Yesterday, Global Exchange joined more than 100 civil society organizations from Mexico and the United States in a historic action calling on President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo to prioritize human rights, environmental justice, and the needs of communities over World Cup spending and spectacle.
Two days before the tournament’s opening, members of a broad coalition of civil society organizations, alongside Greenpeace Mexico activists, unfurled a 21-meter banner from the Estela de Luz, suspended 60 meters above Mexico City. The action highlighted the Mexican government’s failure to adequately address issues including migration, disappearances, violence, dispossession, forced displacement, and environmental justice, while placing commercial interests tied to the USMCA above the needs of people and communities.
The message to the Mexican government was clear: “This is also at stake. The world is watching.”
Organizations participating in the action included Global Exchange, Amnesty International, Greenpeace Mexico, the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA), Project World Cup Spotlight, and binational networks such as the People’s Movement for Peace and Justice and the Advocacy Assembly for Human Rights in the USMCA. Together, we reject the allocation of millions of public dollars to World Cup celebrations while serious human rights and environmental crises remain unaddressed throughout the region.
While the Mexican government has announced investments of up to 2 billion pesos in mobility infrastructure across the three host cities and the deployment of 100,000 public security personnel, alongside additional multimillion-dollar state expenditures to support the event, urgent social needs continue to be neglected.
With more than 133,000 people currently missing in Mexico, it is imperative to guarantee families the right to search for their loved ones and to provide comprehensive protection for women searchers who carry out this work despite ongoing threats, risks, and violence. It is equally urgent to end the inhumane raids carried out by Mexico’s National Migration Institute and by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), while ensuring the protection and inclusion of more than 190,000 deported Mexicans and nearly 13,000 people deported to Mexico from other countries between 2025 and March 2026, a figure expected to rise to as many as 20,000.
During a joint press conference, participating organizations also warned that the upcoming renegotiation of the trade agreement between Mexico, the United States, and Canada must not serve the interests of billionaires and corporations. Instead, it should prioritize workers, agriculture, environmental protection, and human rights, placing people and communities at the center of regional economic relations.
We also call attention to the discrimination, racism, violence, and forced displacement experienced by Afro-Mexican and Indigenous communities, including the more than 2,000 people displaced from Chilapa, Guerrero, in May. The criminalization and murder of human rights defenders remains a grave concern that demands immediate action.
A new development model is urgently needed—one that prioritizes environmental protection and human rights over extractive projects that threaten marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Today, we are witnessing the destruction of the Mayan rainforest and damage to coastal and marine environments driven by a model that places corporate profits above the protection of life.
Environmental justice remains another pressing challenge. The increasingly severe impacts of climate chaos disproportionately affect the most vulnerable communities, including those displaced by climate-related disasters and by the dispossession of land and natural resources. At the same time, Mexico remains one of the most dangerous countries for environmental and land defenders. In 2025 alone, ten defenders were killed, while 314 attacks—including threats, intimidation, stigmatization, and defamation—were documented.
We call on the Mexican government to engage directly and in good faith with Mexican civil society organizations, Indigenous and Afro-Mexican communities, human rights defenders, environmental advocates, and families seeking justice. Addressing these urgent challenges requires more than rhetoric—it requires meaningful dialogue, concrete action, accountability, and a genuine commitment to placing people and communities at the center of public policy.
At the same time, we unequivocally reject any attempt by the United States to exploit these challenges as a pretext for intervention, political interference, economic coercion, or attacks on Mexico’s sovereignty. The defense of human rights, environmental justice, and democratic participation must be rooted in self-determination and respect for the right of peoples to shape their own future free from external pressure.
We reiterate that the eyes of the world are on the countries hosting the World Cup—not only because of the sporting event itself, but also because the international community is witnessing how governments respond, or fail to respond, to the urgent challenges facing their societies.
Throughout the World Cup, organizations across Mexico, the United States, and Canada will continue mobilizing in defense of human rights and social and environmental justice.
Visit www.projectworldcupspotlight.org to follow upcoming actions across the United States.
With gratitude and solidarity.