I haven't read the book, so bear with me. Is it possible that the attackers are feeding victims to the weeds in some sort of effort to save themselves? If they sacrifice others then the weeds won't come after them. Yeah, I get the whole quarantine scenario. However, maybe there's some sort of understanding between the locals and the weeds---you bring us the people, we let you live.
There's no indication of that in the book. The subtext of this kind of eco-horror genre is the futility of humans' interventions and the 'horror' of nature's adaptability. So to me the idea of the plants and the Mayan descendents working in a symbiotic-cooperative manner seems unlikely, if only because it goes against the larger theme of the book/film.
The movie doesn't show it but in the book the Mayans try to warn the hikers not to go near the vines but due to the language barrier the 2 groups could not communicate. The Mayans even camouflaged the small path leading to the ruins so that no one went there.
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