editor’s Note: since July 23, Animal politician presents journalistic materials to know facts, names and key moments of the student movement of the 68 who lived in Mexico.
The chronology is published in real time, end to convey the intensity with which they lived those days and is, thus, a better understanding of how it arose and was braked at a very high price the most important social political movement of the 20th century.
It is much to know and understand: 50 years later still do not know why a student Brawl – like many that there were previously – detonated the brutal repression of the Government.
What is true is that the 68 was, is much more than the October 2 massacre. There was a context that explains it. And thats how I present them here: City of Mexico, October 2, 1968-the rally called for Wednesday by the National Council of strike in the Plaza of the three cultures, after 73 days of student movement, was started with a hour and a half delay under a sky cloudy that you announced in the proximity of the rain.
Since three o’clock in the afternoon, I had begun to get people, despite the unusual number of soldiers, police and military deployed in the immediate vicinity. The tension they breathed in the environment.
The first members of the National Council of strike (CNH) arrived, around four o’clock in the afternoon, on the third floor of the building housing unit Chihuahua Nonoalco Tlatelolco: Anselmo Muñoz was commissioned to take electricity from a Department of the fifth floor to install the sound equipment on the balcony that would use as a forum; Gilberto Guevara Niebla organized and is taking charge of everything to happen as agreed: this time there would be more security measures and greater control for access to Tribune.
For 17:30 there were already between 8 and 15 thousand attendees – depending on the different versions–and finally started the rally, driven by Myrthokleia Gonzalez Gallardo, representative of the school of mechanical engineering and electrical (ESIME) at the CNH. Much of the audience listened, sitting on the floor.
The plan was that the speakers would protest by stopping Luis Tomás Cervantes Cabeza de Vaca, delegate to the HCN by the Escuela de Chapingo which diffused, September 29, a letter that denounced the torture which has been subjected. But above all, be announced a hunger strike of political prisoners, as a method of peaceful and different for pressuring the Government to the public dialogue, and position it to halt the violent wave of recent weeks against students.
However, before the rounds of a military helicopter, which seemed to zopilotear square, and the arrival of more elements of the army, which had surrounded the area, and “men with very short hair, to the military, but without uniform, and a mysterious white glove in one hand” said Luis González de Alba, Member of the CNH, the student leaders decided to hasten the rally, inform that you suspending the March to the town of Santo Tomas, still occupied by the army, and that should conclude with order.
“El Pelon Vega – textile engineering of the poly – was on the microphone: a young COP with broad of premature balding forehead.” “One after the other were you murmuring between teeth: hurry and let’s go ‘, said Gonzalez de Alba.
strange things behind Tribune
when Florencio Lopez Osuna, leader of the IPN higher school of Economics, he was in his turn at the microphone, access to the Gallery occurred “very strange”, highlighted Guevara fog, which them they set the red flags.
For example: “reached the Tribune a subject of stature, with all the appearance of Guerrero, and as such I said: ‘Gilberto, bring a letter from Genaro Vázquez to read at the rally’.” I took the letter, read it and quickly realized that it was false. Di then instructions not to allow passing that subject”.
Another man, “very high and very blonde”, posing as a student at the Faculty of law called “Let me climb to the rostrum”. Guevara fog gave the order not to let it pass. “I even stopped entering Selma Beraud, Faculty of philosophy,” he told later.
“We let go only to journalists. Then we realized that many policemen were disguised as journalists. Above all, from the bottom of the rally started to arrive me numerous errands. Climbed many colleagues to tell me the same thing: ‘ Gilberto, the rally is filled with nectarines . It is full of legal ‘. I had been in all previous meetings and had never gone that.”
sparklers had already begun to darken when, between 18:10 and 18:15 burst in the sky sparklers.
It is not known with certainty how many were or where it went. Testimonies speak of one, two or even three flares of green and red. Neither is known for sure where it came out.
There are two hypotheses: one says that they were released from the military helicopter which by that time had already given him some five turns to the square; other, which came from the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Another possibility is that both versions are.
The Colonel Ernesto Gutiérrez Gómez Tagle, Manager of the Olympia battalion, allegedly sent to detain members of the CNH, claimed to have launched flares.
“Just when a helicopter flew over the square, I shot two Bengal lights that would serve to alert the captain Careaga and its people from the physical presence of the totality of the strike Committee,” said.
Those who have been: once spit into the sky, flares had immediate effect. Still not hot gunpowder, touched the ground when the first gun shot was heard. And in seconds, bursts of machine gun response.
Had more than 10 thousand soldiers and policemen in the square.
chaos, blood and death
Lopez Osuna was the only one that reached to end his speech, the three Commissioners by the CNH to talk about the evening Wednesday in Tlatelolco. The other two were David Vega and Eduardo Valle, El Buho . They could not continue.
A sniper powered trigger from the balcony on the third floor of the Chihuahua building and triggered the response of soldiers on the rally-goers: secondary school students, University, polytechnics; teachers, workers, voyeurs, Tlatelolco – including children – neighbours; national and foreign journalists and photographers. As the Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, who told what happened there, that night, the rest of the world.
Sparklers were the signal for the elements of the Olympia battalion, plainclothes and carrying a white glove on his left hand, to identify each other. Stationed in buildings on April 2, on September 15, 1910 Revolution, ISSSTE 11 and the Church of Santiago – located within the square-as well as in departments of the Chihuahua and in the corridor of the third floor of this building, opened fire against the protesters and soldiers who were guarding the place, apparently, to make them believe these students were the aggressors.
At 18:15 the army entered to the Plaza of the three cultures; from positions occupied, it surrounded the square and began firing indiscriminately against people who listened to the rally and to the Chihuahua building. The crowd dispersed werecat away from soldiers; they were looking for the exits, but everything was fenced.
trap without output
“to the edge of the six in the afternoon, when the crowd came out a giant roar, a cry of terror growing. I returned the view from the gallery and saw the army advancing towards the square of the rally from the bridge of Nonoalco (…) I felt that everything was going to end at that moment,”acknowledged Guevara Niebla.
In a matter of minutes, the shooting became widespread. Women, men, children, young people, adults, all ran terrified in all directions. Some threw to the ground, others looked for a column, a wall, a car behind which shelter. A hole in the stairs or among the pre-Hispanic vestiges. Some tried to take refuge in the departments of the housing unit.
In the Gallery, “near the microphone was Sócrates Campos Lemus.” At a previous meeting of the CNH it had decided that Socrates would not hold the microphone at rallies, because it was very provocative. (…) This time he had stood next to the microphone, without taking it. It took him until we saw the soldiers. He said into the microphone: ‘ calm, companions. This is a provocation. Calm, fellow ‘. I thought then in the end of everything, the unarmed crowd and how it would come out of there”.
Alba Gonzalez, from the railing on the third floor of the Chihuahua, at that moment saw the crowd running towards the stairs from the edge of the square and, suddenly, stopping his career: “los de atrás fell on the forward”. Later, screams in the bucket of the stairs of the building quickly arrived at the third floor: “Now go it to your revolution, your whore mother!”.
“I looked at those who were shouting: young men, out of uniform, a white glove on one hand and the gun in the other.” No long weapons, gun, because surrounding the building were due hide it. They wore white glove to identify each other since they were not uniformed”.
The crowd formed “a giant whirlwind”, described Guevara Niebla. “I came to go down. I ran to the stairs, followed by several teammates, and suddenly I saw that came to rise a few armed men, dresses of civilians (…) Boys who were with me – I spoke practically on tenterhooks and I climbed the stairs in a matter of seconds. Already the shooting could be heard”. They went up to the fifth floor, “to the Lady Department had given us electricity for the sound team”.
Let him go, along with Eduardo Valle Espinoza OWLPablo Gómez, Anselmo Muñoz, Félix Hernández Gamundi and other 30 young people. “I peeked out the window in the shootout and went back to the gallery view… and saw something amazing: dozens of weapons that had appeared on the rostrum as if by magic and that since the building pointed in the direction of the army or the crowd – down” , in the square. I didn’t see a single face. Only he could see the arms and hands that handled them”.
Then, “in a miraculous event, students accompanying me I pulled at the moment which entered a shrapnel and destroyed the roof and the glass. They began to enter a huge caliber bullets. We were lying on the ground, covered by plaster that fell”. Soon after, bullets pierced the pipe and that Department – as well as the rest of the building – was flooded.”
Many people managed to escape by the East side of the square. The less fortunate encountered columns of soldiers who advanced bayonet pierced – and unafraid to attack with her, confirmed witnesses- or were lying, inert, by the cross-fire.
The Esplanade was empty in minutes. Only dozens of dead, wounded and soldiers could be seen.
It darkened. The hail of bullets that began at 18:15 was very intense about two hours. It then ceased, with isolated shots, but it resumed strong at 22:55. All outputs of the plaza were in the hands of the army. Ambulances of the Green Cross – of the Federal District Department – were also controlled.
At 21:00 several buildings had already been occupied by the troop and others were still pointing. More than 300 tanks, assault and jeeps units have surrounded area: insurgents to reform, Nonoalco and Manuel González.
no fire, battalion!… from cleans?
“On my sides I saw two young men firing on people, random, here and there, a big one on my right, a chaparrito on my left”, narrated Alba Gonzalez, surprised that “they were shooting at chest discovered, calm, secure, although the regular army, of” uniform, he was already on the square”. Do not fear the soldiers to respond to fire? “It was clear that not.” But they answered them.”
“Who were?”, asked the student of psychology and member of the CNH.
When they realized that he didn’t get glove or white handkerchief, like them, they ordered him to put against the wall, next to the elevators, “with hands aloft,” as there were already several dozen, and not to look to the sides.
Many of the there, detainees are national and foreign journalists sent to cover the Olympic Games, which will be inaugurated in 10 days.
When the shooting pressed and shrapnel began to fall on the shoulders of the detainees, the men of white glove, thrown on the ground to cover, they shouted to the detainees “throw is down! Throw down! “, said Gonzalez de Alba.”
“Those of white glove began to drag along the ground by pushing with the elbows, moving military, then one shouted a voice in neck, but without removing the head above the rail, from the ground.” I understood the cry: ‘ battalion of clean…! Don’t shoot!’ (…) The fire hit. “They were beside me, with the face of side could see them: pale, terrified, panicked”.
For Gonzalez de Alba, it was obvious that among the deafening gunfire and the screams of the people was impossible that they heard the soldiers on the square. “I put attention to the already better articulated cry: no, were not clean… Olympia battalion, don’t shoot!” It was the cry. Olimpia, not from cleans. I had not heard before the name”.
At a time when it began to rain. “The stairs it pouring water, perhaps heaters and water tanks punched in the shootout to a building without solid walls. Hours went by and it got dark. Who was still firing in the distance? It was no longer a large fire, but the isolated blasts continued. Who? Why? We began to descend. Well, first let’s in panties. Already on the ground floor I was among soldiers in uniform. Above all were police officers and the white glove”.
According to one version, they are a brigade of 120 men formed days earlier by captain Fernando Gutierrez Barrios, who cast hand of elements of the Federal Directorate of security, the Judicial Police of the Federal District and the Federal tax inspection.
However, another version indicates that you it’s a specialized group composed of military that civilians, acting hid their allegiance to the army. Both versions are based on documents of the General archive of the nation, but which has more strength in the second, by the mission which had entrusted: capture the leaders of the student movement.
With respect to the sniper – like those fired from the roof of the Church and of the Secretariat of foreign relations – building, there are also different versions: which are members of the Olympia battalion; that you belong to the Estado Mayor Presidencial, and least likely, according to which were civilians, of Tlatelolco residents or students.
with destination unknown to midnight
hidden in the back of the Department on the fifth floor, shivering, Guevara Niebla and his companions saw accumulate “a layer of bullets on the floor”.
“For me, the time slowly passed. It seemed that the shootings lasted for hours when they actually lasted minutes. The lapse of time between a shootout and another also seemed to me to be very long, and wasn’t it. The shooting stopped and started again. There were provocateurs who were firing from a distance and suddenly the overwhelming response of the army was given. To hear the distant shot is released all the thousands of weapons which had that night in Tlatelolco”.
The sound of the guns of the tanks is added to the buzz of bullets. “Frightening. Many people say that they were platforms. Apart from the platforms, on the plaza had Caterpillar tanks, which made a quite peculiar noise of metal movement”.
The soldiers, who had already seized the stairs and corridors. “We heard the cries of the students when they beat them and the screams of the soldiers:” duck, bastard! Crouch, son of the chingada! “.” And then other cries of these soldiers: “battalion Olimpia!” Battalion Olimpia! “.”
At 23:30 soldiers knocked on the door of the Department on the fifth floor and threatened to throw it away if not opened them. A soldier came, met everyone and ordered: “put your hands back of nape and come out one by one!”. Advanced stooping “to give our image not to windows, because from the outside shot you everything that moved”.
They lowered them to the second floor, continued Guevara Niebla, and hence they were dealing them in different groups. Put them to an empty apartment and hence, a quarter in which there was a closet doors are broken. “There was a military officer, talking with Socrates sitting. Socrates was handcuffed but chatted, sitting comfortably. “‘Ah what Socrates bastard ‘, said the military”.
In that Department had about 20 detainees. “After Rob us, we drew. “When I went, not by the side of the square, but on the other side of the Chihuahua building, there was a crowd of soldiers shouting hysterically, nervous, all very excited, probably under the influence of narcotics”. Among them, the leader of the CNH identified the blond policeman who a few hours earlier had pretended law student to climb to the rostrum; also, “the subject of low stature that hours before said to bring a message of Genaro Vázquez”. Both saw Guevara Niebla and approached to beat him.
The military carried walking detainees – hundreds of men and women – in long lines toward calle de Manuel González, where dozens of trucks from the army, “which have a blanket cover with benches on the sides” were stationed. With rifle butts and screams, the soldiers climbed them: “Hijos de la chingada! Anden, agitators bastards! “.” We had drawn one on top of others. We were at least four layers of bodies, a tremendous thing for those who went down, while the soldiers were seated in the side seats of the truck – related Guevara Niebla-. Suddenly a moan of any of us could be heard and a soldier shouted: “Do not lift the head, children of la chingada!”. To who raised head, beaten. To me hit me on one occasion. I felt the greatest vacuum in my life.”
They didn’t know it, no one told them that about carrying them were Santa Martha Acatitla prison and others, members of the National Council of strike mainly, they are carried to military camp No.. 1.
Authorities did not give an official part of detainees or wounded or dead tonight, but it is estimated that this evening have been detained at least 2 thousand people.
references:
Alba Gonzalez, Luis, “Tlateloco, that afternoon,” links 1 of November 2016, available in www.nexos.com.mx/?p=30019 Guevara Niebla, Gilberto, “Return to the 68”, links October 1 e in 1993. In www.nexos.com.mx/?p=6899 • Rodríguez Munguia, Jacinto, 1968: all the guiltyEd. Debate, Mexico, 2008, pp. 129 to 132.
