A Canadian businessman has been murdered this Saturday morning when he was driving a sports car on Xcalacoco Avenue in Playa del Carmen, as reported by the Quintana Roo State Prosecutor's Office.
The man, whose identity is still unknown, had permanent residence in Mexico since 2013 and was accompanied by a minor who survived the attack and who was presumably his youngest daughter.
The authorities have arrested two people, accused of shooting the businessman with a pistol from a motorcycle.
The Prosecutor's Office has in custody the firearm used by the aggressors.
The murder of the businessman occurs weeks after two tourists - also Canadians - were shot at the Xcaret hotel in the last week of January, and after the murder of the manager of the Mamitas Beach Club who was found dead in the bathroom of the premises with two bullets in head.
The #FGEQuintanaRoo reports that today, Saturday, a homicide by firearm was recorded on the Federal Highway Cancun-Playa del Carmen and Av.Xcalacoco in the municipality of Solidaridad.
The victim is a male of foreign origin with permanent resident immigration status (1/2) pic.twitter.com/pUSveSW3Bl
– Attorney General QR (@FGEQuintanaRoo) March 12, 2022
Businessmen have denounced for months the siege by drug mafias on their businesses in the tourist Riviera Maya.
Most of the threats are related to extortion.
The local Prosecutor's Office has recognized that the wave of violence in the region is related to drug trafficking.
The frequency with which these crimes have occurred in Quintana Roo have drawn the attention of the authorities in the United States.
As the Riviera Maya is a tourist resort for thousands of foreigners who visit Mexico - some 12 million a year - the US government has already launched an investigation by the FBI.
In February, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador acknowledged that the US agency was investigating in Mexican territory, but that the US embassy in Mexico would inform his government about his findings.
The State Department has warned, through travel alerts, that violence in the area has intensified.
Just Thursday, Graeme C. Clark, Canada's ambassador to Mexico, traveled to the region to meet with the Governor of Quintana Roo, Carlos Joaquín, and also visited the Canadian consulate in Playa del Carmen.
According to the National Survey of Victimization and Perception of Public Safety (Envipe), eight out of 10 inhabitants feel insecure in the State of Quintana Roo.
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