Mexico’s violence-hit Guadalajara to host World Cup games

GUADALAJARA – The city of Guadalajara erupted in cartel violence this past weekend, along with other parts of Mexico, after an army raid

left a notorious drug lord dead

.

The city is now looking ahead nervously to the

World Cup this summer, when it will host four games

.

The authorities are

turning to technology

to keep their slice of the world’s premier sporting event safe, as Mexico is co-hosting the tournament with the US and Canada. Drones, anti-drone equipment and artificial intelligence-powered video surveillance systems are among the tools the state government of Jalisco, of which Guadalajara is the capital, plans to deploy for security.

The preparations come as Jalisco endures an epidemic of disappearances and the discoveries of clandestine graves, with Guadalajara recording more residents missing due to brutal drug-related violence than any other city in Mexico.

On Feb 22, Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera, leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and one of the most wanted men in Mexico and the US, was killed in a military operation about 130km from Guadalajara.

The cartel

reacted with fury

, triggering gunfire with security forces that left at least 57 people dead across Mexico – including soldiers and cartel members – and led to highway blockades in 20 states.

Following the burning of buses and businesses, the authorities suspended football games in Guadalajara and the central state of Queretaro.

FIFA, football’s world governing body, declined to comment on the violence in one of the cup’s host cities.

On Feb 23, the streets of Guadalajara remained partly empty, with businesses shut and classes suspended in Jalisco. Schools also closed in a dozen other states.

Days earlier, state security officials had reported that Guadalajara was “peaceful”.

‘Grotesque situation’

Jalisco is among the states with the most missing people in all of Mexico, with 12,575 reported missing, according to official statistics. More than half are from the Guadalajara metropolitan area.

Disappearances are driven by forced recruitment for criminal groups, said Dr Carmen Chinas, an academic at the University of Guadalajara.

Family members of missing people have unearthed hundreds of clandestine graves in their search for loved ones.

Some activists have expressed dismay over Guadalajara’s hosting of the World Cup.

“I don’t think there is anything to celebrate. It seems like a pretty grotesque situation to me,” said 26-year-old Carmen Ponce, whose brother Victor Hugo disappeared in 2020.

“The country celebrates goals while we are here searching,” she said at a field where she and her mother in September 2025 found buried plastic bags containing the remains of five people.

People are also jittery about

hosting the games

in a city that has been through so much.

Mr Juan Carlos Contreras, who oversees the city’s security camera network, said there could be protests by residents furious with the government as they search for their missing loved ones.

‘Economic blow’

Mr Missael Robles, a 31-year-old tour guide from Guadalajara, said he has cancelled as many as 25 tours since the Oseguera violence exploded on Feb 22. “The economic blow is a big deal,” he said.

The authorities have discovered properties used by criminal groups just a few kilometres from the Akron Stadium, which is due to host World Cup games.

The state prosecutor’s office raided a house and arrested two people accused of kidnapping less than 2km from the sporting complex. AFP saw chains wrapped around metal bars in the abandoned building, with the Akron Stadium visible in the distance.

Mr Jose Raul Servin, who has been looking for his son Raul since he disappeared in April 2018, fears tourists coming for the World Cup could be preyed on by crime gangs. “We don’t want anything to happen,” he said, “like what’s happened to us.”

Mr Servin remembers with nostalgia that his son was a football fan. “If he were here, he would be happy about the World Cup,” he said. AFP