Mexican authorities are still trying to understand how a typical morning at the ancient pyramid complex of Teotihuacán, one of the country’s premier tourist destinations, escalated into terrifying gun violence on Monday.
Disturbing video footage shows a gunman atop the imposing Pyramid of the Moon, opening fire on tourists who sought cover among the pre-Hispanic stone structures.
Following the ordeal, a 32-year-old Canadian woman was killed, and the gunman died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Tourists from several nations, including Russia, Colombia, and Brazil, received treatment for their injuries in local hospitals.
The targeting of international visitors presents a significant challenge for the government just weeks before Mexico co-hosts the men’s football World Cup.
This shooting occurred less than two months after masked gunmen from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel unleashed a wave of violence, instilling fear across the country following the killing of their leader “El Mencho” by security forces.
However, this incident was notably different.
Mexican authorities state that the Teotihuacán gunman acted alone, with no apparent link to Mexico’s widespread cartel violence.
He has been identified as 27-year-old Julio César Jasso Ramírez, a Mexican citizen residing in Mexico City.
“The aggressor planned and carried out the attack on his own and there is absolutely no indication at this point that he had any external help or that any other individuals were involved in this incident,” stated José Luis Cervantes Martínez, the Attorney-General of Mexico State.
Among the gunman’s belongings, officials discovered a handgun, a bag of cartridges, and a tactical knife.
However, the attorney-general added, they also found “literature, images, manuscripts apparently related to acts of violence known to have occurred in the United States in April 1999.”
A witness also informed Reuters news agency that visitors heard the attacker refer to Columbine — the site of a notorious US school shooting on April 20, 1999, where 13 people were killed by two teenagers, exactly 27 years prior.
Mexicans are no strangers to violence; some of the most atrocious massacres of this century in the Americas have occurred on Mexican soil, typically between rival drug cartels vying for territorial control.
However, the shooting at Teotihuacán appears to fall into a very different category altogether: that of mass killings carried out by lone assailants without apparent links to established criminal organizations.
Attorney-General Cervantes stated that the evidence collected so far pointed to “a psychopathic profile of the attacker, characterized by a tendency to imitate situations that occurred in other places, at other times, and involving other individuals — this tendency can be referred to as copycat behavior.”
The incident at the ancient site occurred just three weeks after a teenager killed two teachers with an AR-15 assault rifle at his school in the western state of Michoacán.
Again, a profoundly unusual incident in Mexican society.
Valeria Villa, a Mexican family therapist with decades of experience in mental health issues in the country, described it as “a moment of transition, a very unfortunate, lamentable, and worrying one, towards imitation of the phenomenon of mass killings we see every day in the United States.”
Yet, this is not solely about echoing US societal problems; Mexico’s own issues with violence are partly at play, too.
The country experiences the constant backdrop of drug-related cartel violence, which Dr. Villa believes has desensitized society and young people.
While guns are not as readily available over the counter or online as in the US, weapons can be easily obtained on the black market.
Most of these guns have been smuggled into the country from the United States.
President Claudia Sheinbaum recently lauded the success of her federal security strategy, stating that the daily homicide rate in February 2026 was 44% lower than at the end of her predecessor’s term in September 2024.
She has also repeatedly argued that the country’s murder rate had been stabilized by the last administration — led by her political mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador — and that it has been on a downward trend under her mandate.
Her critics argue that the murder numbers do not tell the entire story of security in Mexico, where, with tens of thousands of Mexicans unaccounted for, disappearances among young people remain a major problem.
President Sheinbaum was quick to offer her sympathies and “solidarity” with the victims and their families following Monday’s attack at Teotihuacán.
The fact that the shooting at the popular tourist site occurred just a few weeks after the violence and havoc caused by gunmen from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel has caused real concern among football fans planning to attend the FIFA World Cup, which commences in Mexico City on June 11.
The Sheinbaum Administration — and the president herself — are working hard to reassure visitors that they will be safe and will take home only the fondest memories of Mexico, its people, its food, and its culture.
Even though he appears to have been a deeply troubled man acting alone, the footage of a gunman on the Pyramid of the Moon firing at foreigners will not ease any fears, especially so close to the World Cup kick-off.
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