With less than four months to go before the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off its Guadalajara leg at Estadio Akron on June 11, an eruption of cartel violence in the Mexican state of Jalisco has unsettled residents, including a small but closely knit Bengali community.

Sunday’s military operation that eliminated drug cartel boss El Mencho triggered retaliatory violence across parts of Jalisco. Vehicles were torched, highways blocked, and gunfire echoed through neighbourhoods. While official reports later indicated that civilian casualties were minimal compared to the scale of the crackdown, fear spread quickly, particularly with global attention fixed on Guadalajara as a World Cup host city.

Yet among the 80-odd Bengalis settled in Mexico’s second-largest city and thriving IT hub, anxiety has not translated into panic. “Not a single civilian was killed (later reports suggest just one civilian casualty among at least 62 fatalities),” said Ipsita Saha, a Durgapur girl living in Mexico for a decade. “And the government stepped in to bring things under control within six-seven hours,” added Ratul Ganguly, an IT professional from Rajarhat who left for Mexico four years ago.

But both admitted to The Telegraph that Sunday was unnerving.

Ratul was on a weekend retreat in the hill town of Mazamitla in a group of five. “We had planned to return on Sunday night. But during breakfast, we heard of the military operation against the drug lord El Mencho and his death on the news. There has been no cartel violence in Mexico in the last 10 years. On enquiry, we heard they had blocked all entry points to the city. And for the first time, they had even invaded the city of Guadalajara.”

This led them to decide to stay at their Airbnb. Curfew was to be imposed from 2pm. “So we went out in search of supplies. Since the gang members were torching the convenience stores, the government had ordered them to shut. A stray grocery store was open where tourists like us had gathered for food supplies.”

After a couple of hours, around 12.30pm, they started hearing gunfire. “It was a series of shots, possibly from a machine gun. A blast followed. We panicked, wondering if they would enter our premises too. Our Mexican tour guide stood in vigil on the ground floor of our two-storied premises, asking us to lock ourselves in upstairs,” Ratul recalled.

The group logged into the Jalisco government website, which was sharing minute-to-minute updates and switched on the local news on TV. “The federal government also published an app which helped us keep track of the situation. A police Instagram page used CCTV footage from across Guadalajara to show the situation in every locality.”

Once the army was deployed around 2pm, the unrest slowed down. But pictures were still coming in, showing the havoc wreaked by then. “A Mexican friend had clicked a huge fire in Colima, an hour and a half away from us, denting our confidence to return home.”

In the city, Ipsita’s husband, Abhishek Ghosh, had gone shopping at a retail grocery chain, Soriana, right under their building. “The encounter that killed the drug lord had taken place 60km from our place at Tapalpa. But once it became known that the cartel, on their social media page, had sworn to seek revenge on the streets, all shops began to down shutters. We were asked to pay for whatever we had picked up and vacate the shop.”

On Monday morning, both families listened to President Claudia Sheinbaum’s media conference, where she declared that all roadblocks on highways had been cleared and it was safe to travel. “So we left around 1pm, making our way past a series of burnt vehicles which bore witness to the violence unleashed the day before,” Ratul said.

Entry to the city meant making it past 12-15 National Guard vehicles stationed along the approach with uniformed officers carrying out security checks. “That actually gave us confidence. They even assured us that the city had been cleaned of disruptors,” he said. Roads in the city centre remained empty on Monday. Schools were shut, but were expected to open on Wednesday.

Praising the local people, Ipsita recalled hearing how Indian Christians who were at mass on Sunday morning were sheltered indoors along with the locals when the doors of the church were shut, fearing trouble. “Later, the locals even escorted the Indians on the way home. They are respectful of foreign nationals, especially Indian culture,” she said.

Both highlighted Mexico’s progress and rising GDP in the last 10 years. Admitting that such an incident in the run-up to the tournament might trigger a security alarm, Ipsita pointed out that the military operation was aimed at cleaning the system, and the effort deserved global support rather than criticism.

Both families have applied for World Cup match tickets. “Tickets are costly, starting at 30,000 Pesos. One peso equals ₹5.30 or so. Still, we can’t miss this chance to watch a World Cup in our own city,” Abhishek said.