48 years ago, while the world was celebrating the 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina, a military dictatorship He used the biggest sporting spectacle on the planet to project an image of normality.
Behind the packed stadiums, the celebrations, and the international broadcasts, thousands of people were being hunted, kidnapped, tortured, and disappeared.
Football did not provoke those crimes. Nor was it the cause. But it did become the perfect stage to show the world a country different from the one millions of Argentinians lived in.
Almost half a century later, the World It is being contested again in the United States. The differences between the two historical contexts are profound and evident.
Among the most obvious differences between both contexts is the way in which power exercises and communicates its actions.
The Argentine military junta operated from the shadows: it hid detention centers, systematically denied disappearances, and built a apparatus of silence to cover up repression.
In contrast, President Donald Trump's administration makes no secret of its immigration policy.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations are public, disseminated in press conferences, videos and official statements, and the president himself frequently presents them on his social networks as achievements of his government and victories in his immigration control strategy.
However, there is a parallel that deserves to be noted: while millions of people have their attention focused on sports, public debate about other realities loses ground.
“Bread and circuses”
The phrase pan y circo It remains relevant. Governments have understood for centuries that grand spectacles unite, excite, and divert attention, at least temporarily, from the conflicts a society is experiencing.
Today the United States faces deep political polarization, questions about its immigration policy, and a climate of growing tension toward immigrant communities.
In that scenario, President Donald Trump's administration has intensified the ICE operationsa strategy that has been criticized by human rights and immigrant advocacy organizations.
The numbers tell part of the story. As of June 2026, 19 people had died in ICE detention centers.
Added to this are several cases of people who died after being shot during immigration operations, events that today generate questions, investigations and demands for transparency.
Among those names are Renee Good and, Alex Pretti, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Joan Sebastian Guerrero.
But names matter more than statistics.
Each one represents a family waiting for answers. Fathers, mothers, children, siblings, and neighbors continue to wonder how an arrest ended up becoming a tragedy.
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Why are they killing us?
The question arises from the fear that thousands of immigrants are experiencing today.
Because the persecution no longer distinguishes solely between people with and without documents. In numerous operations, language, skin color, The workplace or simply one's appearance seems to make someone a suspect.
For years, political discourse has portrayed immigrants as responsible for almost all of the country's ills: insecurity, the economy, employment, education, or health.
No policy of persecution can be sustained solely by agents on the streets. It also needs a narrative.
That narrative finds a formidable amplifier today in social media, where misinformation, fear and hate speech is circulating at an unprecedented speed.
“Lie, lie, and something will stick,” goes an old saying attributed to political propaganda. Repeating a lie often enough eventually makes it seem like the truth to many.
Meanwhile, millions of immigrants continue to get up before dawn to work, Paying taxesto sustain entire sectors of the economy and pursue an American dream that seems to be getting further and further away.
Related: Record number of deaths in ICE custody and a 2026 that could be even deadlier
The fear is palpable.
It is perceived in those who They no longer take their children to certain activities, in those who stopped going to medical appointments, in those who avoid reporting crimes for fear of becoming the next target themselves.
The operations continue. The investigations are progressing slowly. The families are waiting for answers.
And the World Cup continues.
48 years ago, football helped to build an image that hid part of the Argentine reality.
Today, without equating historical contexts or political systems, it is worth asking whether the greatest sporting spectacle on the planet coincides once again with a moment in which thousands of human stories are relegated to the background.
La World Cup It will end. The stadiums will empty again. The broadcasts will end.
But the families of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Joan Sebastian Guerrero, Renee Good, Alex Pretti and so many others will continue to wait for justice.
Because when the final whistle blows to signal the end of the World Cup, the question will still be the same:
How many lives can remain hidden while the ball rolls?
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