{"id":624422,"date":"2026-06-06T12:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T12:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/624422\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T12:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T12:54:14","slug":"frustrations-on-multiple-fronts-set-to-collide-with-mexico-city-world-cup-opening-day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/624422\/","title":{"rendered":"Frustrations on multiple fronts set to collide with Mexico City World Cup opening day"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Est\u00e9vez Gamboa says he\u2019s from the \u201cold school,\u201d having spent more than 40 years behind the wheel of a transport truck. But he apologizes when emotion overtakes him while discussing the killings of truck drivers during robberies and hijackings that plague Mexico\u2019s highways.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Between 30 to 50 transport trucks are robbed, often at gunpoint, every day across the country, said Est\u00e9vez Gamboa, president of the Asociaci\u00f3n Nacional Transportista (ANTAC), a national truck drivers’ group.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do this work with love; that\u2019s why it hurts when they attack our colleagues,” said Est\u00e9vez Gamboa, as he drove through a winding highway with long, sloping switchbacks between the states of Puebla and Veracruz.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Truck drivers are also subject to extortion from the very federal authorities meant to protect them, he said. Stopping this is one of the drivers’ main demands. It\u2019s something that the Mexican government could end \u201cwith a snap of their fingers,\u201d said Est\u00e9vez Gamboa.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hurts a lot, what we are living through in this country.”<\/p>\n

That’s why Est\u00e9vez Gamboa\u2019s association is joining several movements planning protests and blockades on highways across the country, targeting the FIFA World Cup’s opening day in Mexico City on June 11.\u00a0(Mexico is co-hosting the event with Canada and the U.S.)<\/p>\n

Soccer is a national passion in Mexico, which previously hosted the 1970 and 1986 World Cup tournaments, and the games draw in tens of millions of fans nationwide. But this year, teachers’ unions, farmers, social justice groups and family organizations \u2014 called collectives \u2014 searching for the estimated 133,000 disappeared in the country are all planning to protest while the global spotlight shines on Mexico.<\/p>\n

\"AProtesters run from smoke launched by Mexico City policy from behind metal barricades on June 1. (Jorge Barrera\/CBC)’The world is watching Mexico’<\/p>\n

Conflict has already arrived on the streets of\u00a0 Mexico City.<\/p>\n

The National Co-ordinator of Education Workers teachers’ union launched a national strike Monday, calling for changes including better pay and pension reform.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve set up protest camps in central parts of the city while blockading main traffic arteries, and have stormed the offices of the education secretariat and toppled the statues of soccer players.<\/p>\n

Union members faced flash-bangs and tear gas earlier this week as they attempted to topple steel fencing blocking a main route to the Zocalo, the heart of the city\u2019s historic centre, which is also the site of an under-construction FIFA fan zone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MaskedProtesters smash the windows of a Mexico City municipal government tow truck on June 1. (Cinthya Chavez\/CBC)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call on the mothers of the disappeared to form a common front \u2026 also the truck drivers, farmers and farmworkers, the other union members \u2026 this is a common struggle,\u201d said Pedro Hern\u00e1ndez Morales, who leads one of the union\u2019s Mexico City units, during a speech Monday launching the strike.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet this become a celebration of the people, in the widest possible meaning of that word.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with CBC News, Hern\u00e1ndez Morales would not dismiss the possibility of protests on June 11 aimed at shutting down the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe World Cup is a global event; it\u2019s a window to show, before the world, that in this country we don\u2019t resolve our problem,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a unique opportunity.\u2026 The world is watching Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n

No ‘repression,’ says Mexican president<\/p>\n

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has said her administration is always open for dialogue, but that the union\u2019s demands would place a heavy burden on the current federal budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, she pledged not to repeat the mistakes of the past, invoking the Tlatelolco Massacre in 1968, when the military opened fire on students at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas days before the Summer Olympics began in the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI am against any form of repression,\u201d said Sheinbaum.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Est\u00e9vez Gamboa said truck drivers have been fruitlessly pushing the government for months to implement changes to increase security on highways with aerial and real-time camera surveillance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want the world to help us protest, to pay attention to us so there won\u2019t be so much corruption and so many unresolved issues we live with in this country,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"ADavid Est\u00e9vez Gamboa says his organization is contemplating joining nationwide protests on June 11, the kick-off date for the FIFA World Cup. (Jorge Barrera\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Est\u00e9vez Gamboa said his organization is also backing the families of the disappeared, of which there are an estimated 133,000 in Mexico, according to a federal registry<\/a>. That puts the country on par with war-torn nations like Syria and Colombia.<\/p>\n

Collectives of the families of the disappeared are expected to hold a candlelight walk on the evening of June 10 and a daytime march on June 11.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey put so many resources into the World Cup, but for our searches, not so much,\u201d said Carolina Espinosa Cano, a member of the Light on the Path collective in Mexico City.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey tell us they have no resources.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I am disillusioned’ <\/p>\n

Cano said federal and state governments have also failed to properly fund forensic services that has led to a backlog that some studies<\/a> say has reached about 70,000 unidentified bodies in morgues across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cano and other family members and volunteers, backed by Mexico City\u2019s missing persons search commission, scoured the rugged and remote terrain this week of the Cumbres del Ajusco National Park, along the southern edge of the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TwoA supporter hugs Carolina Espinosa Cano, right, a member of the Light on the Path collective in Mexico City, during a June 2 search for her husband, who has been missing since 2020. (Cinthya Chavez\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Their main goal was to find evidence of Cano\u2019s husband, Dr. Ignacio Santiago P\u00e9rez, who was allegedly kidnapped after he left work on June 12, 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cano said that evidence from a suspect arrested three years ago suggested her husband\u2019s body may have been dumped in this area. However, she said the search was delayed due to jurisdictional confusion between agencies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In\u00e9s Enriqueta L\u00e1zaro, another collective member, joined the search in hopes of also finding some evidence of her son, who vanished on the morning of April 26, 2018, from a neighbourhood near the national park while on his way to pick his wife up for breakfast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AIn\u00e9s Enriqueta L\u00e1zar is searching for her son who vanished on the morning of April 26, 2018. (Jorge Barrera\/CBC)<\/p>\n

\u201cI am disillusioned with our government, with our authorities \u2026 for them, the World Cup is more important than the disappearances of our children, our husbands. We don\u2019t count; they leave us as second class,\u201d said L\u00e1zaro.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey [the government] say that the disappearances, the killings, are decreasing, but that’s a lie.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Est\u00e9vez Gamboa says he\u2019s from the \u201cold school,\u201d having spent more than 40 years behind the wheel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-624422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}