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Generations of students remember 1968 massacre in march through Mexico City

Mexico Massacre Anniversary
October 03, 2023

MEXICO CITY (AP) โ€” Chanting in unison, students marched through downtown Mexico City on Monday evening, marking 55 years since the military massacred hundreds of students in Tlatelolco plaza.

Enrique Treviรฑo Taudres survived the massacre and now marches every year with the Pro Democratic Freedoms 68 Committee. โ€œPeople know a lot and forget easily,โ€ he said, adding that the memory of Tlatelolco holds important lessons for modern Mexico.

As many as 300 people were massacred at a student protest in Tlatelolco plaza on Oct. 2, 1968, in what the Mexican government initially reported as the lawful suppression of a violent riot just 10 days before the Summer Olympicsโ€™ Opening Ceremony in Mexico City.

Generations of students remember 1968 massacre in march through Mexico City
Mexico Massacre Anniversary

Since then military reports have revealed at least 360 government snipers were stationed on rooftops around the square. They opened fire and, in the ensuing chaos, the military members posted round the square began shooting peaceful protesters and students.

โ€œLook, itโ€™s a commemoration of that day but it is also a call to the current students, the current young people to be aware of the reality,โ€ said Treviรฑo. โ€œThe best example that we grandparents can give young people is that we were conscientious and committed young people. We took to the streets.โ€

Adolfo Cruz, a tourism student in the city, marched on Monday for the first time. โ€œPart of this is remembering all our deceased companions because itโ€™s thanks to them we have the right to march today,โ€ Cruz said. โ€œWe also want to change things."

Mexican students today still find themselves the victims of violence and organized crime. In 2018 three university students in the western city of Guadalajara were killed by a gang and their bodies dissolved in acid. Infamously, 43 students were abducted and murdered in southern Mexico in 2014, the victims of an attack which implicated municipal, state and national authorities.

Generations of students remember 1968 massacre in march through Mexico City
Mexico Massacre Anniversary

October 2nd, said Cruz, โ€œis a commemoration, but itโ€™s also for the rights of all students,โ€ in a country where there are still โ€œmany difficultiesโ€ across the education system.

After the massacre in 1968, 25 people were officially reported dead, but later investigations identified 44 remains. Successive government inquiries have never shown exactly how many died, but eyewitnesses claimed bodies were carted away from the square and estimates range that over 300 were killed.

The Mexican government acknowledged the massacre was a โ€œstate crimeโ€on its 50th anniversary in 2018.

Earlier on Monday, interim head of Mexico Cityโ€™s government Martรญ Bartes spoke about the historical ramifications of the tragedy.

Generations of students remember 1968 massacre in march through Mexico City
Mexico Massacre Anniversary

โ€œ'68 is so strong because it transformed political culture from below,โ€ he said from the Plaza of the Three Cultures, where the protest began in 1968. โ€œ'68 transformed universities, massively expanded higher education, incorporated new critical thinking into the social sciences, generated activists, opened the doors to new ideas such as feminism or sexual diversity.โ€

A rainy Monday night marked the end of a run of protests in Mexicoโ€™s capital: from the anniversary of the 43 abducted students in southern Mexico last Tuesday, to a march for abortion rights Thursday. Since last week, monuments have been hiding behind blue barricades across the city and the Marabunta Brigade, a group trained to keep protestors safe, has been busy.

Monday evening was Mario Romeroโ€™s 20th protest as a member of the brigade but, he said, he was not tired, or afraid.

โ€œI like to come out because things need to change, but nothing changes," he said.

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