Tlatelolco Massacre
The Massacre of Tlatelolco 1968
“Women with their torsos torn apart by machine gun fire; children with their heads destroyed by the impact of high velocity weaponry, innocent bystanders gunned down; onlookers and journalist felled in the course of their everyday life; students, police officers and soldiers dead and wounded…Perhaps the most surprising aspect was the huge number of blood-stained shoes that were scattered around the area, silent witnesses to the disappearance of their owners” (Poniatowska, 1971:201). Like many other countries around the world students have experienced movements demanding political and social change. Mexican students started the movement on July 22, 1968 and it only lasted a couple of months until the tragedy …show more content…
Mexico’s political transition encouraged the government to take a look at the past and get answers to what really happened. They wanted to uncover what the government had covered quickly after the Massacre of Tlatelolco. Their hopes grew when Vicente Fox was elected President in 2000 and broke the seventy years of the rule of one party. Fox ordered the creation of a “special prosecutor for crimes of the past” to investigate the Tlatelolco massacre (Joe Richman). It did little to no help by ordering this because little was uncovered about the number of deaths or those who were killed. Being many years that had past they were still getting little information about that day. The Government was still trying to make it seem like change was happening but question weren’t being answered still. The number of deaths reported were less than what had been seen that day. No parents or friends came forward to add names to the list of deaths because they were scared of the government or simply because it didn’t matter since their relatives were already dead. New information came in after, they revealed that the Presidential Guard or military had posted snipers in the buildings surrounding the Plaza of Tlatelolco the day of the massacre. They made it seem like the students were shooting at the troops so that they would fire back to the students. By this one can see how the government has always used other people to cover up for their bad behavior. The government was never wrong even though proof showed they were the main people responsible for what happened. Years went passing by and little to no change was still
“Women with their torsos torn apart by machine gun fire; children with their heads destroyed by the impact of high velocity weaponry, innocent bystanders gunned down; onlookers and journalist felled in the course of their everyday life; students, police officers and soldiers dead and wounded…Perhaps the most surprising aspect was the huge number of blood-stained shoes that were scattered around the area, silent witnesses to the disappearance of their owners” (Poniatowska, 1971:201). Like many other countries around the world students have experienced movements demanding political and social change. Mexican students started the movement on July 22, 1968 and it only lasted a couple of months until the tragedy …show more content…
Mexico’s political transition encouraged the government to take a look at the past and get answers to what really happened. They wanted to uncover what the government had covered quickly after the Massacre of Tlatelolco. Their hopes grew when Vicente Fox was elected President in 2000 and broke the seventy years of the rule of one party. Fox ordered the creation of a “special prosecutor for crimes of the past” to investigate the Tlatelolco massacre (Joe Richman). It did little to no help by ordering this because little was uncovered about the number of deaths or those who were killed. Being many years that had past they were still getting little information about that day. The Government was still trying to make it seem like change was happening but question weren’t being answered still. The number of deaths reported were less than what had been seen that day. No parents or friends came forward to add names to the list of deaths because they were scared of the government or simply because it didn’t matter since their relatives were already dead. New information came in after, they revealed that the Presidential Guard or military had posted snipers in the buildings surrounding the Plaza of Tlatelolco the day of the massacre. They made it seem like the students were shooting at the troops so that they would fire back to the students. By this one can see how the government has always used other people to cover up for their bad behavior. The government was never wrong even though proof showed they were the main people responsible for what happened. Years went passing by and little to no change was still