Mexico’s Hidden Crisis: Cartel Violence During World Cup
As the world celebrated the FIFA World Cup in Mexico, a small village in the state of Guerrero found itself under attack by the La Nueva Familia Michoacana cartel. The cluster of rural communities known as Guajes de Ayala had spent weeks warning law enforcement of the mounting threats by the cartel, but their calls for help went unheeded.
The situation escalated on Wednesday morning when the cartel began raining down bombs from drones at 6 a.m., just as the sun crested over the mountains. The villagers, including women, children, and the elderly, were forced to seek refuge in a nearby abandoned medical clinic, hoping to escape the constant sound of drone explosions and gunfire between the cartel and the community’s vigilante group.
‘While some are celebrating goals, others are getting massacred by drones carrying bombs,’ said 24-year-old Marilu Solorio, speaking about the soccer tournament over the phone from her shelter. ‘Instead of protecting people in the places where they’ve been playing the World Cup, (Mexico’s government) should be protecting people like us, who have never done anything wrong.’
Local and federal authorities initially denied the attacks, despite livestreamed videos by locals showing gunfire and smoke billowing from mountain lookouts set up by the residents to watch for signs of cartel presence. However, after the AP inquired about the attacks, Mexico’s Security Cabinet posted on X that ‘events described in news articles have been ruled out’ by authorities.
The attacks on Guajes de Ayala came as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has spent months grappling with how to address endemic criminal violence in Mexico. While killings have sharply decreased under Sheinbaum, pressure has mounted over the past year as Mexico sought to project security and stability ahead of the World Cup following a burst of violence in February in one host city, Guadalajara.
According to security analyst David Saucedo, the attacks like the ones in Guajes de Ayala and other areas haunted by cartel violence are the fallout of the government’s World Cup security strategy. ‘There was heavy security in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey. Lots of military and National Guard officers from other states were transferred to fortify World Cup hosts,’ Saucedo said. ‘But in doing that, they also left a number of regions that weren’t host cities unprotected.’
As a result, hundreds of residents have fled their homes in Guajes de Ayala, and the local vigilante group has been armed by rival cartels, fighting for territory with La Nueva Familia Michoacana. The vigilante group has also carried military-grade weapons smuggled from the U.S., grenades, and drones, which they used to monitor the encroaching cartel.
In recent years, the La Nueva Familia Michoacana has been pushing into Guerrero, and the locals have long said it wasn’t a question of if they would face another attack, but when. The situation in Guajes de Ayala highlights the ongoing crisis of cartel violence in Mexico, which has left many communities vulnerable and exposed to the brutal tactics of organized crime groups.
