored units, parked in plain view at access roads and main avenues, carry a rotating ballistic shield on the roof, designed to protect at a 360-degree angle the personnel operating support weaponry or observation systems.

A closed-door meeting with investors at the airport

Before the park tour, Sheinbaum held a private meeting at Felipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport, arriving after a morning of private engagements. She spoke with business owners and investors from the region and outlined the economic and infrastructure priorities that will shape the center and south of the state over the coming months. Neither the presidency nor the state government released the names of those who attended or the agreements reached.

Truckers prepare a contingent from Playa del Carmen

The tour has already produced a mobilization of its own. Transport workers in Quintana Roo are preparing a contingent that will leave Playa del Carmen for Tulum to put their demands in front of the president.

Their central demand is that the National Defense Secretariat prioritize local labor and stop hiring outside workers on federal projects in the region, a practice they say damages the sector's economy. Drivers on the Playa del Carmen to Tulum corridor should expect possible disruptions.

A mañanera in Tulum and a sargassum plan due Sunday

Sheinbaum declined interviews twice during the tour, saying she would take questions at her press conference the next morning. She was expected to stay in Tulum overnight and to hold "La Mañanera del Pueblo" from the municipality on Friday.

Friday and Saturday take her to supervision stops on the Maya Train. On Sunday, she is expected to close the trip in Puerto Morelos with a press conference on a comprehensive plan for sargassum, the issue she has flagged as her priority for the state.

The clock she started in Tulum runs shorter than any of that. Álvarez Icaza has until July 31 to produce a corrected management plan for Parque del Jaguar. The operators who handed him their petitions on Thursday will be counting the days.

Should a president be able to set aside a protected area rule on the spot when it harms the families who live off that coast? Join the conversation and share your perspective with us on Instagram and Facebook at @thetulumtimes.