MEXICO CITY, June 3 - Eight days before Mexico City kicks off the World Cup, mass protests by teachers and retired judges, road closures and last-minute construction work caused chaos in the capital on Wednesday for millions of residents who face long delays and complex rerouting of their daily commutes.

On June 11, Mexico City will host the inaugural World Cup match between Mexico and South Africa at Azteca stadium in the capital.

With Mexico in the global spotlight, teachers and other groups have staged marches and blocked major avenues. They have said their protests, which are unrelated to the tournament, could intensify unless President Claudia Sheinbaum's government addresses their demands.

The CNTE, a dissident wing of the national teachers' union, has threatened mass demonstrations at the opening of the World Cup in official statements shared on social media.

The union is demanding the government fulfill a campaign pledge to repeal a 2007 law that overhauled the pension and social security system for public-sector workers, as well as salary increases.

"The current government made a campaign commitment — both the government of (former President) Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and President Sheinbaum's — they said they had that commitment to teachers to strike down that reform ... but it never happened," Rodrigo Arias, a schoolteacher from the southern state of Oaxaca with 40 years of classroom experience, said.

"There is neglect. There is a policy of managing timelines, of making commitments that are never truly kept. We will keep mobilizing until we are heard — even with the World Cup on the horizon," added Arias, outside the Interior Ministry, where the CNTE was holding a protest while its leaders met with authorities in hope of reaching agreements.

The protests are concentrated on Insurgentes and Paseo de la Reforma, two of the capital's busiest and most emblematic boulevards. Elsewhere in the capital, teachers were also blocking roads, generating traffic gridlock and frustrating commuters.

On Tuesday, protesters topple...