Tuesday was my first truly touristy day. We took the Mexico City metro from Revolución, near La Casa, to the Tlatelolco stop a few blocks away from La Plaza de Las Tres Culturas. This plaza was the site of one of the defining moments of the Mexican Dirty War: the Tlatelolco massacre of October 2nd, 1968.
1968 was the year of Mexico’s first Olympic Games. It was also the year that citizen unrest, and especially student protests, reached new levels in Mexico City. Increasing economic stratification and political repression had angered many workers and university students. The policies of PRI president Gustavo Díaz Ordaz were coming under popular attack. In an attempt to hide his country’s divisions from the international community, Díaz Ordaz decided to take aggressive steps to silence protesters.
Tlatelolco is not located at the heart of Mexico City nor is it considered a particularly dangerous neighborhood. A cathedral sits on the plaza and apartment buildings line one side. Opposite the apartment towers, on the far side of the plaza, sit ancient Aztec ruins that have been excavated and opened to tourists. It came as a great shock to residents and peaceful protesters when, on October 2nd in the year of Mexico City’s Olympic Games, the Mexican military opened fire upon what had nearly always been a safe and relatively quiet section of the city.
Evidence uncovered since the massacre suggests the following story: the PRI regime wished to send a strong message to political dissidents that activism against the government would not be tolerated, and thus planned the Tlatelolco massacre meticulously. Paramilitary forces dressed as civilians and mingled with the crowd, only recognizable to one another by the white bandanas they wore on their hands and arms. When they received a signal, these forces started firing at the army, making it appear as though the protest had turned violent. The army, acting now in “self-defense,” charged the plaza, killing bystanders and protesters alike. The number of dead remains highly contested and it is likely that the Mexican government has suppressed evidence that might yield an answer. Although the massacre’s organizers placed cameras at several key points around the plaza prior to October 2nd, those tapes have never been released and it remains a mystery why the cameras were installed at all. Although the government has estimated 20-30 deaths, others have estimated hundreds. It is difficult to know. A large, beautiful museum located next to the plaza now commemorates the tragedy with film and photo displays of the period as well as artistic representations of how the massacre unfolded. A stone monument on the plaza also recognizes the dead of Tlatelolco.