New Delhi, June 26 -- Much of Mexico has been celebrating the World Cup with joyful outdoor gatherings, filling streets, plazas and fan zones in the country's three host cities - Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey - since the tournament kickoff on June 11. But in parts of the country plagued by cartel violence, the event is experienced differently: with fear.

In villages and towns across Mexico where shootings are a near-daily occurrence, the cheers are mostly confined indoors. There, real-life concerns outrank the excitement around a World Cup in which Mexico has reached the knockout stage.

"I really like football, but . we're nervous," a lime grower from Michoacan, one of the states with the highest concentration of criminal group...