Close
KTAR.com
News
Shows
Blogs
KTAR News on 92.3FM

In Mexico resort, squatters make a stand against developers

A resident works on his home in the October 2 squatter settlement in Tulum, Quintana Roo state, Mexico, Thursday, August 4, 2022. The attorney general of Quintana Roo, Oscar Montes de Oca, vows to evict the squatters, saying he has the cort orders. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) A resident of the October 2 squatter settlement carries a cement block as he rebuilds his home in Tulum, Quintana Roo state, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. The man's home was partially destroyed on July 27, when police accompanying a backhoe fired tear gas and tried to knock down several homes in the shadow of a new, balconied condo building. The attempt ended when the wind shifted the gas back onto officers, who retreated under a hail of rocks. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) Jose Antonio Leon Mendez gives an interview outside his home in the October 2 squatter settlement where he is the leader in Tulum, Quintana Roo state, Mexico, Thursday, August 4, 2022. Mendez, a welder who has lived in Cancun and Tulum for about three decades, says the settlement represents a last stand for Mexicans are being priced out of their own coast. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) A phrase that reads in Spanish “SOS Mr. AMLO. We are being attacked. Help!!!” covers a street in the October 2 squatter settlement in Tulum, Quintana Roo state, Mexico, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. The message was written by the squatters, directed at Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador after local authorities attempted to evict them from a stretch of public land that was sold by city officials to largely foreign developers. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) A person cycles through the October 2 squatter settlement in Tulum, Quintana Roo state, Mexico, Thursday, August 4, 2022. The squatters’ camp is part of a larger stretch of public land that was sold by city officials to largely foreign developers. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) People walk on and where their homes once stood in the October 2 squatter settlement before their homes were demolished by authorities in Tulum, Quintana Roo state, Mexico where real estate marketed toward foreigner investors is going up, behind, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. The contrast between rich and poor is stark: Gleaming white four-story condos with vaguely Mayan-sounding names and English slogans like “Live in the Luscious Jungle” and “An immersive spiritual experience” stand next to shacks. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) Blocks of apartments stand next to a large squatters' settlement known as October 2, in Tulum, Quintana Roo state, Mexico, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. Quintana Roo state officials have vowed to relocate or remove about 12,000 inhabitants of the settlement, erected in 2016 on very valuable and once public land located between the town of Tulum and its beach. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) People ride their motorcycles past an advertisement that offers modern condominiums for sale, next to a squatters' settlement known as October 2, in Tulum, Quintana Roo state, Mexico, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. Condos on the edge of the squatters´ camp, and some well inside it, now sell for between $100,000 and $150,000 and are advertised in U.S. dollars, as are entrance fees at many seaside resorts. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)