With less than 200 days before the start of the 2026 World Cup in North America, one of Mexico's host cities is facing a serious problem in the areas surrounding its stadium.
According to recent reports, search groups in the state of Jalisco have found hundreds of bags containing human remains near Akron Stadium, home of Chivas de Guadalajara, one of the country's most prominent soccer teams.
A member of Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco, a volunteer search collective, said the most recent discovery took place in September. Since 2022, at least 456 bags with human remains have been recovered in the vicinity of Akron Stadium, which is set to host four World Cup group stage matches as well as the inter-confederation playoffs prior to the start of the tournament.
José Raúl Servin García, a member of the collective, recently confirmed in a phone interview that the September discovery occurred during construction work for a housing development, which gave families the opportunity to search for their missing relatives
One of the locations with the largest number of findings is an area known as Las Agujas. Construction workers found 290 bags while building a housing development in that zone.
"We are now at about 456 bags, more or less, and all of this is near Akron Stadium, which is a stadium that will host World Cup games. Unfortunately, it is painful that a World Cup will be held here while there is so much evil," Servin García said.
Beyond Las Agujas, more discoveries have been reported in other areas of Zapopan and Tlaquepaque. Servin García said 130 bodies were recovered in a cemetery near the stadium, and authorities found 89 bags in the communities of Nextipac and Plan de la Noria between 2018 and 2022.
Infobae México reported that search collectives such as Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco, which uncovered cases like the one in Teuchitlán where organized crime groups used a ranch to train and kill people, have accused the Jalisco government of a lack of transparency and support. Members say authorities do not fully report all clandestine graves found by search groups or by municipal or state authorities.
"They do not want to bring all the graves to light. We have to dig and recover the bags so that prosecutors and forensic teams can remove them, but this does not work in their favor," Servin García said, adding that forensic staff also face pressure from organized crime.
"We know that criminal groups have threatened forensic teams because they decide which bodies are delivered and which are not," he said.
The discovery of clandestine graves remains a critical issue in Mexico, particularly in Jalisco. According to the 2025 national report on missing persons by the Mexican Institute of Human Rights and Democracy, Jalisco is among the five states with the highest number of disappearances, along with the State of Mexico, Tamaulipas, Veracruz and Nuevo León.
The findings come only months before the 2026 World Cup, which will use Akron Stadium as a venue. Servin García criticized what he described as the government's decision to prioritize the event over the crisis of missing persons.
"The government cares about money, not citizens. They even remove our missing persons posters so visitors do not notice the magnitude of the problem," he said.
Servin García said the collective recently met with Jalisco Gov. Pablo Lemus, but he believes authorities are trying to rush the work at the sites.
"They announce that the work is almost finished, but it is not true. They want to speed everything up so that when the World Cup arrives everything looks normal. We will keep working, with or without the World Cup, to bring to light whatever we find," he said.
Regarding the federal government, led by President Claudia Sheinbaum, Servin García said families have also been left without support.
"In the second meeting we had, we agreed we would continue traveling to Mexico City for follow up, but they have completely forgotten about us," he said.
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