FP’s guide to the 2026 tournament

Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief.

The highlights this week: Mexico makes a memorable exit from the World Cup, the United Nations debates U.S. sanctions on Cuba, and Colombia’s presidential transition falters.

Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief.

The highlights this week: Mexico makes a memorable exit from the World Cup, the United Nations debates U.S. sanctions on Cuba, and Colombia’s presidential transition falters.

Mexico’s World Cup Hosting High

Sunday night marked the grand finale of Mexico’s 2026 FIFA World Cup. The Mexican national team went out fighting in a 3-2 loss to England in what was also the last game of the tournament hosted on Mexican soil.

For Mexican fans and visitors, the mood before and during the match was electric. Although many in the country had mixed feelings ahead of hosting the tournament, Mexico caught soccer fever as the national team delivered multiple victories without conceding a single goal, including its first win in a knockout stage game in 40 years.

That June 30 match over Ecuador featured goals by stars Julián Quiñones—a Black Colombian-born, naturalized Mexican who is changing the way the country thinks about national identity—and Raúl Jiménez, who was back at elite performance following a life-threatening skull fracture in 2020.

After the victory, more than a million people packed the streets of Mexico City. A catchphrase went viral among fans: “¿Y si sí?”—which roughly translates to “What if we can?” Though the prospect of Mexico winning the entire World Cup seemed slim, the expression was true to the optimism of the moment.

The tournament “gave Mexico back the collective joy that it had been missing so much,” journalist Alejandro Domínguez wrote in Milenio. While ticket prices meant that spectators in the stadiums were disproportionately wealthy, “the streets, in contrast, served as the meeting point for everyone,” he wrote.

International soccer critics gave similarly positive reviews of the atmosphere in Mexico. The Athletic’s Jack Lang wrote that the games hosted in Mexico were “its best experience, its dislocated heart,” and that Mexico City’s historic Azteca Stadium “provided a blueprint for what big-tournament matches like [the Mexico-England game] should look like.”

Despite some travelers’ worries, cartel violence in Mexico did not interrupt the tournament. More disruptive were activists denouncing forced disappearances and calling for higher wages; authorities generally allowed them to demonstrate but not immediately around stadiums.

Another factor that failed to emerge at the World Cup was political unity between the three North........

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