Protesters Block Access to Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium Ahead of 2026 World Cup

With only a few hours left before the 2026 World Cup opening match, thousands of demonstrators blocked an avenue leading to Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium on Tuesday.

The protest, organized mainly by the National Coordination of Education Workers (CNTE) and other activist groups, has been developing since early June. Its timing is deliberate.

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Teachers have called for demonstrations on Thursday that will also include families of disappeared people, who are alleged to have been killed or kidnapped by Mexican authorities or criminal gangs.

Tuesday’s protest, led by a splinter group of the CNTE teachers union, follows a week of demonstrations that President Claudia Sheinbaum has called a “provocation.”

“As if to say, ‘Look at how bad the situation is in Mexico,’” she told a press conference.

However, a police blockade prevented the demonstrators from reaching the Azteca Stadium, which will host the World Cup opening match on Thursday.

With thousands of officers deployed and concrete barriers erected around the venue, protesters gathered in the street for about three hours before dispersing.

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Mexico City’s security chief Pablo Vazquez said in a statement that the protest had been peaceful.

The Azteca Stadium will host the World Cup’s first game, pitting Mexico against South Africa, on Thursday, with a vast global TV audience set to tune in for the opening ceremony and the match.