by A renegade tourist who was met by an angry mob this week after climbing an ancient Mayan pyramid in Mexico’s Chichén Itzá has been identified as a 29-year-old Mexican national.
Officials said Abigail Villalobos had tried to pose as a Spaniard after she was arrested for her viral stunt, but it has since been determined that she is actually from Mexico.
Villalobos was detained for about 30 minutes Monday at Tinum police station, fined $260 and then released, according to reporting by Mexican news outlet Golfo Pacifico.
Villalobos sparked outrage when she broke rules barring visitors from climbing the 98-meter-tall Mayan temple of Kukulcán, which was named one of the New 7 Wonders of the World by UNESCO in 2007.
She was seen in TikTok videos dancing on the steps at the top of the pyramid and entering the temple, before descending to the sound of loud jeers from a crowd of visitors.
Furious onlookers hurled abuse at the offender, calling her an “a-hole” and an “idiot” in Spanish and demanding that she be jailed.
Some particularly offended witnesses went so far as to spray Villalobos with water, knock the hat off her head, and pull her blonde locks as she was led away by officials from the Mexican Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).
The viral stunt has earned the unwitting perpetrator the derisive nickname “Lady Chichén Itzá” on social media sites.
The Mayan Pyramid, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has been off limits to visitors since 2008 for conservation purposes.
The National Institute of Anthropology and History said Monday that the temple, also known as El Castillo, suffered no damage.
Penalties set by the Mexican Federal Law on Monuments and Archaeological, Artistic and Historical Areas for accessing the site without permission range from $2,500 to more than $5,000.
The Step Pyramid was built sometime between the 8th and 12th centuries AD by the Maya civilization to serve as a temple to the deity Kukulcán with the Feathered Serpent.
In 2021, a woman from Tijuana, Mexico, was fined for climbing the same pyramid while allegedly intoxicated.
