The authorities in Mexico are still piecing together how a typical morning at the ancient pyramid complex of Teotihuacán, one of the country's foremost tourist destinations, descended into terrifying gun violence on Monday. The video footage is disturbing. A gunman stands atop the imposing Pyramid of the Moon and opens fire on the tourists around him, who cower for cover among the pre-Hispanic stone structures.
After the ordeal, a 32-year-old Canadian woman had been killed and the gunman had died from a self-inflicted gun wound. Tourists from several nations, including Russia, Colombia and Brazil, were treated for their injuries in local hospitals. The fact that visitors from overseas were targeted poses a headache for the government just weeks before Mexico co-hosts the men's football World Cup.
The shooting came less than two months after masked gunmen from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel unleashed a wave of violence, sowing fear across the country following the killing of their leader 'El Mencho' by the security forces. But this incident was very different. Mexican authorities say the Teotihuacán gunman acted alone and there was no apparent link to Mexico's widespread cartel violence.
He has been identified as 27-year-old Julio César Jasso Ramírez, a Mexican citizen who lived 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,' said the Attorney-General of Mexico State José Luis Cervantes Martínez.
Among the gunman's belongings, officials found a handgun, a bag of cartridges and a tactical knife. The attorney-general added they also found 'literature, images, manuscripts apparently related to acts of violence which are known may have occurred in the United States in April 1999'. A witness also told Reuters news agency that visitors had heard the attacker refer to Columbine - the site of a notorious US school shooting.
Mexicans are no strangers to violence; 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 organisations. Attorney-General Cervantes said that the evidence collected so far pointed to 'a psychopathic profile of the attacker, characterised by a tendency to imitate situations that occurred in other places'.
Valeria Villa, a Mexican family therapist with decades of experience in mental health, 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'. While guns are not as available over the counter or online with the same ease as in the US, weapons can be readily obtained on the black market, mostly smuggled into the country from the United States.
President Claudia Sheinbaum was quick to offer her sympathies and 'solidarity' with the victims and their families following Monday's attack at Teotihuacán. The Sheinbaum Administration is trying hard to reassure visitors about safety ahead of the World Cup, but the image of a gunman on the Pyramid of the Moon firing at foreigners complicates this narrative.
After the ordeal, a 32-year-old Canadian woman had been killed and the gunman had died from a self-inflicted gun wound. Tourists from several nations, including Russia, Colombia and Brazil, were treated for their injuries in local hospitals. The fact that visitors from overseas were targeted poses a headache for the government just weeks before Mexico co-hosts the men's football World Cup.
The shooting came less than two months after masked gunmen from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel unleashed a wave of violence, sowing fear across the country following the killing of their leader 'El Mencho' by the security forces. But this incident was very different. Mexican authorities say the Teotihuacán gunman acted alone and there was no apparent link to Mexico's widespread cartel violence.
He has been identified as 27-year-old Julio César Jasso Ramírez, a Mexican citizen who lived 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,' said the Attorney-General of Mexico State José Luis Cervantes Martínez.
Among the gunman's belongings, officials found a handgun, a bag of cartridges and a tactical knife. The attorney-general added they also found 'literature, images, manuscripts apparently related to acts of violence which are known may have occurred in the United States in April 1999'. A witness also told Reuters news agency that visitors had heard the attacker refer to Columbine - the site of a notorious US school shooting.
Mexicans are no strangers to violence; 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 organisations. Attorney-General Cervantes said that the evidence collected so far pointed to 'a psychopathic profile of the attacker, characterised by a tendency to imitate situations that occurred in other places'.
Valeria Villa, a Mexican family therapist with decades of experience in mental health, 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'. While guns are not as available over the counter or online with the same ease as in the US, weapons can be readily obtained on the black market, mostly smuggled into the country from the United States.
President Claudia Sheinbaum was quick to offer her sympathies and 'solidarity' with the victims and their families following Monday's attack at Teotihuacán. The Sheinbaum Administration is trying hard to reassure visitors about safety ahead of the World Cup, but the image of a gunman on the Pyramid of the Moon firing at foreigners complicates this narrative.
