A president with falling popularity, a major international event and organized social movements. The crisis is affecting Mexico, one of the three host countries for the 2026 World Cup and the stage for the opening of the tournament, this Thursday (11).
Inside the Azteca stadium, which is hosting the games for the third time in history, Colombian Shakira and Nigerian Burna Boy will sing the official song of the event before Mexico and South Africa face each other on the pitch. Outside, family members of the disappeared, unions and peasant organizations plan to meet at the end of simultaneous marches towards the complex.
Fears that the demonstrations would overshadow the opening ceremony led the federal government to suspend classes and authorize remote work for public servants in Mexico City, where the stadium is located, and the capital’s government to reinforce security.
The stadium, according to the city’s government secretary, César Cravioto, is now a “national security installation”. “They will have to understand that in less than 48 hours the World Cup will be opened here, at the stadium, and we already need to guarantee the security of the place”, he told Radio Formula about the protesters, last Tuesday (9).
The groups, however, show no sign of backing down — especially the CNTE (National Coordination of Education Workers), which worries the government most. Thousands of members of the organization have been on strike and camped around the Zócalo, about 10 km from the Azteca stadium, since the beginning of June.
The location is strategic. The historic heart of Mexico City, Constitution Square, the official name of the Zócalo, is surrounded by public buildings, including the National Palace, where President Claudia Sheinbaum lives. Furthermore, it was chosen to be the stage for the “fan fest”, an official FIFA event for fans to watch the match on big screens.
Among the fans must be Sheinbaum herself, who gave her ticket for the opening to Yolett Cervantes Cuaquehua, a 21-year-old indigenous woman from the state of Veracruz who won the contest organized by the federal government to give ticket 0001 to a Mexican citizen.
Last Tuesday, however, the president did not make it clear whether she would actually go to the “fan fest” or whether she would attend the ceremony at the National Palace. “We’ll see how things develop with teachers and other groups,” she said.
“If, for some reason, the game cannot be watched at the Zócalo, there are 18 places in the city where it can be seen for free, and I will see if we watch it here or if I go to one of those places”, he said this Wednesday, in his daily press conference, calling into question even the event itself.
The teachers’ main demand is the resumption of public pensions for the category, reversing the private system adopted at the end of the 1990s. Although it was a critic of this system in the years it was in opposition, the president’s party, Morena, insists that repealing it is economically unfeasible.
The mobilization around this issue began much earlier, but gained strength at the beginning of Sheinbaum’s government, at the end of 2024, before breaking out in the strike over the last ten days.
Now the storm seems perfect. Although Sheinbaum’s popularity is still at 68%, the index has dropped seven points since May last year — a drop that can be explained precisely by the country’s economic fragility in maintaining social programs, a major banner of the party that came to power with Andrés Manuel López Obrador, AMLO, in 2018.
“There are groups that want to provoke us, that want the international news to be that the Mexican government is repressing teachers. They will not achieve that and, at the same time, we will ensure that the opening ceremony of the World Cup goes smoothly, peacefully and serenely,” Sheinbaum said on Monday.
The member of the CNTE Political Directorate, Hezer Eufragio, says he does not agree with the leader, but states that the event is in fact a way of shining a light on the movement. “We took advantage of the World Cup situation to give visibility to the problem,” he told Sheet. “Right now, Mexico is the world’s showcase, because all eyes are on the stage that FIFA has planned here in our country.”
The group is not the only one who thinks this way. “We want the world to see that, while inside they celebrate the World Cup games, outside we mourn the disappearance of a family member,” Vanessa Gámez told Radio Rafaela when commenting on the protest plans around the stadium last week. His 19-year-old daughter, Ana Amelí García Gámez, disappeared in July 2025.
According to the National Public Security System, there are 132,500 cases of people with unknown whereabouts in Mexico, a chronic problem in the country that Morena’s management has failed to resolve.
This Wednesday, members of the CNTE met again with officials from the Ministry of the Interior for one last negotiation before the opening of the World Cup. Asked about concerns about the event, Sheinbaum said: “None. Everything under control.”
