The Mexican Movement of 1968, also known as the Mexican Student Movement (Movimiento Estudiantil) was a social movement composed of a broad coalition of students from Mexico's leading universities that garnered widespread public support for political change in Mexico. A major factor in its emergence publicly was the Mexican government's lavish spending to build Olympic facilities for the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. The movement demanded greater political freedoms and an end to the authoritarianism of the PRI regime, which had been in power since 1929.
Student mobilization on the campuses of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, National Polytechnic Institute, El Colegio de México, Chapingo Autonomous University, Ibero-American University, Universidad La Salle and Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla, among others created the National Strike Council. Its efforts to mobilize Mexican people for broad changes in national life was supported by many sectors of Mexican civil society, including workers, peasants, housewives, merchants, intellectuals, artists, and teachers.
The movement had a list of demands for Mexican president Gustavo Díaz Ordaz and the government of Mexico for specific student issues as well as broader ones, especially the reduction or elimination of authoritarianism. Simultaneous with the movement in Mexico and influencing it were global protests of 1968. Demands in Mexico were for a democratic change in the country, more political and civil liberties, the reduction of inequality and the resignation of the government of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) that they considered authoritarian and by then had governed Mexico since 1929, with only weak political opposition.
The political movement was violently suppressed by the government following a series of mass demonstrations and culminating in a massacre of participants in a peaceful demonstration on 2 October 1968, known as the Tlatelolco massacre. There were lasting changes in Mexican political and cultural life because of the 1968 mobilization.Jesús Vargas Valdez "Student Movement of 1968" in Encyclopedia of Mexico, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, pages 1379–1382
Background For several years prior to the protests, Mexico had experienced a period of strong economic performance called the Mexican miracle, which Antonio Ortiz Mena, the Finance Minister, called "the stabilizing development" (El Desarrollo Estabilizador). The currency was stable, the buying power of wages increased by 6.4%, and the government had a low external debt, which allowed the government to preserve fiscal responsibility. However, there was worker unrest before 1968, including a strike by oil workers under President Miguel Alemán that was put down by the army, as well as a railway workers strike under President Adolfo López Mateos that was ended by military intervention under the direction of then Minister of the Interior Gustavo Díaz Ordaz. Most strikes and political opposition had been from workers and peasants, but when Mexican medical doctors went on strike in 1964, the government was faced with middle-class professionals making demands of the government for better working conditions. Díaz Ordaz, now president of Mexico, refused to negotiate with the striking doctors, who caved under pressure. Subsequently many of those participating in the strike were arrested or fired. The strike demonstrated that Díaz Ordaz would tolerate no challenge to his authoritarian presidency. His Minister of the Interior, Luis Echeverria, played the enforcer role that Díaz Ordaz had as Minister of the Interior in the López Mateos cabinet.Enrique Krauze, Mexico: Biography of Power. New York: HarperCollins 1997: 680–685
Student activism prior to 1968 Student activism in Mexico was traditionally largely confined to issues dealing with their circumstances while studying at university. There were two strikes at the National Polytechnic Institute in 1942 and 1956, as well as a strike at the National Teachers' School (Escuela Nacional de Maestras) in 1950, organized by the Federación de Estudiantes y Campesinos Socialistas de México (FECSM). In 1966, Díaz Ordaz intervened in a low-level protest in Morelia at the University of Michoacan over an increase in bus fare. The federal government saw in the protest Communists and "professional agitators involved with foreigners," and a student was shot dead. Demonstrators saw his death as "a victim of the government." Demonstrations increased, with demands for the removal of the governor of the state of Guerrero. Díaz Ordaz refused to negotiate and placed his Minister of the Interior, Luis Echeverría, in charge of the government intervention, occupying the campus. Although there was no evidence of outside agitators or violence on the part of students, the government ordered student residences searched and students evicted. Some students were arrested. A similar scenario occurred at the University of Sonora. In the traditional presidential speech to the legislature on 1 September 1966, just before the occupation of the Morelia campus, Díaz Ordaz made a threat against universities and students. "Neither claims of social and intellectual rank, nor economic position, nor age, nor profession nor occupation grant anyone immunity. I must repeat: No one has rights against Mexico!"quoted in Krauze, Mexico: Biography of Power, p. 690.
In the 1960s, the Mexican government wanted to showcase its economic progress to the world by hosting the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Economic growth had not been spread evenly, and students saw an opportunity to bring reforms and more democracy to Mexico. Arising from reaction to the government's violent repression of fights between rival groups of preparatory students, the student movement in Mexico City quickly grew to include large segments of the student body who were dissatisfied with the regime of the PRI.""La democracia, punto de unión universal entre quienes animamos ese movimiento, se vuelve un espejismo cuando nos acercamos tratando de precisar su contenido." See Sergio Zermeño, México, una democracia utópica: El movimiento estudiantil del 68, 5th Edition (Mexico City: Siglo Veitiuno, 1985), 1.
Mexico City Olympic Games
The 1968 Summer Olympic Games were scheduled to be held in Mexico City, making it the first city in a developing country to host a games edition. The government saw it as an important way to raise Mexico's profile internationally because of the tourist attendees and international television coverage of the event, which could attract international investors. Large amounts of public funding were expended to build Olympic facilities at a time when there were other priorities for the country. Over the summer of 1968, opposition to the Olympics grew and there were major demonstrations against them. Students did not believe that the appearance of Mexico to the world was a priority. They wanted a revolution resulting in the reform of the country. "No queremos Olimpiadas, queremos revolución" (We do not want Olympic Games, we want a revolution). The IOC threatened to move the Games to Los Angeles if the situation deteriorated. The government of Díaz Ordaz wanted the Games to go forward no matter how much repression was required.
Sparking events of the student movement
On 22 and 23 July 1968, a confrontation took place between students at Vocational Schools No. 2 and #5—affiliated with the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN)—and the Isaac Ochoterena High School—a preparatory school affiliated with UNAM. The subsequent intervention—described as a "police riot"—by the special police corps of grenadiers resulted in the arrest of several students.Enrique Krauze, Mexico: Biography of Power, p. 694Jesús Vargas Valdez. "Student Movement of 1968" in Encyclopedia of Mexico: History, Society & Culture. Vol. 2 Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1997, p. 1379.Earl Shorris. The Life and Times of Mexico. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004. In an informal interview with some granaderos, Antonio Careaga recounted that, "the granaderos said that the authorities gave men in the riot squad thirty pesos (approx. three dollars) for every student they clubbed and hauled off to jail."Poniatowska, Elena 1991
On 26 July 1968 there were two simultaneous demonstrations took place, one summoned students from the IPN to protest the assault of the grenadiers on students from Vocational School 5. The other demonstration was organized by the Estudiantes Democráticos, a Communist youth organization that was holding a "Youth March for July 26" demonstration commemorated the 15th anniversary of the 1952 assault on the Moncada barracks in Cuba and in solidarity with the Cuban Revolution. The two demonstrations intersected and joined together, marching to the Zócalo. However, they were prevented from entering the central square by mounted police. In the following days, students demonstrated in the streets of downtown Mexico City and set fire to empty buses. During this period hundreds were injured and perhaps a thousand were jailed. Some students fled to the Preparatory School at the former Colegio de San Ildefonso, where police blew open the 18th century carved wooden door with a bazooka. The government claimed that all the agitation and the official response concerned the Mexican Communist Party. What had been a relatively low-level local police matter was "elevated ... to an issue of national security."Krauze, Mexico: Biography of Power, p. 695. The Attorney General of the Republic, Julio Sánchez Vargas, issued arrest warrants against "people linked to the disorders", among them were several members of the Mexican Communist Party (PCM).
On 1 August 1968, the rector of the UNAM, Javier Barros Sierra, publicly condemned the events. He viewed the attack and occupation of the preparatory school affiliated with UNAM as a violation of UNAM's autonomy as an institution. He lowered the Mexican flag to half-mast. He then gave an emotional speech he advocated protection of university autonomy and demanded the freedom of political prisoners, referring to the UNAM-affiliated preparatory students who had been arrested. He then led a massive march, with perhaps as many as 50,000 on Av. Insurgentes to the center of the city, returning to UNAM's campus at the Ciudad Universitaria. The student movement chant, Únete Pueblo (People! Join us!), was first used on this march. Mexico City had not seen a student mobilization on this scale for decades, but what was more remarkable about this one was that it was led by the rector of the national university.Krauze, Mexico: Biography of Power, p. 696. The orderliness of the demonstration proved to the Mexican public that the students were not rabble-rousers; additionally, the demonstration showed it unlikely that communist agitators could have coordinated the students' actions. The protest route was planned specifically to avoid the Zócalo (Mexico City's main plaza). The current UNAM website stated that the march route began from "University City (CU), ran along Insurgentes Avenue to Félix Cuevas, turned on Félix Cuevas towards Coyoacán Avenue, and returned by University Avenue back to the starting point." The march proceeded without any major disturbances or arrests.
August to October 1968 National Strike Council (CNH)