Ecuador Navigate Mexico City’s Complexities, Even Before the Football

Latin America Correspondent Jon Bonfiglio details the complexities between Ecuador and Mexico ahead of their teams' World Cup tie, as well as the Ecuadorean squad's difficulties navigating Mexico City. 

Transcript

Ecuador Navigate Mexico City’s Complexities, Even Before the Football 

Ecuador are in Mexico City, ready to play Mexico in the last 32 of the World Cup, with the countries having no diplomatic ties as of 2024, when Mexico suspended all links with Ecuador following an April 2024 raid on the Mexican embassy in Quito, in which Ecuadorian police stormed the embassy to arrest former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas—who was granted political asylum by Mexico—resulting in Mexico breaking off relations and closing its diplomatic offices. Mexico took the case to the International Court of Justice, while both nations suspended their respective consulates and diplomatic services entirely. The relationship is fraught, to say the least. 

As if that wasn’t enough context ahead of this hugely consequential match for both countries, Ecuador have had it rough since discovering their match-up in Mexico City. On the one hand, Mexico City sits at an altitude of 2,200-meter (7,300-foot), which for those unacclimatized generates significant difficulties. For sports, experts generally recommend either arriving well ahead of an event - not usually possible in modern sports scheduling - or to arrive as late as possible before an event, to avoid giving symptoms time to develop. Ecuador chose the latter, suffered delays to flights, and additionally flew into the Felipe Ángeles International Airport, which I’ve covered in these pages before and is a beautiful new airport which serves Mexico City, but is well to the north, outside the city. It was also a long way away from Ecuador’s hotel, in the far west of the city. The night the Ecuadorean squad arrived, Mexico City had seen a major summer thunderstorm, and the streets were even more chaotic than usual. 

And when they finally did get to the hotel, they discovered that Mexican fan groups had identified the location of their stay and had organized a - what is by now - traditional overnight sonic ambush, in which they used loudspeakers and horns to disrupt the peace of those inside the hotel. 

By way of response, the Ecuadorian soccer federation filed a formal complaint with organizers, complaining that the behavior stands against the World Cup spirit and rules of fair play. It’s a needle, which is a reminder of the official disdain held by each country’s politicians, towards one another, and also a reminder that whenever you need to do anything in Mexico City, to leave yourself plenty of time.