Questions linger 50 years after Mexico student massacre
MEXICO CITY; Fifty years ago today, Mexican troops opened fire on student demonstrators, killing hundreds just days before Mexico City hosted the 1968 Olympics-one of the darkest episodes in a year of global turbulence. But five decades on, the October 2 massacre is little-remembered by the rest of the world, and is shrouded in mystery in Mexico, where no one has ever been punished. Today, it remains unclear exactly what happened, and how many people were killed.
Felix Hernandez, one of the leaders of the student movement that had gathered thousands of people that night at a square in Mexico City’s Tlatelolco neighborhood, recalls how the army just kept firing into the crowd for about half an hour. “There were hundreds of dead, thousands of wounded, thousands arrested,” said Hernandez, 72. “We still don’t know exactly
how many people died,” he told AFP, his eyes red, the anger palpable in his voice.
The authoritarian government at the time put the death toll at 20, claiming “terrorists” had fired on army troops, who responded in self-defense. That version of events has today been discredited. Independent reports say the firing came entirely from government forces, and put the death toll at anywhere from 300 to 500 people.
Olympics in troubled times Just like in the United States and Europe, 1968 was a year of upheaval in Mexico, where student protesters were calling for democratic change after four decades of one-party rule. The turmoil increasingly alarmed President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz and the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) as Mexico prepared to host the summer Olympics, the first time a Latin American country had been awarded the Games.
“The government was terrified the students would sabotage the Olympics, to such an extent that they were ready to eliminate the movement,” said the writer Elena Poniatowska, author of an acclaimed book on the killing called “Massacre in Mexico.” On the morning of October 2, 10 days before the opening ceremony, the leaders of the student movement met with authorities and agreed to cancel a march later that day.
A second meeting was scheduled for the next day to discuss suspending the movement altogether until after the Olympics, in return for the release of political prisoners. The student leaders did not call off a rally scheduled for that night in Tlatelolco, and informed the government of their plans, according to Hernandez. About 8,000 protesters gathered at the Plaza of Three Cultures-which is where student leaders were standing on an improvised stage addressing the crowd when the shooting started. —AFP