Mexico Disappears Its Disappeared for the World Cup Stage
As Mexico gears up for the 2026 World Cup, Al Jazeera details how the state is literally and figuratively 're-disappearing' its tens of thousands of missing citizens, scrubbing memorials and silencing families in Guadalajara. The global spotlight of a sporting event conveniently obscures the dark reality of cartel violence and government complicity. We’ve seen this script before: 'national pride'
demands inconvenient truths vanish, much like the 100,000+ Mexicans officially reported as disappeared since 2006, leaving their families to fight state indifference. This isn't just about PR; it's about a government using a global stage to sanitize its image, much like Qatar did with its migrant worker deaths for the 2022 World Cup. (Remember those ~6,500 reported fatalities? FIFA certainly
doesn't.) The media, eager for feel-good stories and sponsor dollars, rarely digs into the systematic abuses, preferring headlines about stadium readiness over widespread human rights violations. One might wonder, how many missing persons are worth a 'successful' international tournament?