Authorities in Mexico report a grim discovery: at least 456 bags containing human remains have been found near the Akron Stadium in Zapopan, Jalisco, which will host matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. This was reported by José Raúl Servín García, a member of the collective Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco, who explained that the most recent discovery was made last September, but they have been working in the area since 2022. "We're counting around 456 bags, more or less, unfortunately, it's a tragedy that the World Cup is going to be held here and there is so much evil," he stated. For Aristegui Noticias, he explained that in the area surrounding the Akron stadium, specifically in Las Agujas, 290 bags were recovered after workers from a construction company found them during the building of a housing development. "They conducted the recovery in their area and finished their work, and we went the next day and immediately found three bags; from there, we continued working until we counted nearly 300 bags in just that one spot," he explained. Other finds, also made by other collectives of missing persons searchers, were registered in a cemetery near the stadium, where 130 bodies were found clandestinely; remains were also discovered in Tlaquepaque and other adjacent areas, which continue to be excavated by the collectives. Servín García pointed out that these graves are still active and that the bag count is updated daily. He detailed that discoveries have also been made in Nextipac and Plan de la Noria with 89 bags between 2018 and 2022; in Arroyo Hondo, Zapopan, there are 48 bags from 2018 to 2022; additionally, in a cemetery near Akron Stadium, 130 bodies were found in 2025; as well as in Tlaquepaque and other zones in recent dates, all near the stadium. The remains include complete bodies, dismembered bodies, and skeletal remains, with most bags containing dismembered bodies, explained Servín García, who assured that there are recent findings from less than a year ago, while others correspond to cases from 2018, 2020, and 2022. Servín García denounced the lack of official information from the government of Jalisco because he believes they "don't want to bring all the graves to light, since we have to dig up and recover the bags for the Prosecutor's Office and Forensic Sciences to do the recovery, but it doesn't suit them." Despite this, the collectives have the support of personnel from Mexico City, including members of the Search Commission, while the Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences faces limitations in capacity and protocols. "Recently they handed over a young woman who had been in their facilities for 11 years; they mix up many pieces, DNA is lost, there are endless excuses, which delays the identification of the bodies and leaves families in uncertainty," the searcher indicated. The searcher added that in addition to institutional failures, there are speculations about possible ties between public officials and organized crime groups. "Unfortunately, criminal groups have also threatened Forensic Sciences, because they decide which bodies are handed over and which are not, so families are threatened with the knowledge that their son is in Forensic Sciences, and that they should leave him there, not recover him, not take him out of there, or face the consequences... we know that Forensic Sciences has very bad work, in addition to those who are there, and also that there is a lack of personnel," he said. The discovery comes just months before the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will have Akron Stadium as a venue, and the spokesperson questioned the prioritization of the event over the crisis of the missing and forensic issues. "What the government cares about is the economy, not the citizens; they even remove our missing persons flyers so that visitors don't realize the magnitude of the problem," Servín García stated. Servín García added that his collective held a meeting with the governor of Jalisco, Pablo Lemus, but the authorities' position is to try to hastily conclude the work in the graves. "They announce that they are going to finish, but it's a lie, they want to speed everything up so that when the World Cup arrives, everything seems normal, but we are going to continue working, with or without the World Cup, to bring to light what we find," he said. Regarding the federal government, led by President Claudia Sheinbaum, he said that "unfortunately they have turned their backs on us. The second meeting we had, it was again agreed that we were going to go more times to Mexico City to meetings with them, but definitively they have left us forgotten," he denounced. José Raúl Servín García is searching for his son, Raúl Servín Galván, who disappeared on April 10, 2018, in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga. "I have been searching for him for almost eight years and we ask for more support from Forensic Sciences and the Prosecutor's Office so that the bodies are delivered to their families more quickly and we can find our children among them, because many of us families live with uncertainty," he said.
