Mexico City, 1968: One more piece of the puzzle

NPR recently aired a program on All Things Considered that looked back, 40 years later, at the massacre of countless students in Mexico City:

The number of civilian casualties reported has ranged between four — in the official count directly after the event — and 3,000. Eyewitnesses recount seeing dozens of bodies and prisoners being trucked away to military bases. But despite efforts by both the student leaders and the special prosecutor to compile the names of the dead, only about 40 have been documented. No siblings, parents or friends of the remaining casualties — if they exist — have come forward to add names to the list.

But new information has come to light through the release of official documents. They reveal that the Presidential Guard — a branch of the military — had posted snipers in the buildings surrounding Tlatelolco Plaza on the day of the massacre. The idea was that the snipers would shoot at the troops posted around the square, and the troops would think student snipers were shooting at them — and then they would open fire. [emphasis mine]

That government forces often act as agents provacateurs is well-known, but it's still slightly surreal when hard evidence of it stares you in the face - especially at an event so crushing and brutal. You can listen to the very emotional program and watch newly-uncovered footage here.

The Mexico City massacre was a bloody, tragic bookend to 1968 - and to the 60s as a whole. Both '68 and its decade were marked with stunning triumphs and demoralizing defeats, and the inspiring flowering and then violent extermination of Mexico's nascent student movement is often stuck in the shadow of "higher profile" events that year.