Sawt Falasteen - Guadalajara: World Cup host city rocked by narco violence

Mexico's second-biggest city erupted at the weekend, alongside other parts of Mexico, after Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera, leader of the notorious Jalisco New Generation Cartel, was killed in an army raid.

Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco state, is one of three Mexican cities, along with Mexico City and Monterrey, that will host games in the World Cup, being staged across the United States, Canada and Mexico from June 11.

But the city was under quasi lockdown at the weekend as cartel members went on the rampage over the death of their boss, blocking roads, torching vehicles and businesses and engaging security forces in gunbattles.

Two days of violence, beginning with the deadly raid to capture Oseguera at a ranch 130 kilometers (80 miles) from Guadalajara, left at least 27 security force members and 46 suspected cartel members dead.

One civilian was also reported killed.

On Tuesday, President Claudia Sheinbaum insisted that there was "no risk" to fans attending four World Cup games in Guadalajara in June, offering "full guarantees" for their safety.

Football's world governing body FIFA has declined to comment on the bloodshed, which had largely abated by Monday.

But in an ominous sign for the sport, two football games in Jalisco -- a second-division fixture and a top women's football league game -- were called off Sunday over the violence.

Mexico is banking on technology -- including systems to combat the growing number of drones deployed by drug cartels -- to keep its slice of the planet's premier sporting event safe.

But the specter of violence looms large over the preparations.

Missael Robles, a 31-year-old tour guide from Guadalajara, told AFP that he had cancelled as many as 25 tours since violence erupted on Sunday.

"The economic blow is a big deal," he said.

- 'Grotesque situation' -

Jalisco is one of the states with the most disappeared people in all of Mexico, with more than 12,575 reported missing, according to official statistics. More than half of the cases come from Guadalajara's metropolitan area.

Disappearances are driven by forced recruitment for criminal groups, said Carmen Chinas, an academic at the University of Guadalajara.

Some activists have expressed dismay over Guadalajara's hosting of the World Cup.

"I don't think there is anything to celebrate. It seems like a pretty grotesque situation to me," said 26-year-old Carmen Ponce, whose brother Victor Hugo was disappeared in 2020.

"The country celebrates goals while we are here searching," she said at a field where last September she and her mother found buried plastic bags containing the remains of five people.

In a city seething over what many see as the government's failure to rein in violent crime, the World Cup could also serve to amplify discontent.

Juan Carlos Contreras, who oversees the city's security camera network, told AFP there could be protests during the tournament by families of the disappeared.

- Chains and metal bars -

Authorities have discovered properties used by criminal groups just a few kilometers from the Akron stadium, which is due to host World Cup games.

Less than two kilometers (one mile) from the sporting complex, the state prosecutor's office raided a house and arrested two people accused of kidnapping.

AFP saw chains wrapped around metal bars in the abandoned building, with the Akron stadium visible in the distance.

Jose Raul Servin, who has been looking for his son Raul since he disappeared in April of 2018, fears that tourists coming for the World Cup could be preyed on by crime gangs.

"We don't want anything to happen," he said, "like what's happened to us."

Servin remembers with nostalgia that his son was a football fan. "If he were here, he would be happy about the World Cup," he said.

Z.Ramadan--SF-PST