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19682 October 1968 · Plaza de las Tres Culturas, Tlatelolco

Tlatelolco massacre

Plaza de las Tres Culturas: Aztec ruins, the colonial church of Santiago and the former Foreign Ministry tower
Photo: Raymundo Perera. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Ten days before Mexico City hosted the Olympic Games, soldiers opened fire on a rally of students and supporters in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, ending months of protest against the one-party government. The state long admitted only a few dozen deaths; estimates run into the hundreds. Documents released since 2000 and survivors' testimony have exposed the army's role, and 2 October is a national day of memory.

Sites

  1. Site 1: Plaza de las Tres CulturasSquare of Aztec ruins and a colonial church, with a 1993 memorial stone to the dead.Map ↗
  2. Site 2: Memorial del 68, Centro Cultural Universitario TlatelolcoMuseum of the 1968 movement in the former Foreign Ministry tower.Map ↗

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More from the Cold War

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