Newly declassified US intelligence records suggest the CIA played a hidden role in the events leading up to one of modern Mexico’s darkest nights: the October 2, 1968, massacre of student protesters in Tlatelolco, a neighborhood in Mexico City.
According to the National Security Archive, a nonprofit research group based at George Washington University in Washington, DC, that obtained and released the documents, the CIA’s Mexico City station had spent years funding a radical right-wing student organization on university campuses. The agency’s support, researchers say, helped deepen divisions within Mexico’s student movement during a period of mounting unrest.
Beginning in July 1968, massive student demonstrations swept across the country, and CIA officers were filing near-daily reports on the escalating tensions. The documents show US intelligence was closely tracking the turmoil just as Mexico prepared to host the Summer Olympics, a major moment of international prestige for the country.
Ten days before the Games were set to open, students gathered for a demonstration at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, in the heart of Tlatelolco. Police and military units surrounded the square and opened fire on thousands of protesters, killing an unknown number of people in what became a defining trauma of modern Mexican history.
Read the full original report for more details.
Source: <![CDATA[Revelan operativos de la CIA vinculados a la Noche de Tlatelolco]]> (RSS::excelsior.com.mx – Portada).
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