A bitter spring in the southern part of North America. Tensions between Mexico and the United States are escalating rapidly, straining the very fibers and tendons that, until a few weeks ago, had sustained the bilateral relationship without much difficulty. The smooth and fruitful security cooperation that characterized the first year of Donald Trump’s administration has recently turned into a nightmare, with developments that paint a rather bizarre picture — some of which are cause for concern for the Mexican government led by Claudia Sheinbaum, such as the growing presence of CIA agents in the country. This week, U.S. media outlets revealed that the intelligence agency orchestrated the March car bomb attack against a mid-level operative of the Sinaloa Cartel near the capital. Both governments have denied the information, with varying degrees of intensity.

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LOS ANGELES, June 10 — Lionel Messi was set to feature yesterday as reigning champions Argentina played their final warm-up game for a World Cup overshadowed by off-field distractions, as the Somali referee refused entry to the United States said his dream was over.

Messi, edging closer to fitness with the tournament starting tomorrow and Argentina’s first match looming on June 16, began on the substitutes’ bench against Iceland in Alabama.

The legendary attacker, now 38, drove Argentina to their third World Cup crown in Qatar four years ago and is feeling his way back after injuring a hamstring playing for Inter Miami in late May.

Messi has not featured so far in his country’s build-up games but could make an appearance in the Iceland friendly.

Dream ripped away 

The biggest-ever World Cup, taking place in the United States, Canada and Mexico, has been dogged in the lead-up by numerous controversies.

Somali referee Omar Artan said the “biggest dream of my life” had been ripped away after he was turned back at the US border and then dropped from FIFA’s list of referees for the competition.

“I am very, very disappointed,” Artan told The New York Times from Istanbul, where he returned after being refused entry in Miami.

“I’m just simply a referee who’s trying to live his dream, the biggest dream of my life, to come to the World Cup.”

Artan said he was subjected to an 11-hour interview with border officials at Miami International Airport and then taken to a holding cell where he was detained for several further hours before being put on a flight back to Turkey.

“I had the right papers and everything. I had the right visa,” he added—an assertion confirmed to AFP by a Somali government advisor.

Mexico City protests 

Concerns were rising that the opening match of the World Cup in Mexico City on Thursday could be disrupted by social unrest.

A protest blocked an avenue leading to the Estadio Azteca, where Mexico will face South Africa in the curtainraiser, for hours yesterday. 

As international fans flooded into the three tournament co-host countries, Mexico is grappling with chaotic teacher protests in its capital.

Thousands took part in Tuesday’s demonstration following a week of action that President Claudia Sheinbaum has called a “provocation.”

“As if to say, ‘Look at how bad the situation is in Mexico,’” she told a press conference.

A police blockade prevented the demonstrators from reaching the stadium.

Sheinbaum has said that the opening match was “guaranteed,” though the left-leaning leader again ruled out using police to repress the demonstrations.

Don’t be too honest

With co-hosts the United States preparing for their opener against Paraguay in Los Angeles on Friday, one of their own players warned that they need to improve at football’s dark arts.

Following Saturday’s defeat in a friendly to Germany, coach Mauricio Pochettino urged his men to “learn to play right on the edge of the rules,” and midfielder Cristian Roldan echoed those words at the team’s training camp on Tuesday.

“I think that’s one thing that we can get better at, for sure,” he told AFP.

“I think being a little bit more savvy, understanding that being too honest at times is probably too much of a fault for us.”

When the US beat Paraguay 2-1 in a friendly in November the match ended in a stoppage time brawl. — AFP

Former Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador reappeared on the public stage on Wednesday with a message in which he harshly criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s pressure on Mexico under the guise of combating “narco-terrorism” and illegal immigration. López Obrador, who retired from politics after leaving the presidency in 2024, has given his full support to his successor Claudia Sheinbaum against Washington’s interference and its attempt, as he put it, to weaken Morena, the leftist political party and movement he founded and which the current president continues to lead.

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The Mexican government’s campaign against foreign interference has reached U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson. The U.S. representative this week clashed with President Claudia Sheinbaum after her Sunday speech, in which she protested U.S. interference in Mexico’s internal politics. Johnson, a former Green Beret appointed by Donald Trump to press for action against the drug cartels, replied with a social media post that the Mexican leader acknowledged almost immediately: “Ambassadors must be respectful of countries’ internal political affairs.”

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MEXICO CITY, June 9 — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said yesterday she could guarantee a peaceful World Cup opening ceremony this week, despite concern over ongoing protests.

A teachers union has threatened demonstrations at Thursday’s opening game between Mexico and South Africa in the capital if the government doesn’t respond to demands for salary raises and pension reforms.

“We are going to guarantee... that the celebration of the World Cup is well-executed, in peace and tranquility,” Sheinbaum said in her daily press conference.

Last week, police dispersed protesters with teargas and rubber bullets outside the historic Zocalo square where authorities have erected a massive screen for a World Cup fan zone.

The streets surrounding the square remain closed off with metal barricades, which Sheinbaum has said are meant to guard against “provocations.”

Protesting teachers also toppled commemorative statues of players in downtown Mexico City last week.

Though Sheinbaum has maintained open dialogue with the teachers, the union has deemed government proposals insufficient.

Joining the protests are hundreds of people from the Ayotzinapa teachers college, who are demanding further efforts to investigate the disappearance of 43 students from the rural school in 2014.

Mexico City police said they discovered 59 homemade explosive devices on one of the bus convoys entering the capital on Monday, posting a photo of dozens of small white pipes with fuses on X.

Tourists ‘freaked out’ 

The teachers’ sprawling tent camps have flooded the city center, leading to complaints from businesses that tourists will stay away during the World Cup.

“The access to our restaurant is closed off, the people aren’t coming, the tourists are freaked out,” 31-year-old waiter Jonathan Herrera, who was protesting against the encampment, told AFP.

Around 50 people waited to cross through one of the metal barricades under the watch of police, where one restaurant glued a poster reading “we’re still open.”

US tourist Heather Lutz, 64, expressed support for the protesters.

“No government likes their city to look real” during big events like the World Cup, she said.

The tournament is the ideal moment to “generate pressure” to win concessions from the government, 42-year-old teacher Dinora Diaz told AFP in the street encampment.

Negotiations

Sheinbaum’s government explained on Monday their proposals to the teachers union, proposing the creation of a new state-owned company to administer pensions.

But the government dismissed the possibility of reversing pension laws, arguing it would cost around $400 million.

The teachers have rejected the government’s proposals while the Secretary of Governance Rosa Icela Rodriguez called for the strikers to lift the blockades.

“It’s fundamental that the legitimate exercise of the right to protest can coexist with the rights of those who live in and move through this great city,” the official said. — AFP

The future of U.S. global competitiveness hangs in the balance as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s July 1 review deadline fast approaches and formal U.S.-Mexico negotiations begin Monday. Simply put, the United States can achieve neither the scale nor the economic differentiation needed to compete with China without deepening the close collaboration that has defined much of North America’s past 35 years.

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Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, is going through her most delicate moment just as she reaches a year and a half in office. Faced with multiple open fronts, the president is showing signs of wear, with a seven-point drop in approval since last March. It is the steepest fall so far in her term, although approval ratings remain high at 68%, according to an Enkoll poll conducted for EL PAÍS and W Radio. To the crisis triggered by the indictment of the governor of Sinaloa, along with nine other senior officials accused by a New York prosecutor of collaborating with drug traffickers, is added a worrying economic weakness that threatens the viability of social policies—a flagship of the leftist Morena government. Insecurity, corruption and the economy are the president’s main shortcomings and the principal concern of Mexicans, with rates slightly up since the last poll in early March.

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May 16 to 19, 2026.

1,207 interviews with men and women aged 18 and over, with valid voter ID and resident in Mexico.

Mexico is trying to reposition itself after the blow from the United States, which filed criminal charges against the governor of Sinaloa, Rubén Rocha, and nine other local officials nearly a month ago. Caught out of step, Claudia Sheinbaum’s government is trying to seize the initiative, an intention made visible Wednesday at the National Palace with the appearance of the full Security Cabinet at the president’s daily news conference. At root, it is a message to the White House that the constant criticism overlooks the work that has been done by Mexican authorities — and that it is irritating.

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Teachers in Mexico have launched a nationwide strike that is bringing mounting pressure on President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government ahead of the start of the soccer World Cup.

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Mexico is preparing its World Cup warm‑up — paradoxically far removed from football and focused instead on its relationship with one of its partners in the tournament venture, the United States.

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“The world will stand still, and the eyes of the world will be focused on North America,” the 56-year-old Swiss president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, said a few days ago from the United Nations headquarters in New York. With four days to go before the ball starts rolling, the three host countries — the United States, Mexico, and Canada — say they have everything ready. Or, more precisely, almost everything. The biggest soccer tournament in history — 48 national teams playing a total of 104 matches — takes place amid various circumstances that complicate organization: the United States remains at war with Iran, President Donald Trump’s strict immigration policies are frightening away many supporters, and FIFA’s dynamic-pricing ticket system has put seats out of reach for much of the fan base.

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More than 10 years of negotiations come to an end this Friday in Mexico: the European Union and the Latin American country will sign an update to the trade agreement that has been in force since the beginning of this century. The move — arguably more significant than the text of the renewed pact — signals a clear rapprochement between two parties whose commercial — and, to an extent, geopolitical — strategies have been shaken by Donald Trump’s return to the White House, based on protectionism, in barely a year and a half. For both, it is a renewed bet on multilateralism in international relations and a way to diversify alliances and risks to soften the impact of Washington’s unpredictable, unilateral decisions. The update will be signed this Friday in Mexico City by Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

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