Mexico (AFP) – Julio César Jasso Ramírez, the suicide bomber of the Teotihuacán pyramids, was inspired by the massacre at the American Columbine school and pre-Hispanic sacrifices to unleash a shootout that left a Canadian woman dead and 13 foreign tourists injured.
First modification: 04/22/2026 - 14:03
Monday noon was passing peacefully, with the neighboring archaeological site of Mexico City overflowing with tourists, when this 27-year-old man, dressed in a plaid shirt and black tactical pants, pulled out an American-made pistol, opened fire in the middle of the Pyramid of the Moon and took numerous people hostage.
The authorities have reconstructed the steps that Jasso Ramírez followed.
This man spent more than $2,000 on supplies, transportation and lodging to repeat the Columbine attack, which occurred on April 20, 1999.
The massacre in Colorado marked this Mexican, although he was barely eight months old when it happened, according to the findings of the authorities.
Jasso Ramírez arrived at the pyramids on Monday wearing a shirt similar to the one worn by one of the Columbine attackers and a tactical backpack.
"The evidence collected (...) shows a psychopathic profile of the aggressor, characterized by a tendency to copy situations that happened in other places at other times and by other characters," said the prosecutor of the State of Mexico, José Luis Cervantes, at the usual presidential press conference on Tuesday.
The authorities found among the belongings of the shooter, whom they classified as a "copy cat" (crime imitator), an image generated with artificial intelligence, which, according to Mexican media, shows him next to the Columbine attackers.
The official explained that prior to launching the attack, Jasso Ramírez visited Teotihuacán "on several occasions" and stayed in neighboring hotels.
On Sunday he traveled from Tlapa de Comonfort, a town located in a intricate mountainous area of the state of Guerrero (southern), which has been a hotbed of social movements and leftist guerrillas.
He arrived in Mexico City, from where he was transferred by application to the archaeological site to stay in a hotel.
-Sacrifices, "not photos"-
The testimonies of tourists held by the attacker reveal another element that could have influenced him and that refers to the sacrifices that, according to historians, some pre-Hispanic peoples made.
"One of the things he was telling us is that this was a place for sacrifices, not for his photos (...) and that it is the anniversary of the Columbine massacre," American tourist Jacqueline Gutiérrez told the Milenio network.
The young woman was visiting the pyramids with her parents and her boyfriend when "14 minutes of terror" broke out, without being able to escape.
"We couldn't move if we didn't fall down the pyramid (...) if he wanted to kill us all, he would have done it," he added, noting that the same man told them that he had been preparing the attack for three years.
He assured that he witnessed the moment when Jasso Ramírez shot directly at the Canadian tourist who died and shouted: "Europeans, it will be the last time you come here!"
Cervantes maintained that it was a solitary attack, without external collaborators in its planning and execution. Among their belongings they also found "literature alluding to attacks and figures that have to do with this type of violent actions."
Mexican media have reproduced images taken from social networks attributed to the attacker in which allusions to Adolf Hitler, also born on April 20, and to extremist groups are observed.
The attacker was originally from the state of Oaxaca (southern) and on his electoral card an address appears in a popular neighborhood of Mexico City.
"I wouldn't talk about a motive, I would talk about a psychopathy, a condition, an illness," Cervantes summarized about the potential motivations of the Teotihuacán attacker.
© 2026 AFP
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