World Cup fans set to descend on home turf of Mexico’s most powerful cartel despite rocket launcher attack and mass grave

Relatives of missing people, part of a group called the Guerreros Buscadores, pray before inspecting an area where they suspect bodies may be buried, in the Valle de los Olivos neighborhood of Guadalajara, Mexico, Oct. 14, 2025 - (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File)

Fans flocking to a soccer match in Zapopan chanted “Mexico! Mexico!” while walking past dozens of police officers, bomb-sniffing dogs, metal detectors and drone jammers — as authorities fine-tuned security ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

A few miles away, a different sort of deployment was underway: National Guard troops stood sentry as volunteers dug up the small patio of an abandoned house south of Guadalajara, looking for some of Mexico’s 134,000 disappeared.