The Mexican national football team won a friendly 4-0 against Iceland on Wednesday, but the result was not of significance. More important was that the match in the central Mexican city of Santiago de Querétaro ended without particular incidents, without violence. Six security rings had been drawn around the stadium, with hundreds of police officers and National Guard troops. A football match like a fortress.
Mexico looks back on an eventful week. On Sunday, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes was killed during a military operation. “El Mencho,” as he was known, was the head of the Jalisco cartel, a paramilitary network with around 20,000 personnel. How large their influence is became evident in the days that followed. Cartel supporters set fires to shops, cars, and banks; they blocked streets and highways. At least 73 people were killed.
But the violence had already been the dominant issue in Jalisco before the killing of “El Mencho.” In the western Mexican state, around 16,000 people are considered missing, mostly young men who were recruited by the cartels and allegedly murdered. In March 2025, volunteers uncovered a murder site on a deserted farm in Teuchitlán. They found body bags, bone fragments and ovens that were likely used to burn victims.
In barely a hundred days, the World Cup will begin in Mexico City, to be held across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Of the 104 matches, thirteen are planned in Mexico, four of them in Guadalajara, the capital of the state of Jalisco. Among others, Spain will face Uruguay there. The national teams of South Korea and Colombia want to base themselves in Guadalajara. Five other teams, such as Portugal, Spain, and Tunisia, plan their accommodation in other Mexican states. But whether this will actually happen is doubtful.
No to Jalisco
“For the people here the World Cup is still far away,” says Françoise Greve of the German Coordination for Human Rights in Mexico, a network of initiatives. “People are thinking from day to day. Many stay in their homes out of fear, children do not go to school. And there is a fear that further cartel reactions will follow.” Several governments warn their citizens against traveling to Jalisco. The states hosting the other two World Cup venues, Mexico City and Monterrey, are not on the warning list.
In Jalisco, numerous large events have been canceled or postponed, including several soccer matches. At the end of March, the last playoff games for World Cup qualification are scheduled to take place in Guadalajara, including Jamaica, New Caledonia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. FIFA still wants to adhere to this plan, but behind the scenes a possible relocation is apparently being discussed.
The Mexican government, which was expecting five million additional tourists this year due to the World Cup, points to the security concept. Before and during the World Cup, 50,000 police officers and National Guard troops are to be deployed. Because of the danger of kidnappings, demand for armored vehicles has risen. The national teams are to be accompanied by military units. Spectators must register with facial recognition screening.
For politicians who position themselves against cartels and corruption, Mexico is probably the most dangerous country outside war zones. In the past 25 years, more than 200 human rights defenders and 160 journalists have been murdered in connection with their work. “Actually, Mexico with its human rights crisis is not capable of hosting a meg event like the World Cup,” says Mauricio Salazar, who works with the organization Aluna Acompañamiento Psicosocial for those threatened.
Barra Brava
According to surveys by the magazine Science, the cartels have 185,000 members, making it one of the largest economic sectors in Mexico. At times, the cartels also recruit hard-core football fans, the Barra Brava, as thugs, scouts in contested neighborhoods, or drug dealers around the stadiums. “The fan groups are often hierarchically organized and have loyal members for whom violence is part of everyday life,” says the anthropologist Roger Magazine, who also studies football in Mexico.
In small and medium-sized towns, football clubs and their grounds are often the most important social meeting places for young men. At FC Querétaro, based in the central Mexican state of Querétaro, the fan group “Resistencia Albiazul” is said to maintain close ties to organized crime. This became clear in March 2022, when Querétaro hosted Atlas Guadalajara in a home match.
When Atlas led 1-0, fights erupted in the stands. Querétaro fans chased Atlas supporters across the pitch, attacking them with knives, belts and poles. They repeatedly struck unconscious victims and some even robbed their clothing. Videos show the passivity of security forces. Officially there were 26 severely injured, but no deaths. Eyewitnesses later doubted this.
In response, the Mexican top league introduced the Fan ID, a digital system with facial recognition to register fans by name. “The violence in the stadiums has decreased since then,” says Roger Magazine. “But the violence has not disappeared; it has shifted.” For example to parking lots, access routes, amateur grounds.
CR7 waits
So far it was Donald Trump’s erratic policy, but now the security situation in Mexico is likely FIFA’s greatest challenge. “I am very calm,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino to the news agency AFP. “Everything is running very well, everything will be fantastic.”
The Mexican government hopes for a quick calm. In Acapulco, in the state of Guerrero, an ATP tennis tournament is currently taking place. And on March 28, the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City is to reopen after modernization. The Mexican national team will then host Portugal with Cristiano Ronaldo. Will the security situation have stabilized by then?
Negative headlines still linger, for example from the state of Guanajuato. At the end of January, armed men drove onto a sports facility in the small community of Loma de Flores. They opened fire on players and spectators. In the end, eleven people were killed and twelve injured, including a child. And this in a country where soon the biggest football festival is to take place.
