A big one protest outside Estadio Azteca in Mexico adds even more chaos to the beginning of the World Cup. Riot police were forced to intervene as the large crowd of demonstrators marched towards the football stadium.
Fortunately, the crowd eventually dispersed before the situation got out of hand.
The root of this latest protest is twofold. Both parties (which are one and the same) chose to use the international one football tournament as a way to increase the visibility of their respective causes.
Estadio Azteca will host the first match of the World Cup.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup features 16 stadiums across Canada, Mexico and the United States. Toronto and Vancouver will serve as host cities in Canada. Kansas City, Boston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Dallas, Los Angeles, Houston, Miami, New Jersey, Seattle and San Francisco will serve as host cities in the United States. Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey will serve as host cities in Mexico.
The tournament starts Thursday afternoon at 3:00 PM ET. Mexico will play South Africa in the first match of the World Cup at the historic Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.
Estadio Azteca was built in 1966. It is located at an altitude of 2,200 meters with a maximum capacity of 87,523. It is the only stadium in history to host three different editions of the Football World Cup. The stadium will also host two other group stage matches, a Round 32 match and a Round 16 match.
Teachers are on strike.
Protesters closed the main road leading to the Estadio Azteca all day on Tuesday, just two days before the first match. It was twofold.
The largest group of demonstrators was affiliated with the teachers’ union CNTE. The Mexican government passed a law in 2007 that dismantled a solidarity-based pension system for government employees. That system was subsequently replaced by individual, privately managed accounts. Teachers essentially lost their guaranteed retirement funds overnight.
Each of the last two elected presidents, including current President Claudia Sheinbaum, campaigned for the reversal of that law. The newly elected president did not keep her promise, so the CNTE had had enough.
On March 18, 2026 they took to the streets. Thousands of teachers marched through the capital to demand repeal. They blocked highways, destroyed monuments, World Cup statues toppledand even broke into a government building.
The protest has not stopped for three months and the CNTE called for a formal strike on June 1. Many of the protesters have been paid thousands of pesos a day. They don’t care. The cause is too important.
The protests in Mexico City continue.
Another side of the protest focuses on the so-called ‘disappearance’ of local residents. These people were allegedly murdered and/or kidnapped by Mexican authorities and/or criminal gangs. CNTE is working with the other activists. Their overall goal is to draw attention to government corruption.
More specifically, protesters want to take away the ‘cosmetic image’ of the World Cup. Everything is not as perfect as the government wants it to seem during the duration of the tournament.
Even her a tent city set up in a busy part of Mexico City. They’re not going anywhere!
President Claudia Sheinbaum called the protest a provocation. “As if to say, ‘Look how bad the situation is in Mexico,’” she said. “They want to give the impression that there is massive social unrest in Mexico, and that is not true.”
And now that the World Cup is taking place in Mexico City on Thursday, tensions are rising. The protest completely took over the main road to Estadio Azteca on Tuesday, but a police blockade prevented demonstrators from reaching the stadium.
Local residents are calling for a complete boycott of the tournament.
It will be interesting to see how the authorities will approach the protest on Wednesday and Thursday as the first match of the World Cup approaches. Will this be met with violence? Will it take place in a specific part of the city? What happens if the march continues along the main road to Estadio Azteca while the football fans are also trying to get to the stadium? Stay informed.
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