1968 : no se olvida

today marks 40 years since the tlatelolco massacre in mexico city.



ten days before the 1968 olympic games opened in their city 15,000 students, workers, and their families filled the streets chanting ¡no queremos olimpiadas, queremos revolución! / we don't want the olympics, we want a revolution! the protest came after months of strikes and other popular actions, and was a direct response to the mexican army's occupation of unam, la universidad nacional "autónoma" de méxico. the march ended with approximately 10,000 people assembled in the plaza de las tres culturas in tlatelolco, and the mexican government sent in its army and police forces behind them. as night began to fall, the armed forces surrounded the plaza. then they opened fire indiscriminately on those who had gathered, hitting with live ammunition hundreds of unarmed men, women, and children who were trying to flee. the chaos and killing lasted hours. neighbors in the adjacent apartment buildings opened their homes to hide students, and police responded by spraying the buildings with bullets and tearing them apart all night looking for young dissidents. in addition to the killings, the military and police arrested, tortured, and disappeared countless people on october 2nd and in the surrounding days, including most of the student movement leadership. while the government is widely believed to have kept records of the number of people arrested, detained, and killed, accurate numbers have yet to be officially released.


here's a song, one of many, about that day:



nada pasó : panteón rococo


and compilation of fotos from la noche de tlatelolco, by beloved mexican writer elena poniatowska:



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more about mexico 1968...

articles in the current proceso : testimonies from roberta avendaño martínez "la tita" & ignacia "nacha" rodríguez

article in today's la jornada

article in today's l.a. times

article in today's página 12

permanent unam commemoration exhibit

extensive foto archive and reports at el universal

fotos taken by a government photographer and leaked to el mundo in 2001

national security archive report