Protests Clog Mexico City On Eve Of World Cup
Teachers, students, mothers, farmers, truckers barge into the football fiesta; is anyone behind them?
Tents clog a key shopping street in the historic center of Mexico City, butting up to a metal barricade and a line of police officers snuggling under plastic sheets to shelter from punishing rain. Close by, school teachers fry pork tacos under a tarp, after being pushed out of the central Zocalo square last month so the government can build a fan fest zone for the kick off of the World Cup on Thursday. A pair of English tourists wearing green Mexico team t-shirts wander confused from a metro plastered with construction work to the metal barricade then settle in an outdoor restaurant for liter glasses of beer in the mid-afternoon.
Across the sprawling capital, mothers of disappeared children hang blankets from a bridge displaying the faces of their loved ones. Meanwhile, on the southern highway into the city, police detain buses of students from the Ayotzinapa teachers school, famous for having 43 students disappeared in 2014. Police say that on Monday they found 59 homemade explosives on the buses (although they are more on the level of Molotov cocktails than bombs) and they blame them on two students they say are nicknamed “El Coquillo” and “El Mamado.”
Adding to the fiesta, protesters including anarchists spray anti World Cup graffiti. Meanwhile, bar owners voice anger that FIFA is demanding a special license to show games to punters.
Residents and lovers of Mexico City, home to nine million people in the core CDMX zone and over 22 million in its sprawling metro area, know that protests are its daily bread. Still, President Claudia Sheinbaum and Mayor Clara Brugada hoped for less chaos as the whistle will start the World Cup at 1 pm on Thursday at the Azteca Stadium (which a bank renamed the Banorte Stadium and then FIFA has renamed the Mexico City Stadium).
To alleviate grid-lock and clear streets for foreign football fans pouring out the airport, the government has made Thursday a school holiday and called on employees to do home office this week. But protesters have announced more marches, including on Thursday morning itself, with teachers, oil workers, farmers, truckers, health workers, and searching mothers planning to set off from different points to descend on the stadium.
Amid tension, I hear a crisscross of accusations about who is behind the protests. After queuing up to go through the metal barricade to the edge of the Zocalo, I talk to…
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