The United States government has carried out dynamite detonations that damaged an archaeological zone and ceremonial site belonging to an indigenous community on the U.S.‑Mexico border, as part of ongoing work to build the steel border wall, according to local residents and the binational Kumeyaay people.

Residents from the Valle de la Lechuza community reported that the explosions struck the slopes of Cerro Cuchumá, an archaeological and Yuman ceremonial site, damaging a 35‑meter monolith that is the largest on the sacred mountain. The area includes cemeteries, ritual points, and the traditional initiation center for shamans.

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Since his first term, President Donald Trump initiated the border wall construction, starting in Mexicali and later extending to urban zones of Tijuana and Tecate. The wall consists of 12‑meter‑long steel structures, with two meters buried as support in concrete footings, designed to prevent migrant crossings.

The detonations have sparked outrage because Tecate Peak was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 26, 1992, in recognition of its ancestral cultural and ceremonial value. Residents argue that the dynamite blasts violate the spirit of that designation.

The damage raises concerns over environmental, cultural, and heritage impacts in one of the most significant territories of the Kumeyaay people, who consider the site sacred—a space of spiritual, ceremonial, and territorial importance.

Researcher Everardo Garduño has documented 71 ritual and funerary elements in the area. He noted that the metal fence sections off traditional Kumeyaay territory, forcing a division between two nationalities and destroying spaces of spiritual meaning.

Tonalli Magaña Guzmán, a composer and music producer who lives in the region, said the fence construction cuts through the separation and that humanity is trampling over everything. The binational community has publicly denounced damage to aquifers, land, and the environment, and is calling for urgent intervention by authorities to stop the destruction.

This is not the first protest of its kind. In 2020, Kumeyaay from both the United States and Mexico united against the use of explosives for Trump’s border wall in territories containing graves and ancestral bones.

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