Mexico’s president acknowledged that the ruins outside Mexico City lacked security measures to prevent an attack.
Published April 22, 2026
With less than two months to go until the FIFA World Cup, the Mexican government has announced it is tightening security at tourist sites after a man opened fire on tourists at the Pyramids on the outskirts of Mexico City.
On Monday, a lone Canadian tourist was killed and 13 others injured when a lone gunman opened fire atop the pyramids of Teotihuacan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Mexico’s most-visited tourist attractions.
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The incident also prompted a series of questions from reporters the next morning to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum about what safety measures the government was taking for the World Soccer Championships, which Mexico will co-host with the United States and Canada in June and July.
Teotihuacan, about an hour from Mexico City, was to be a key destination for visitors during the festival. Days before the shooting, local lawmakers also pushed for an effort to reinstate the nighttime interactive light show projected onto the pyramids for World Cup attendees, which had been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The incident comes as the Sheinbaum administration is making significant efforts to project an image of safety ahead of the biggest soccer tournament after a spike in cartel violence in February in the World Cup host city of Guadalajara.
“Isolated incident”
Sheinbaum acknowledged Tuesday that there were no security filters at the site to prevent the attack, in part because the shooting “was an isolated incident” that had never happened before in such a public place.
Mexico suffers from cartel violence, especially in strategic and rural areas, but public shootings are rare compared to the United States, where it is much easier to legally obtain guns.
She noted that the attackers appeared to be motivated by “outside influences,” specifically the 1999 Columbine massacre in Colorado.
“Our duty as a government is to take appropriate steps to ensure that a situation like this never happens again. But obviously we all know, and Mexicans know, that this has never happened before,” Sheinbaum said Tuesday.
Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Halfuch, who is responsible for the government’s crackdown on cartels, said on Tuesday that security forces had been ordered to “immediately increase security” at archaeological sites and major tourist sites across the country.
He said the government would increase the presence of the Mexican National Guard, strengthen security inspections of key locations and strengthen surveillance systems to “identify and thwart any threats” to citizens and visitors.
Security concerns before the World Cup
The announcement was an effort by Mexican authorities to allay concerns about continued violence in the country ahead of the Games.
The Sheinbaum administration has touted its security successes under her leadership. Since her appointment, murders have plummeted to the lowest level in a decade, according to government figures. The government also eliminated a number of top capos and highlighted a decline in fentanyl seizures at the U.S.-Mexico border.
But they have run into hurdles in recent months, including the eruption of violence in Guadalajara in February sparked by the killing of Mexico’s most powerful cartel boss. The bloodshed sparked a wave of concern from people in Mexico and abroad. Sheinbaum assured fans attending the tournament that there would be “no risk” and FIFA president Gianni Infantino said he had “full confidence” in Mexico as hosts. Sheinbaum later met with FIFA representatives to assess the safety of World Cup matches in Mexico.
The government has doubled its security efforts, deploying 100,000 security personnel across the country, particularly in the three host cities of Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. More than 2,000 military vehicles will be deployed, as well as dozens of aircraft and drones, and security perimeters will be set up around stadiums and airports in major cities, officials said.
“As you can see, we are very ready for the World Cup,” Sheinbaum said in early March.
Monday’s Pyramid shooting was unusual, but the extreme act of violence renewed scrutiny in some quarters over the government’s ability to prevent violence during the Games, and renewed pressure on the government.
