FIFA has faced mounting pressure in Mexico City and Guadalajara for the ways that the World Cup is intensifying policing and gentrification. Collectives searching for their disappeared relatives have taken the streets in both cities, and sex worker groups and associations are calling attention to the heightened displacement, evasive tactics, loss of income, and violence they are facing.
Every World Cup has the tendency to exacerbate already-existing state violence due to FIFA and national government demands for beautification in and around the stadium, under the guise of bringing the world a ‘safe tournament.’ This ‘safety’ comes at the expense of those who have always been subject to state violence in the country, or “freedom for FIFA, militarization for the rest.”
Read more about protests in Mexico City here (by Andrea Mireille) and in Guadalajara here (by Mariana Mora).
*the featured image is a screenshot from ojalá, which published the articles on Mexico City and Guadalajara linked above.