Various groups of protesters plan to demonstrate on Thursday outside the Mexico City Stadium, where the opening match of the FIFA men’s World Cup will kick off at 1 p.m. after a star-studded opening ceremony.
Among the people who plan to march to the stadium from different points of southern Mexico City are madres buscadoras (mothers searching for their missing children), teachers affiliated with the CNTE teachers’ union, retired Pemex and Federal Electricity Commission workers, transport workers, farmers, healthcare workers and members of anti-gentrification organizations.
They are seeking to pressure authorities to meet their various demands. In the case of CNTE-affiliated teachers, those demands include a 100% pay rise and the repeal of a 2007 law that changed their pension system. In the case of madres buscadoras, demands include more government support and resources to locate their missing loved ones. Virtually all protesters want more government support as well as action against insecurity and crimes such as extortion. Some Mexico City residents, including people who live near the Mexico City Stadium, will participate in protests on Thursday to highlight housing and water problems in the capital as well as to demonstrate their opposition to gentrification of their neighborhoods.
Protesters will depart from seven different locations in southern Mexico City on Thursday, according to media reports. The Mexico City Stadium, as the Banorte Stadium will be called during the World Cup, is located around 17 kilometers south of the capital’s historic center in the Coyoacán borough.
Protesters are expected to arrive at the stadium at 1 p.m. — i.e., just as the Mexico vs. South Africa match is starting. Their marches to the stadium could cause disruptions and delays for people heading to the match.
President Claudia Sheinbaum has promised that authorities won’t use force against protesters. She said Monday that “we’re going to guarantee that the celebration of the opening of the World Cup takes place successfully, in peace and calmly.”
Sheinbaum has repeatedly stated that authorities won’t succumb to “provocations” by protesters.
On Tuesday, a group of CNTE-affiliated teachers began marching toward the Mexico City Stadium, but their path was blocked by a wall of police.
Imágenes aéreas muestran el operativo desplegado por la SSC sobre Calzada de Tlalpan ante la movilización de la CNTE. Además, fueron colocadas dovelas de concreto para impedir el avance de los manifestantes, lo que genera afectaciones viales en el sur de la CDMX.… pic.twitter.com/YBe024l61p
— N+ FORO (@nmasforo) June 9, 2026
A total of 13 World Cup matches will be played in Mexico (Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey) during the 39-day tournament, which the United States and Canada will co-host.
‘The world will see the Mexico that the regime wants to hide’
The newspaper El Universal reported that posts on social media promoting protests state that “the eyes of the world” will be on Mexico on Thursday.
According to El Universal, social media posts state that tourists, foreign reporters and “millions of people” watching the start of the World Cup will see protesters on Thursday.
“The world will see the Mexico that the regime” — i.e., the federal government — “wants to hide,” posts say, according to the Mexico City broadsheet.
El Universal also reported that social media posts warn protesters against the use of violence.
“Film everything, zero violence, zero provocations,” state posts on X. “Let the world see who resists in peace. Let the world see who represses.”
Relatives of missing persons also plan to protest at the CDMX FIFA Fan Festival
The newspaper El Financiero reported that the “Hasta Encontrarles” (Until We Find Them) collective in Mexico City has called on madres buscadoras to march peacefully to Mexico City Stadium on Thursday. The newspaper also reported that “searchers” — the relatives and friends of missing people — will gather at the FIFA Fan Festival in the Zócalo, Mexico City’s main square.
There are over 130,000 missing persons in Mexico, the majority of whom disappeared during the last 20 years.
In a statement issued on Monday, Amnesty International said that “women searcher collectives, who are planning a peaceful protest to coincide with the opening match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup at the Mexico City Stadium, must be protected and heard.”
“Thousands of people are expected to attend a march in the country’s capital which has been organized by women in honor of their disappeared loved ones – many of whom were forcibly recruited into drug cartels or murdered for resisting. Amnesty International will be observers at the protest,” Amnesty International said.
“… As of 25 May 2026, the National Registry had recorded 134,460 missing persons in Mexico. With little support from authorities, women seeking truth, justice and remedy have been forced to search for their loved ones themselves, filling the gaps left when those in power look the other way. Now, the women, whose slogan is ‘Don’t play with our pain,’ are calling for justice for their loved ones, better safety and for the authorities to accept support from other countries to assist with their search,” the organization said.
Edith Olivares Ferreto, Executive Director of Amnesty International Mexico, said: “As tens of millions of people around the world prepare to tune into what FIFA is calling ‘the greatest opening ceremony on earth,’ thousands of brave women in Mexico will use the opportunity to take to the streets and remind the world that their loved ones are still missing and that their search for them continues.”
With reports from El Universal, El Financiero and Proceso
