A quiet memorial for Mexican ex-president Luis Echeverria

MEXICO CITY — The remains of former Mexican President Luis Echeverria were cremated Sunday, after a quiet memorial service.

Mourners were few for Echeverria, who was blamed for some of Mexico’s worst political killings of the 20th century.

Juan Velásquez, the lawyer who defended Echeverria, said a memorial service was held at a funeral home Saturday for the ex-president and his remains were cremated Sunday.

Echeverria died late Friday at one of his homes at the age of 100. Current President Andrés Manuel López Obrador confirmed the death Saturday. In his Twitter account, López Obrador didn’t give a cause of death for Echeverria, who governed from 1970 to 1976.

Friends and allies suggested Echeverria should be remembered for his attention to foreign policy and his expansion of domestic programs and state-owned companies. Echeverria cast himself as a friend of leftist governments.

“Echeverria did a great deal for Mexico,” said Velásquez. “For exampe, when Echeverria took office, Mexico had diplomatic relations with 50 countries, and when he left, it was 150.”

But Echeverria’s successors later had to reverse much of his government expansion, because his ambitious public spending programs had left Mexico deeply mired in debt.

But he was most remembered for what has become known as the massacre of Tlatelolco.

On Oct. 2 1968, a few weeks before the Summer Olympics in Mexico City, government sharpshooters opened fire on student protesters in the Tlatelolco plaza, followed by soldiers posted there. Estimates of the dead have ranged from 25 to more than 300.

Echeverria had denied any participation in the attacks, though he was Interior Secretary — the top domestic security post — at the time.