San Diego State University
History Department
Mexican modern history

The massacre of Tlatelolco -
The role of the United States in the incidents of 1968

eingereicht von:
Nicolas Martin

Tabel of Contens

1. Introduction

2. Framing the historical Circumstances from outside and inside
2.1 Mexico and US relations in the international arena
2.2 Mexico historical development until the massacre of 68

3. The student movement of 1968

4. The US and its role in the massacre of 68
4.1. Interests
4.2 US perception of the Student Movement
4.3 US perception of the Diaz Ordaz Administration
4.4 After Tlatelolco

5. Conclusion

Biography:
Secondary Literature (in alphabetical order)
Primary Sources (as they appear)

1. Introduction

The Massacre of Tlatelolco on October the 2nd 1968 on the Plaza de las Tres Culturas is generally acknowledged to have been a watershed for Mexico’s history. Some call it Mexico’s Tiananmen Square to emphasize the political long of the participants for more democracy.¹ However, it can’t be doubted that the massacre was the climax of Mexico’s state repression during the 70s. The incidents of Tlatelolco had deep impact on Mexico’s political life and on the international perception of Mexico.

By these days, Mexico is the biggest Spanish speaking country in Latin America with enormous economic and historical ties to the United States. The Mexican United States common history has often been depicted by mistrust and mutual suspicion. Nevertheless, the relations between the two countries did vary. During the beginning of the 19th century economic cooperation between Porfirio Diaz and the US administration reached a never known efficiency, where as in the 40s during the Lázaro Cardenas administration the expropriation of the Oil industry caused tremendous confrontation.

With the degree of cooperation also varied the degree of America influence on Mexico’s decision-making process and thus on its history. Due to this constant influence, one who researches the incidents of Tlatelolco therefore has to look on Mexican-American-relations to understand in how far the United States could have been involved or what part the United States has played in the massacre of Tlatelolco.

To anticipate some results of this paper one should mention that there is no evidence that the United States have played a direct and active role in the Massacre, although there are many mostly biased facts trying to put the blame on the USA. Facts that show evidence of the US having close ties to the Mexican military and the to former president Diaz Ordaz have been approved but they do not automatically implicate any direct role. This paper is trying to maintain objectivity (one could question if researching the United States involvement and not the German or French is still objective) and will therefore not picture a non-grounded result. This paper will describe the United States’ perception of the Diaz Ordaz regime, the student movement and the Tlatelolco massacre in order to approach to the US role.

Facilitating the grasping of US perception during that time Mexican American relation will be firstly shown in an international context. To understand Mexico’s reality in the 70’s one should also give a brief sketch on the historical development, which also makes it easier to understand the student movement’s goals and the reason for the outbreak of massive demonstrations.

A main part of this paper will focus on sources provided by the American Embassy in Mexico, the Department of defense, the White House and the CIA. The documents have recently been declassified and give a view on the American appraisal of the incidents. The documents are not complete, and there are still many documents that haven’t been made accessible. It should also be mentioned that the document are not displaying the complete imago of the Mexico by the United States, but there are still evidence as the official inputs of policy making in the white house.

One of the major problems writing a paper on this topic is certainly the lack of real and objective information. On one hand the majority of primary sources have been destroyed by the Diaz Ordaz regime right after Tlatelolco, which complicates finding out objective facts about this part of Mexican modern history. On the other hand due to the fact that Tlateloco has become a vivid part of Mexican history that has never been entirely uncovered, secondary literature tends to contain many myths and heroized facts.

2. Framing the historical Circumstances from outside and inside
2.1 Mexico and US relations in the international arena

To grasp the position and the involvement of the US in the massacre of 1968 one has to keep in mind that the history of US-Mexican relation has never been easy and is based on a mutual mistrust. However to understand the exact circumstances in the 70s one has to look at Mexico and the US in the international level. The late 70s were predominated by the polarization of world affairs into a communist and a capitalist bloc. The history of Mexico’s PRI2 didn’t allow a complete denegation of communistic countries, where as the powerful capitalistic bloc in the north wouldn’t have accepted to share a 2000 mile border with a communist neighbor. So, Mexico’s relations with the US can be depicted as a balancing act between revolutionary heritage and security reasons. The Harvard Professor Jose I. Dominguez describes this relation as a “bargained negligence”.

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1 Kate Doye is a senior analyst and the director of the Mexico Project at the National Security Archieve in Washington DC. Sorces from the US institutions described in this paper have been published by this nonprofitable organization.