Tragedy at Ayotzinapa and Tlatelolco
Tragedy at Ayotzinapa and Tlatelolco
On September 26, 2014, the world lost 46 young men. 3 of these boys were shot dead by police, and 43 went missing, never to be seen again. The story of these young men is also the story of the Mexican government failing its people. These young men were students of Ayotzinapa Rural Teacher's College and future educators. The podcast Latino USA discusses this case in its January 28, 2022 episode entitled "After Ayotzinapa: The Missing 43."
Ayotzinapa Rural Teacher's College is located in Guerrero, Mexico, a farming town. This school is heavily involved in activism, and its students were planning to travel to Mexico City to participate in a protest for the Tlatelolco Massacre of 1968. However, before they had even begun their protests, they were wounded at the source. As they were commandeering buses to travel to Mexico City (a common practice), local police arrived on the scene and opened fire on the unarmed students.
One survivor states that the police “didn’t warn [them] at all, they just got down and started shooting, shooting to kill” (Latino USA, 14:56-15:03). During this massacre, 3 young men were killed. 43 others were arrested and put into cop cars. The students that escaped attempted to post bail for their classmates, but were told that they were never taken into custody. The below video depicts cellphone footage from the attacks- you can hear the men call out for their classmates, but the image is not too clear.
The government claims that these young men were taken by gangs and found first in a mass grave and then in a river. Neither of these claims were substantiated by the private investigators hired by the parents, only by Mexican authorities. DNA evidence proved that these mass graves contained the bodies of old men, women, and children- not the students. To this day, these young men have not received justice- nor have they been found.
This story is incredibly powerful and carries on the memory of these students. I am grateful to have learned of these young men, a story that was not highly publicized in the United States. I do wish that this story wasn’t broken into 3 parts across 2 podcasts (Latino USA and Reveal), but hopefully it will bring more attention to the missing men.
Latino USA should cover part of the origin of this story, the protest the students were headed to. This protest occurs annually on October 2nd in Mexico City to commemorate “when leftist students protesting military and police violence were gunned down in” Tlatelolco Plaza (Latino USA, 11:58-12:12:06).
National Public Radio (NPR) covered this tragedy, known as the Tlatelolco Massacre of 1968. The protest was sparked when a fight between high schoolers was broken up by Mexico City riot police, who called in the army due to student resistance. The army killed students in the National Preparatory School in San Ildefonso with a bazooka- a violent reaction to student protests.
Monument to the victims
of Tlatelolco Massacre
On October 2nd in Tlatelolco Plaza, students organized a meeting to determine their next steps. Soldiers arrived to arrest the students’ leaders, but someone in the square began to shoot. The soldiers began to fire back for nearly two hours. The official report of the massacre was that “the students… had fired on the army, and the soldiers had to fire back to defend themselves” (NPR 10). The official body count was 4, but eyewitnesses claim they saw “dozens of bodies and prisoners being trucked away to military bases” (NPR 12).
Later, official documents were released showing that the Presidential Guard had snipers in Tlatelolco Plaza that fired on the soldiers so they would fire at the students. This level of corruption makes it difficult to believe that the 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa were taken by a two young gang members, as the Mexican government claims. Especially due to the history of police brutality towards student protesters.
My theme this semester is the government and its relation to the people. These stories of police violence show that the people oftentimes have to take matters into their own hands. The parents of these children had to hire private investigators in order to feel more secure in the search. These investigators found that the police lied to them repeatedly- claiming to find a mass grave of the students, but “they weren’t the students, they were other people” (Latino USA, 37:02-37:11).
This case shows that though the government is supposed to be a respected body working for its people, it often times is not. In this case, the government's lack of organization and authority has failed these young men and their families. It has been over 7 years since these young men went missing, and we can only hope that their families and classmates will receive closure.
“Ayotzinapa Students Attacked by Police - Youtube.” YouTube, Reveal, 15 Jan. 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PzFDDbAY40.
Government of Guerrero. “Poster of Missing Ayotzinapa Rural Teacher's College Students.” Wikimedia, Wikipedia, 7 July 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Missing-students-Ayotzinapa.jpg.
Roletscheck, Ralf. “Monument of Tlatelolco Massacre, Mexico D.F.” Wikimedia, Wikipedia, 20 July 2015, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:15-07-20-Plaza-de-las-tres-Culturas-RalfR-N3S_9336.jpg0.
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