[sixties-l] Thousands March in Mexico City

From: radman (resist@best.com)
Date: 10/06/00

  • Next message: William M Mandel: "Re: [sixties-l] teeny tiny protests on Sproul Steps"

    Thousands March in Mexico City
    
    Story Filed: Monday, October 02, 2000
    
    MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Shouting ``Don't forget Oct. 2!,''
    thousands of protesters marched through Mexico City on
    Monday to mark the 32nd anniversary of the day an Olympic
    security battalion opened fire on mostly student protesters,
    killing dozens.
    
    Those marching Monday called for the release of government
    archives on the massacre, and Mexican President-elect
    Vicente Fox has pledged to open the files. But many of the
    marchers said they were doubtful the information will ever
    be released.
    
    ``It's a lie,'' said one protester, Javier Resendiz, 56.
    ``They've been saying this for so many years, but they never
    resolve it.''
    
    Yelling slogans and carrying banners denouncing free market
    reforms, 9,000 people marched to the capital's historic
    plaza.
    
    The crowd -- mostly leftist students -- was violent at
    times. At the start of the march, several people were
    injured when demonstrators threw rocks at the bus they were
    traveling in, breaking its windows. Several other
    demonstrators were hurt when they were attacked with sticks
    and rocks by another group.
    
    Demonstrator Xenia Hernandez, 19, said she didn't believe
    Fox would follow through on his pledge to release documents
    because doing so would ``implicate those guilty, some of
    whom are alive.''
    
    Some 300 people are believed to have been killed in the Oct.
    2, 1968, massacre in Mexico City, according to human rights
    groups. The government has maintained that only 30 to 40
    people died and that student protesters opened fire first.
    
    Recent information found in archives in Washington and
    Mexican ministries shows the existence of a government plan
    to end the student protests. It also shows that President
    Gustavo Diaz Ordaz believed foreign communists were leading
    the movement and that he was determined to enforce security
    ahead of the 1968 Olympic Games.
    
    Still, key files and military records remain sealed, and it
    is unclear who ordered the security battalion to open fire.
    
    On Monday, Mexico City Mayor Rosario Robles repeated demands
    for more information, describing the massacre as ``an open
    wound.''
    
    In elections July 2, Fox became the first opposition
    candidate to be popularly elected president in Mexico. He
    defeated a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party,
    which has held the presidency since its creation in 1929.
    
    Fox has said that one of the first things he will do after
    he is sworn in Dec. 1 is have Mexico's Congress set up a
    ``Transparency Commission'' to start looking into Mexico's
    past corruption cases and unsolved crimes. The massacre is
    likely to be among the cases investigated.
    
    Fox told Progreso magazine in an article published last week
    that he believes ``crimes against humanity should be brought
    to justice.''
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : 10/06/00 EDT