Kira Nugent

Guadalajara is a place with a lot of cartel presence and a lot of cartel control.

It's not really the ideal image for a football tournament.

Yeah, so it's a big city, one of Mexico's biggest economic centers.

It feels pretty leafy.

There's lots of shopping malls.

You know, I would say it feels safe and like a normal city for tourists.

But there's also this other side to it that people are concerned about.

Guadalajara is the capital of Jalisco State, which is the home of the very powerful Jalisco New Generation cartel.

And security forces killed the leader of that cartel in February, and it started a big reaction in Guadalajara.

There was at least a day, a bit longer, of very violent protests.

They burnt cars and businesses and killed some National Guard members.

And I mean, those protests extended across the country, but they really drew attention to how Guadalajara is a place with a lot of cartel presence and a lot of cartel control where they're capable of these kind of coordinated attacks.

It's not really the ideal image for a football tournament.

So I think, yes, on the face of it, it definitely seems that way.

But I would say everyone I spoke to in Guadalajara, experts, law enforcement officials, almost all of them agreed that it's just not in the cartel's interest to disrupt the World Cup.

Fundamentally, these are businesses, illicit businesses, and killing or attacking tourists or big events is not going to earn them any money.

Actually, if they were going to earn money from tourists, it would be by selling them drugs or prostitution or trafficked alcohol and cigarettes.

So they wouldn't want to drive those customers away.

It would be very illogical and a lot more trouble than it's worth.

Yeah, I mean, first of all, you can't rule out like any kind of crime, obviously, visiting any big city and anywhere in the world, and especially in Mexico, there is some risk.