2026 World Cup: Protesters Block Access To Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium

With just a few hours to the kickoff of the 2026 World Cup, thousands of demonstrators blocked an avenue leading to Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium on Tuesday.

The protests, organized primarily by the National Coordination of Education Workers (CNTE) and various activist groups, have been building since early June. And their timing is not accidental.

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The 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 breakaway 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 set up around the venue, protesters rallied in the street for around 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.