Tlatelolco Massacre

Tlatelolco Massacre
Part of Mexico 68 and the Dirty War
Memorial stele dedicated to the massacre victims at Tlatelolco.
Location	Plaza de las Tres Culturas, Mexico City
Coordinates	19°27′4″N 99°08′14″W / 19.45111°N 99.13722°W / 19.45111; -99.13722
Date	October 2, 1968
Attack type	Massacre
Deaths	30-300

The Tlatelolco massacre was the killing of an estimated 30 to 300 students and civilians by military and police on October 2, 1968, in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City. The events are considered part of the Mexican Dirty War, when the government used its forces to suppress political opposition. The massacre occurred roughly 10 days before the opening of the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. More than 1,300 people were arrested by security police. There has been no consensus on how many were killed that day in the plaza area.

At the time, the government and the mainstream media in Mexico claimed that government forces had been provoked by protesters shooting at them. But government documents made public since 2000 suggest that the snipers had been employed by the government. Estimates of the death toll ranged from 30 to 300, with eyewitnesses reporting hundreds dead. According to US national security archives, Kate Doyle, a Senior Analyst of US policy in Latin America, documented the deaths of 44 people. The head of the Federal Directorate of Security reported the arrests of 1,345 people on October 2.

"The year 1968 in Mexico City was a time of expansiveness and the breaking down of barriers: a time for forging alliances among students, workers, and the marginal urban poor and challenging the political regime. It was a time of great hope, seemingly on the verge of transformation. Students were out in the streets, in the plazas, on the buses, forming brigades, "going to the people." There were movement committees at each school and heady experiences of argument, exploration, and democratic practice. There was no central leader. Families were drawn in, whole apartment buildings and neighborhoods. A revolution was happening - not Che's revolution - but a revolution from within the system, nonviolent, driven by euphoria, conviction, and the excitement of experimentation on the ground."

The Mexican government invested a massive $150 million in preparation for the 1968 Olympics to be hosted in Mexico City. That amount was equal to roughly $1 billion by today's terms. Mexican President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz struggled to maintain peace during a time of rising social tensions but suppressed movements by labor unions and farmers fighting to improve their lot. His administration suppressed independent labor unions, farmers, and was heavy-handed in trying to direct the economy. In 1958 under the previous administration of Adolfo López Mateos, labor leader Demetrio Vallejo had tried to organize independent railroad unions, which the Mexican government quickly ended. It arrested Vallejo under a violation of Article 145 of the Penal Code, which defined "social dissolution" as a crime.