On the left, replica of the "March of Silence" organised by students in Mexico City in 2018. On the right, march on the Zócalo, also in Mexico City, but during the movements of 1968. Photographs: Global Voices. All Rights Reserved.
Today, the struggle to
stop violence in Mexico continues. On September 6, 30.000 university students,
including those from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM),
Mexico's largest public university, gathered for a massive student
demonstration.
This protest was
organized in response to events, three days before, in which shock groups, known as porros, allegedly attacked students
within the College of Sciences and Humanities.
The students there were
peacefully calling for an increase in human resources for the faculty and
calling for justice for fellow student Miranda Mendoza, who was killed in
August.
The protesters’ general
demands include increased security within the dozens of UNAM's faculties,
schools, centers, and research institutions.
They also demand the expulsion from
university premises of the porro
groups, who allegedly receive
political and economic bonuses in exchange for violently attacking student
demonstrations and destabilizing university life.
“We are the
grandchildren of 68”
Today's demonstrations
symbolically mark the 50th anniversary of the Mexican Student Movement of 1968 which demanded the
release of political prisoners, the resignation of the ruling party, and expansion
of political liberties as well as democratic changes to eradicate
authoritarianism.
The government viewed these protests as an attempted coup d'état by Communist groups and a threat to national security, and responded aggressively with heavy-handed use of force.
At the time, the
government viewed these protests as an attempted coup d'état by Communist
groups and a threat to national security, and responded aggressively with
heavy-handed use of force.
Several marches, sit-ins,
demonstrations, and protests ensued, including the March of Silence on
September 13, 1968, during which demonstrators covered their mouths with white
bandannas to protest the government's silence about the Movement and its use of
brutal force against students.
On October 2, 1968, over
10.000 students organized a peaceful march in the Tlatelolco area of Mexico
City, and their gathering was repressed with extreme violence by the Mexican
government.
Over 300 people were killed and the tragedy
is remembered today as the Massacre of Tlatelolco.
As the anniversary of
these historical events approached, the feeling among students was one of
strong solidarity with their predecessors: they decided to replicate the March
of Silence on its anniversary date, September 13, to honor the people who
marched on these same streets for similar causes than the ones which motivate
today’s marches.
Fifty years later,
marches, memorials, and photographs contrasting protests both past and present
have been shared through social media with hashtags such as #MarchaDelSilencio and #A50Del68.
Animal Político has published a
series of chronicles from 1968 on the same
dates as the historical marches.
Other journalists, like Leopoldo Gómez, have taken a closer
look at the student movement of yesterday and today: “The protest is no longer about
repression, but governmental incompetence. In 1968, protesters fought against
government excesses; now they demand more: they want good governance.
Fifty
years later, the demand is the same: an end to impunity. In 1968, they wanted
to end impunity within the government itself; in 2018, the call is to end
impunity for criminals with whom the government is secretly doing business.”
Endemic violence in Mexico, where more than 70 people are murdered daily, is only one partial cause for the protests.
Endemic violence in
Mexico, where more than 70 people are murdered
daily, is only one partial cause for the protests. This year also marks the
fourth anniversary of the 43 missing students of
Ayotzinapa, each of whom the students remembered.
Historian Octavio Solís notes the
symbolic force of the 1968 protests in which “imagination defeated power”: “The
student movement of 1968 gathered the demands of several social spheres that
had been unable to find a way to speak out.
To each repressive act or attempt
at control, an imaginative and forceful response arose. The movement only
lasted two months but, as it is often said, some days, weeks, and months can
contain whole years in themselves. Like these young people's bet for silence
[during the march of the same name] that turned forgetting to dignity: a vivid
image that lives on today, half a century later.”
This article was
previously published by Global Voices and can be read here.