October 2 was the 50th anniversary of one of the worst single acts of political repression in Mexican history.
It was just before the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Foreign journalists were everywhere, and a tenacious student-led social protest movement showed no signs of going away.
Their rowdy presence was an embarrassment for the Gustavo Diaz Ordaz administration anxious to showcase Mexico to the world.
On October 2, protestors gathered in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in preparation for a march, but they never left the plaza.
Instead, snipers fired into the crowd, and the worst bloodshed in modern Mexican history ensued. Hundreds died and over a thousand were arrested.
Even today, following remembrance marches and vigils across the country, many details remain a public mystery, including the identities of the perpetrators, which may include both Mexican and foreign nationals.
The significance of this event in the modern Mexican mind was summed up one 50th anniversary protest sign, which invoked the 43 missing students of the 2014 Ayotzinapa massacre: “We are grandchildren of the Revolution … Siblings of the 43.”
Source: Animal Politico (Mexico)