Jalisco families create World Cup‑style missing‑persons album

Families of people who have disappeared in the Mexican state of Jalisco, organized by the collective Luz de Esperanza, turned official search fichas into small cards that mimic the Panini album of the FIFA World Cup 2026. The cards, edited with the faces of missing individuals wearing Mexican national‑team shirts, were posted around the FIFA Fan Festival and other tourist spots in Guadalajara, one of the tournament’s host cities.

The activists say the display is meant to draw the attention of the three‑million international visitors expected for the World Cup and to highlight the national crisis of more than 134 000 missing persons, including about 16 000 cases in Jalisco alone. Héctor Flores, a spokesperson for Luz de Esperanza, explained, “It’s to connect with all football fans and send a message that the World Cup is not the problem, the lack of attention to those who are missing is.”

The group also criticised the regional government for allocating millions of pesos to World Cup infrastructure while the Vice‑Fiscalía of missing persons has not hired new staff and the state victims‑assistance office operates with only 15 advisers for thousands of cases. Luz de Esperanza says it will keep using the World Cup platform to press for more resources and better investigations throughout the tournament period.