Mothers of Mexico's disappeared stage protests during World Cup 2026 events

On 5 June 2024, collectives of mothers searching for missing relatives blocked access and traffic at the Utopia Mixhuca sports centre in Mexico City while FIFA presented the 2026 World Cup trophy. They displayed photographs, banners and search cards, urging authorities to allocate more resources to the over 6,000 cases opened in the city and the estimated 133,000 disappearances nationwide.

The following day, about 50 activists and families marched from Parque Vicente Guerrero to the Nemesio Diez stadium in Toluca before the Mexico‑Serbia friendly. Police stopped them at the Avenida Morelos/Aurelio Venegas intersection. Protesters painted a small field for a symbolic “anti‑World Cup” match and demanded security for their own search efforts, with one participant lamenting, “Security is deployed for the players, not for us searching for our loved ones.”