Dozens of people displaced from their homes in different areas of Mexico City protested this Monday to denounce an 'accelerated' increase in forced displacements and to demand a law to 'break the real estate pact' amid the rise of gentrification ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
'Silent people will be gentrified' and 'We want housing, the World Cup is worthless to us' were among the main slogans of the demonstration, which started from the Anti-monument to the 43 Ayotzinapa students on the central Paseo de la Reforma avenue. The march ended at the Congress of Mexico City, where neighbors demanded that legislators guarantee the right to housing and reinstate the protocol against evictions, abolished in 2019.
The protest was called by residents of República de Cuba 11 street, in the Historic Center, who were violently evicted from 19 apartments and eight commercial premises in August and have been resisting in a campsite in front of their former home ever since.
A person holds a sign during a march against gentrification this Monday in Mexico City (Mexico). EFE/ Sáshenka Gutiérrez
The protest was also joined by residents of other evicted properties, such as Santiago Ávila, from the Popotla neighborhood, who was violently evicted along with his family and nine other families from his home on Mar Blanco street in October.
'The struggle of the evicted is one because the dispossession in this city is being accelerated with the approach of the World Cup,' he stated. He also pointed out that according to data from the Government of Mexico City, between July and October 2025 alone there have been around 2,600 complaints of dispossession, while in all of 2019 there were 3,300 reports.
The protest also brought together communities from the south of the capital, who denounced the hoarding of water by companies for the Azteca Stadium, where the World Cup will kick off next June. In addition, members of the Xoco indigenous people attended, who also accuse Plaza Mitikah, in Coyoacán (south of the city), of water shortages and land dispossession.
'We are not going to step aside. We denounce the strong co-optation by the real estate sector and the real estate cartel over the Judicial Power, the Legislative Power of Mexico City and the parliamentary majority of Morena (the ruling party),' stated Diana González in a collective pronouncement.
For this reason, the neighbors sent an initiative to the capital's Congress demanding reforms for the right to housing with 'real' guarantees for people living in a home (such as prior notice before being evicted), and norms that prevent real estate speculation, prohibit dispossession and guarantee the right to stay.
González explained that their main demand is the expropriation of the property due to irregularities, and that they also seek to be 'a reference' in the face of the increase in evictions in recent months.
'We think this is because of the World Cup... The government prefers to host foreigners than to give housing to its own people,' she emphasized, at the same time calling for measures from the head of government of the capital, Clara Brugada, and the country's president, Claudia Sheinbaum.
A person holds a sign during a march against gentrification this Monday in Mexico City (Mexico). We are going to continue in the struggle of the peoples,' concluded Elizabeth Álvarez, from the Xoco indigenous people. Photo EFE
The entry Protesters in Mexico City denounce accelerated evictions for the World Cup was first published in La Verdad Panamá.
