Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Mexican Student Movement

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97546687 - NPR Article


I found this article by NPR about the Mexican Student Movement that was really interesting, and heartbreaking. Its amazing that the news at first only reported 4 dead and 20 wounded, when eye-witnesses saw thousands being beaten, and dozens of dead bodies being trucked away. New reports say that what might have triggered the attack on the students was military snipers that fired upon fellow troops to provoke them to open fire on the students.
It's amazing that everything started from a fight after a football game. The riot police arrived and it made things worse and more violent - because the riot police were violent. The violence just escalated from there until the military was called. In an attempt to end the violence, the military ended up killing several students when they blasted the main door of the National Preparatory School with a bazooka. ---- really? A Bazooka? They couldnt have thought of anything better to break the door down>? How idiotic can you get? Of course there's goint to be casualties of innocent students when you shoot a small missile into a school!
My favorite part of the article is when they mentioned the media-spin of the 2 hr shooting spree in the square: "Over the following days, the official account of the events would be that the students — infiltrated by communist forces — had fired on the army, and the soldiers had to fire back to defend themselves".

Click on the video link below to see never-before released footage that the government took of the massacre. They pinpoint the initial shot, and that it came from the building adjacent to where the protestors were walking.

VIDEO
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=97546687&m=97659354

1 comment:

  1. http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/239-october-2-is-not-forgotten-upsurge-and-massacre-in-mexico-1968-part-1-the-youth-revolt

    I found an article that has a portion focusing on the student movement massarce from the standpoint on the Olympics. The International Olympic committee had selected Mexico as the first third world country to host the Olympics so signify Mexico as a model for United States-sponsored growth and stability. Originally, Mexico was intended to be the posterchild of contrast to the nation liberation struggles which had been causing problems in other parts of Latin America, Asia, and Europe. Instead of showing the world their renovated cities and multi-million dollar sports arena, Mexico had been portrayed by scenes of burning buses and anti-american graffitti such as "We Don't Want Olympic Games, We Want Revolution!" Feeling pressured by their Western backers, the Mexican Government felt it was necessary to use the force of their military to stop the students

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