Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 2 OcTOber 2018

Mexican students massacred by army in 1968, by gangs today

By MARK STEVENSON authorities, and the mayor
MARIA VERZA of the town where they dis-
Associated Press appeared has been impli-
MEXICO CITY (AP) — When cated in the crime.
soldiers massacred as "It is the authorities them-
many as 300 people at a selves who attack you," said
student protest in Mexico Itzel Espinosa, 23, a design
City's Tlatelolco plaza on major and daughter of En-
Oct. 2, 1968, the killers wore rique of the '68 movement.
uniforms. Today, students "What happened to the 43
in Mexico say they are still is the Oct. 2 of today."
under attack, but now from But today, the brutality is of
thugs, drug cartels, para- a different kind. In March,
militaries or rapists. three university film stu-
Today's student activists dents in the western city of
— and even the graying Guadalajara were picked
veterans of the 1968 de- up by a drug gang who
mocracy movement — ac- mistook them for members
knowledge they now have of a rival cartel; they were
free speech, something the tortured, interrogated and
'68 generation fought for. killed, and their bodies dis-
But they say the impunity solved in acid.
remains the same; nobody "The film students in Gua-
was ever convicted for the In this Sept. 18, 2018 photo, Enrique Espinosa shows a magazine photo in which he and other dem- dalajara were out doing a
1968 killings. onstrators are being detained by armed soldiers during the Tlatelolco massacre in Mexico City. school project. It is unbe-
As Mexico marks the 50- Associated Press lievable," said the younger
year anniversary of Tlate- Espinosa. "That was the
lolco on Tuesday, the mas- "We are possibly worse secure job. That's not the demonstrating after thugs drug gangs, but if the gov-
sacre remains something of off today. Young people case today." known as 'porros' attacked ernment was functional,
an open wound: Nobody are under attack, with the Times today are different in a student demonstration that kind of crime wouldn't
knows exactly how many economy, inequality, there other ways. In 1968 students at the National Autono- happen." Every student has
died when soldiers opened are fewer opportunities," struggled against a mono- mous University in Septem- his or her own tale: "It is the
fire on a peaceful demon- said Enrique Espinosa, who lithic government that ber; two students were se- 'porros,' the killings of wom-
stration. Estimates range at 69 remains tall and thin presided over a booming riously injured, one knifed en ... the kidnappings, the
from the official version of just as he appeared in a fa- economy and was at the in the back. That student's robberies," said Juan Gui-
25 dead to a more recent mous 1968 photo showing height of its power. Just a girlfriend was punched in josa, a National University
investigation that identified student protesters stripped few days after the Tlatelol- the face repeatedly as she economics student who
44, but activists at the time to their underwear and co massacre Mexico host- tried to protect him. graduated a few weeks
claimed large numbers of held at gunpoint by soldiers ed the Olympic Games. The violence shocked Mex- ago. "Nowadays there is
bodies were carted off in against a wall in a Tlate- While the games were icans who thought "porros" a big problem with crime,"
garbage trucks. lolco apartment building. marked by dissent — U.S. — ghost students who reg- agreed Jorge Chavez
It wasn't until last week that "This is not the Mexico we sprinters Tommie Smith and ister but don't take classes, Cardenas, another student
a government agency ac- wanted." John Carlos raised their fists and instead serve as hired who was at the September
knowledged for the first Despite the governmental in a Black power salute — thugs for politicians — were protest. "Right outside our
time that it was "a state Victims' Commission's re- today's situation is much a relic of the past, like the university there have been
crime." cent acknowledgement more chaotic with a gov- June 10, 1971, march in killings, kidnappings, mas-
Nor — say both those who of the massacre as a "state ernment that is barely in which "porros" killed at least sacres." Among the crimes
survived the attack and crime that continued be- control of many aspects of a dozen students. on campus was the 2017
the generation that has in- yond Oct. 2 with arbitrary society, battered by violent "In 1968, it was more direct killing of Lesvy Berlin at the
herited their activist mantle arrests and torture" and drug cartels that are often repression," said Mexico UNAM, which was initially
— has the country learned a pledge for reparations, supported by rogue cops City University political sci- called a suicide but later
crucial lessons from the justice remains elusive. For and mayors. ence student Josue Gon- recognized as a femicide
tragedy, with nearly all the example, the government "In 1968 the repression was zalez, 20, as he marched at by authorities, sparking
crimes of today similarly go- is still fighting a court order carried out by the army a protest against the latest multiple protests.
ing unresolved and unpun- that it allow a truth commis- and riot police; today, it is attacks. "If the government But some things have im-
ished, by both state and sion to investigate the fate done through paramilitary were to try physical repres- proved. In 1968 students
non-state actors. of the 43 students who dis- groups ... it is a very impor- sion today, it would be very struggled to distribute leaf-
With the exception of a few appeared in 2014. tant difference," said Vic- stupid, the people would lets and fought the indif-
charred bone fragments, "Tlatelolco is a government tor Guerra, another former rise up." ference or lies of govern-
nobody has ever found the crime that has remained leader of the '68 move- "Now it comes from other ment-aligned media; the
bodies of 43 students at a unpunished, and today the ment. "Back then, the gov- groups — from 'porros,' they day after the 1968 massa-
rural teachers' college who big fight is to break that im- ernment was extremely hire a third party to do their cre, newspapers depicted
were kidnapped by police punity," said Felix Hernan- authoritarian, it didn't al- dirty work," Gonzalez said. it as an attack on soldiers,
and turned over to a drug dez, one of the leaders of low freedom of expression Indeed, some argue that with headlines like "Terror-
gang in September 2014 — the '68 movement. or demonstrations. Today, crimes like the disappear- ists and soldiers fought a
another grim anniversary Even Hernandez, then an thanks to the 68 move- ance of the 43 students tough battle" and "Criminal
that Mexico marked in re- engineering student, ac- ment, we have that possi- in Iguala 2014, officially provocation causes bloody
cent days with no sign of knowledges things have bility, we can protest in the blamed on cops in the pay confrontation."
resolution in sight. The stu- changed for the youths of streets." of a drug gang, were ac- In the digital age, students
dents from the Ayotzinapa today. Back in 1968, "finish- Ironically, right before the tually the work of the gov- have the power to com-
teacher's college were ing a university degree was 50th anniversary, students ernment; the students had municate with the world at
never seen again. a guarantee of getting a were back on the street been a thorn in the side of their fingertips.q