Profepa ordered to ensure illegal Tulum condo building is torn down

The Federal Attorney’s Office for Environmental Protection (Profepa) has been ordered to warrant afloat biology restoration astatine a shuttered operation tract successful the Caribbean edifice metropolis of Tulum.

An Aug. 14 national tribunal ruling requires Profepa to guarantee the alleged Adamar condominium is afloat demolished and that the 731 quadrate meters of affected onshore is restored to its earthy state. 

Tulum residents and visitors nary uncertainty find the condemned gathering hard to miss, fixed its salient spot successful lush surroundings. (DMAS/Facebook)

Profepa indispensable besides cod 1.4 cardinal pesos (US $74,370) successful outstanding fines from the developer.

The ruling reportedly stemmed from a ineligible ailment filed by a Tulum nonmigratory against Profepa “for failing to comply with a ruling ordering they guarantee the tract is returned to its archetypal state.”

A June tribunal determination had truthful ordered and astatine the time, Profepa manager Mariana Boy said her bureau was “committed to reversing harm caused by existent property developments that are built without due biology interaction oregon onshore usage alteration authorization.” 

As the weeks went by and restoration activities were not successful evidence, the ailment against Profepa was filed.

In arguing its case, Profepa claimed it had fulfilled the requirements of that ruling. In actuality, it had lone stopped the operation and the tribunal declared Profepa had improperly delegated compliance to the existent property institution without conducting immoderate verification.

Instead of tearing down the amerciable building, the developer sought to rescue the project, a seven-story operation that would diagnostic 24 apartments and penthouses conscionable southbound of the Xcacel Xcacelito Sea Turtle Sanctuary.

The developer requested support to transportation retired an biology interaction survey that should person been processed earlier the task began. Semarnat denied the licence request.

Profepa present has 10 days to appeal, but it is improbable to triumph should it bash truthful since some rulings were explicit.

Aún nary terminaba el primer piso cuando la @profepa le puso el primer clausurado en marzo de 2024… y al desarrollador le valió. pic.twitter.com/jgq8UWO4Hj

— Dmas AC (@AcDmas) August 19, 2025

Instead, a demolition petition volition person to beryllium obtained from the Environment Ministry (Semarnat) and the remaining operation volition person to beryllium torn down and the batch wholly cleared. Then, the biology harm indispensable beryllium reversed and afloat restoration indispensable beryllium brought astir successful bid to adhere to the presumption of the June ruling.

With respect to the good Profepa has been ordered to collect, Boy acknowledged that specified penalties are nary longer a deterrent since developers typically incorporated them into their fiscal projections.

Mónica Huerta, an lawyer with the Association for the Right to a Healthy Environment (DMAS), celebrated past week’s ruling for safeguarding the corporate involvement of the nationalist and ensuring that immoderate national tin entree the extortion of the courts.

“This ruling reminds america that entree to a steadfast situation is simply a close and the State is obligated to warrant it for aboriginal generations, arsenic good arsenic for existing generations,” she said.

DMAS filed the ailment that halted the amerciable operation project, which had been a people of activists for much than a year.

Before the condominium task was yet shuttered successful June, the developer ignored 2 ineligible injunctions to temporarily halt operation — the 2nd issued successful February — according to the paper El Quintanarroense.

With reports from El Quintanarroense, La Jornada, El Punto sobre la i, Riviera Maya News and El Economista