tlatelolco masacre

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Also known as The Night of Tlatelolco TLATELOLCO MASSACRE

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Also known as The Night of Tlatelolco

TLATELOLCO MASSACRE

Background

Mexico City hosted the Games of the XIX Olympiad in 1968, the first developing nation and Latin American country ever to host the Olympics.

Since 1968 no other Latin America country had subsequently hosted the Olympic Games, although Rio de Janeiro is scheduled to host the games in 2016.

Gustavo Díaz Ordaz

The Mexican president during the Olympics, ineptly strained tenuous conditions in Mexico in an attempt to preserve the peace.

During his presidency, Mexicans endured the suppression of independent labor unions, farmers, and the economy.

From this general dissatisfaction with Díaz Ordaz, the student movement was born.

Their demands :

Greater employment

Respect for university autonomy

Assault on Vocational School #5

On July 23, 1968, the police claimed that they attacked Vocational School #5 in order to capture street gangs that had enrolled in the school.

The riot police (granaderos) were used by the Mexican government to control and suppress the student demonstrators and they were first used against the students in July 1968.

MASSACRE

On October 2, 1968…

Around 10,000 university and secondary students gathered in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas to protest the government’s actions and listen peacefully to speeches.

Along with the CNH members, many men and women not associated with the CNH gathered in the plaza as spectators of the demonstration.

The students had congregated outside an apartment complex in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco for what was supposed to be a peaceful rally.

Rally organizers did not attempt to call off the protest when they noticed an increased military presence in the area. Around 6:30 P.M., 5,000 soldiers, 200 tanks and trucks surrounded the plaza.

The question of who fired first remained unresolved years after the massacre. The Mexican government stated that gunfire from the surrounding apartments were the impetus for the army’s attack, while the student protesters claimed that helicopters overhead signaled the army to begin firing into the crowd.

The soldiers retaliated by firing into the crowd, hitting not only the protestors but also bystanders. Demonstrators and passersby alike, including children, were hit by bullets and mounds of bodies soon lay on the ground.

The killing continued throughout the night, with soldiers operating on a house-to-house basis in the apartment buildings adjacent to the square.

Witnesses to the event claim that the bodies were first removed in ambulances and later military officials came and piled up bodies, not knowing if they were dead or alive, into the military trucks.