While we were visiting Chichen Itza, our guide would frequently lament that the Mexican government “didn’t care”. I got the impression that this was a broad statement that could apply to a lot of things in Mexico, but in this case he was specifically referring to the cultural history of the country.
For instance, a few years back the Mexican government stopped allowing people to climb and explore the pyramids themselves and closed everything off behind fences. The official reason was because visitors were engaging in vandalism. That may have been true, and frankly I wouldn’t be shocked, people’s bad behaviour no longer surprises me. But then I asked myself, “why not just have security guards?”. In fact there are no visible staff on site at Chichen Itza outside of the ticket booths. No curators, no on-site guides, and no security, despite thousands of tourists passing through every day.
I guess it’s because they really don’t care.