The Mayan jungle hides a coordinate capable of changing the map of southeastern Mexico: Punto Put. For decades, Quintana Roo, Campeche, and Yucatán have disputed thousands of square kilometers of territory where more than 150 communities live without clear services or defined authority.
Now, the final ruling rests with the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) and could redefine territorial boundaries and provide support that could improve the future of thousands of families. Following the 2025 judicial elections, the case falls to María Estela Ríos.
No authority takes full responsibility for the communities that converge at Punto Put to provide basic services… unless they are campaigning, at which point they arrive with promises.
“When they want to win the election, they come from Campeche and Quintana Roo. They say, ‘We’re going to give this,’ but when it comes time to take office, neither of them puts in any effort here,” Alejandro Álvarez, tired of fighting over power outages, internet problems, and transportation issues, told El País.
Put is the point where the borders of the states of the Yucatán Peninsula intersect: Yucatán, Quintana Roo, and Campeche. It owes its name to a hacienda that once stood there, in the middle of the jungle.
It was designated in 1902 and ratified in 1922 with a concrete monument bearing official coordinates to mark the vertex.
For decades, Quintana Roo has been disputing 10,000 km² with Campeche and Yucatán, almost 20% of its territory.
In this jungle strip, rich in resources but poor in services, more than 150 communities live without clear boundaries or adequate attention from any government.
The highway crosses an invisible border: cars enter and exit from one state to another without warning. On the ground, reality is confusing: water comes from one state, schools from another, and healthcare from none.
“And in the middle of it all are the farmers, who are all the same,” summarizes Lorenzo Várguez, a local leader, in an interview with El País.
A border without a clear map: water from one state, services from another. Thousands of families who arrived from Veracruz, Chiapas, and Tabasco, drawn by the promise of land to work, have lived in legal uncertainty for decades, waiting for the Court to define which government they belong to.
Something similar happens on the border with Yucatán: maps show a straight line, but daily life unfolds in a zigzag pattern.
María Eugenia López remembers arriving 30 years ago: there was no water, no electricity, no services. Getting water was an ordeal, walking to a distant watering hole carrying buckets.
The well was drilled by Quintana Roo, but the health center, which lacks a doctor, is operated by Campeche.
The dispute erupted after the creation of the municipality of Calakmul in 1996. Since then, the case has gone through the Senate and back to the courts without resolution.
In 2019, Quintana Roo revived the litigation by reaffirming its territorial coordinates in Constitutional Controversy 226/2019, as part of a strategy to trigger challenges from the other states, reveals Reinaldo Blanco, former president of the Civic Committee.
“That doesn’t mean we have fewer rights or prerogatives, since as an interested third party we can present evidence,” warns the State’s legal advisor, Adrián Serrano Barrientos, who indicates that a year ago his government submitted a proposal to resolve the matter amicably, but received no response.
Source: yucatan
