Drainage captures increase the stream discharge and the potential ability of rivers to incise. In quiescent tectonic settings, drainage captures are rapid geomorphic processes that can trigger landscape rejuvenation. We study a drainage capture that renewed the incision of the Moctezuma River, which flows along a mountainous flank of the southern sector of the Sierra Madre Oriental (SMO). The subsequent baselevel drop along the Moctezuma River steepened its adjacent tributaries and generated the migration upstream of knickpoints. We elucidated the resultant pattern of landscape rejuvenation along the Moctezuma River by performing different hillslope and channel metrics. We also identified and analyzed the knickpoints to confirm their origin by one incision pulse migrating upstream from the Moctezuma River. Using the stream power-based celerity model on knickpoints, we estimated that the landscape rejuvenation due to drainage capture initiated ∼0.27 Ma ago with a migration rate of ∼1 mm yr −1. Our results confirm that drainage capture is an important mechanism that produces meaningful and complex landscape modifications likewise those produced by the tectonic activity.