movements

June 10 (UPI) — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum cast doubt whether she will attend the 2026 World Cup Fan Fest on Thursday because of demonstrations by teachers from the National Coordinator of Education Workers.

During her press conference Tuesday, the president said her being there would depend on “how what is happening with the teachers and some other groups develops, because I obviously have to pay attention to that.”

The highly anticipated World Cup opening ceremony in Mexico City and the game between Mexico and South Africa, are scheduled at 1:30 p.n. local time at Banorte Stadium, renamed from Azteca Stadium for the tournament.

The event will be held as social protests seek to capitalize on the tournament’s international attention to publicize demands related to human rights, pensions, public services and labor conditions.

Among the most visible movements those formed by teachers from the National Coordinator of Education Workers, who have maintained a protest camp for weeks in Mexico City’s Zócalo. They have erected blockades at different locations to demand repeal of reforms to the pension system for state employees and salary increases.

The demonstrations have impacted streets, public buildings and areas linked to the operation of the World Cup.

Mexico City’s Secretariat of Citizen Security reported about 6,000 teachers are participating in demonstrations in areas near the stadium. Although the federal government maintains that fully reversing the reform would carry a high fiscal cost, union leaders have warned they will continue protesting until they receive a favorable response.

Political analysts agree that the 2026 FIFA World Cup has become the main battleground for the public narrative in Mexico — a phenomenon in which social tensions are colliding directly with government efforts to project stability abroad.

One example will be the mobilization of groups representing relatives of missing persons, known as “searching mothers.” Thousands of women plan to march on the same day as the opening ceremony under the slogan, “Do not play with our pain,” to denounce a crisis involving more than 134,000 people who are missing or whose whereabouts remain unknown in the country.

The organizations have begun to post photographs and missing-person notices around the stadium and have announced activities aimed at drawing attention to the issue before the millions of viewers who will follow the tournament around the world.

Amnesty International said it will act as an observer of the protest.

“As tens of millions of people around the world prepare to tune in to what FIFA describes as ‘the biggest opening ceremony on the planet,’ in Mexico thousands of brave women will seize the opportunity to take to the streets and remind the world that their loved ones remain missing,” said Edith Olivares Ferreto, executive director of Amnesty International Mexico.

“The Interior Ministry works permanently on the issue of missing persons, is permanently engaged in search efforts in a way that has never been done before and also with prevention at the moment a person finds themselves in this situation,” Sheinbaum said Tuesday.

“Therefore, the issues are being addressed. If they want to demonstrate, then they should do so peacefully.”

Neighborhood organizations have also joined the protests.

With slogans that oppose gentrification and evictions and protest water shortages, anti-World Cup groups contend that projects associated with the tournament have deepened structural problems in different neighborhoods of the capital.

They have been joined by farmers’ organizations, transport workers and retired members of the judiciary, who have called for demonstrations on strategic routes leading to the stadium.

The protests also coincide with questions about infrastructure that must deal with the tournament.

In recent days, users reported water leaks at recently renovated stations on Metro Line 2, one of the main transportation routes for fans attending the opening match. Rainfall also caused delays on the rail network because of speed restrictions implemented for safety reasons.

Against this backdrop, federal and local authorities announced a security operation that involves more than 10,000 personnel to safeguard the opening ceremony, guarantee the movement of teams and fans, and prevent incidents around the stadium and the FIFA Fan Festival in the Zócalo.

Caracas, May 24, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan grassroots organizations took to the streets on Saturday to protest the US holding “rapid response” military drills in Caracas.

Dozens of activists from multiple collectives belonging to the ALBA Movimientos coalition gathered in the morning in front of the Indigenous Resistance monument in Plaza Venezuela and read a statement expressing “outrage” at the US holding an exercise in Caracas less than five months after its January 3 bombings and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.

“As Venezuelan popular organizations, 141 days since the brutal US military attack and kidnapping of President Maduro and Deputy Cilia Flores, […] we repudiate yankee militarist imperialism and are outraged that the US is executing military exercises in our country,” the organizations expressed.

Speakers, including National Assembly deputies Rigel Sergent and Oliver Rivas, condemned the US-Israel war against Iran and the growing threats against Cuba while reiterating support for the Venezuelan government led by Acting President Delcy Rodríguez.

Also on Saturday, several leftist organizations held a rally in Chacaíto to protest the violation of the country’s sovereignty and denounce the Venezuelan government’s accommodation of US impositions.

“This exercise is extremely serious because it makes concepts like sovereignty appear hollow for younger generations,” trade unionist Adelmo Becerra told those present. “Our challenge is to maintain the idea of sovereignty alive in collective memory.”

Demonstrators painted posters reading “Yankee go home!” and chanted slogans such as “We refuse to be a US colony!” Participating organizations included the Communist Party (PCV), Corriente Comunes, and the Socialist Workers’ League (LTS).

A third rally, called by members of the ruling United Socialist Party (PSUV), took place in Plaza Bolívar, with participants shouting anti-imperialist slogans and burning posters of US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

On Saturday morning, US forces flew two Osprey MV-22B aircraft over Caracas before landing near the embassy compound in the southeast of the capital. The tiltrotor transport aircraft took off from the USS Iwo Jima, one of the warships that participated in the January 3 attacks and where Maduro and Flores were airlifted to after being kidnapped by US special forces.

“Ensuring the military’s rapid response capability is a key component of mission readiness, both here in Venezuela and around the world,” a social media statement from the US embassy read.

US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) Commander General Francis Donovan oversaw the military drills and visited Caracas for a second time. He flew in on an Osprey alongside a marine contingent.

According to US officials, Donovan met with “senior” Venezuelan government leaders at the embassy. At the time of writing, there is no public information on which officials were present. Donovan’s previous visit in February saw him hold talks with Rodríguez, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, and then-Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López.

In a statement, SOUTHCOM reiterated US forces’ commitment to the Trump administration’s “three-phase plan,” which ends with a political “transition.”

For its part, the Venezuelan government did not comment on the US military drills. Caracas issued a statement on Thursday announcing that it had authorized “evacuation exercises” for eventual “medical emergencies and catastrophic events.” Foreign Minister Yván Gil read the communiqué in a video published through official social media channels.

However, amid fierce public backlash, Venezuelan authorities deleted the statement and video from all accounts. A similar incident occurred in late February when the Foreign Ministry published a statement that criticized Iran’s response to the US-Israeli aggression and then withdrew it following outcry from grassroots and solidarity movements.

On Saturday night, the Communications Ministry posted a video stressing the importance of “controlling emotions and waiting for the right moment.” Though making no reference to the US exercises, it stressed that the priority is safeguarding “the existence and the security of the state.”

Since the January strikes, the Trump White House has exacted major concessions from the acting Rodríguez administration, including taking control of Venezuelan oil revenues, auditing its Central Bank, pushing pro-business legislative reforms, and securing the handover of former diplomatic envoy Alex Saab to face money laundering charges in Florida.

Saturday’s military exercises also elicited strong anti-US reactions on social media from Chavista and opposition figures alike. Writer José Roberto Duque, a staunch government supporter, urged people to paint patriotic murals and express their repudiation of “imperialist arrogance.”

Claudio Fermín, a longtime opposition politician, expressed his “outrage” in a social media message, comparing US forces to “cats marking their territory.” Jesús “Chuo” Torrealba, former secretary-general of the opposition MUD coalition, argued that the US actions appeared to be a “demonstration of military prowess.”

Edited by Lucas Koerner in Caracas.