Event: the FIFA World Cup

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.Safety questions linger since the country is set to host matches in the world’s largest sporting event, the FIFA World Cup.A police officer patrolling the historic center of Mexico City on Monday.Credit...Cristopher Rogel Blanquet for The New York TimesJames WagnerJames Wagner writes about news in Mexico and the region, and covered the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.Feb. 26, 2026Even with order in Mexico largely restored after the killing of a top cartel boss set off widespread violence, safety questions are lingering as the nation prepares to help host the world’s largest sporting event, the FIFA World Cup.The biggest soccer tournament ever — involving three countries, 104 games, 48 teams — will be played this summer partly in Mexico.But even before then, four qualifying matches will be held next month in the cities of Monterrey and Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco state, the stronghold of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. That is the group once led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as El Mencho, who was killed in a Mexican military operation on Sunday.After his death, armed groups unleashed a wave of violence in 20 states across the country, including in Monterrey’s state, Nuevo León.While officials including President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, Jalisco’s governor, soccer’s global leader and Mexican soccer’s chief have tried to project calm in the aftermath, some teams have admitted feeling nervous about playing in the country and have opened the door to possibly changing venues.“We are very aware of what’s happening there, and, of course, you are very concerned,” Michael Ricketts, the president of the Jamaican soccer federation, said in an interview on Wednesday. His team will face off against New…

Warning: This video contains graphic imagery of the victims of stabbings and shootings, as well as images of those killed in street violenceOne of the most powerful and feared criminal organisations in Mexico has unleashed a wave of violence across 20 Mexican states, following the death of drug lord Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, better known as "El Mencho", shortly after being captured amid a bloody firefight in Jalisco.Members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) have turned many towns and cities where the cartel is active into war zones.BBC international correspondent Quentin Sommerville travelled to Culiacán in northern Sinaloa state, another Mexican cartel hotspot at war with itself after the removal of its cartel leader in 2024, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, who is now in prison in the US.The BBC followed two paramedics in Culiacán, Julio César Vega and Héctor Torres, who attend to victims following violent incidents. Héctor said the violence in Culiacán had never been so bad or gone on for so long.More on this story: 'Fear is everywhere' - BBC reports from Mexican city turned into war zone by drug cartel feud