Only 24 hours remain before the World Cup kicks off in Mexico and the country is going though its final dress rehearsals. Preventing demonstrations on opening day is already a pipe dream: negotiations with teachers have stalled and search groups will march to make their missing relatives visible. With everyone in position and the cards on the table, attention is focused on avoiding the worst-case scenario for the government of Claudia Sheinbaum — an image of a police officer striking a teacher circling the globe on the day the country is playing for its international image. The concern is not unfounded: on the first day of protests a teacher lost an eye in clashes with police. The past two weeks have tested containment measures, and Wednesday will be the last chance to fine-tune the public staging. To ease the pressure, authorities have canceled classes for Thursday and ordered remote work for public servants.

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The journalist Roxana Berenice Guzmán was inside her home when armed men showed up and smashed the door. Like in a nightmare, they did not succeed immediately: they broke the glass and then began hammering at the lock. Blow after blow, up to a dozen. A man inside asks them to wait, but one of the attackers silences him, sticking a rifle through the broken glass and taking aim. They begin to kick at the door. The kicks are combined with the hammer blows. The man inside the house pleads again: “There’s a baby, calm down!” But, as in nightmares, the squad finally manages to break a piece of the door and enter the house. “Get on the floor!” one of the hooded men shouts, before grabbing the phone that is recording him. There are no images after that, but the attackers took the founder of the local media outlet Pulso Informativo del Sureste. The recording has shaken a country used to attacks on its journalists.

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