July 30, 1968 Mexico City - The Day of the Bazooka
In July of 1968, as the student-led uprising of May and June in France was fading away, a new one was just beginning in Mexico City. Students inspired by the success of the movement in France saw their own opportunity to bring more open democracy to Mexico. They saw the summer Olympics that were to take place in Mexico City in October as an opportunity to put pressure on the government, led by President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
The dissent that had been simmering previously was finally triggered on July 22nd when a street fight between rival high school students was brutally repressed by police, causing students from both factions to barricade themselves within a school. After several days of rioting and fights between police and students, high school and university students initiated student strikes and occupations of school buildings in order to protest the police repression. Each protest caused more anger among students as they were met with more police brutality. On July 30th, know as “el día del bazukazo” (the day of the bazooka) police and army units took over schools that had been occupied by students, in one famous case using a bazooka to blow through a historic door dating from the colonial age.
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/mexican-students-protest-greater-democracy-1968
This was the beginning of an all out assault of the Mexican government on the Student Movement which culminated with the Tlatelolco Massacre on October 2, 1968. Between 300 and 400 students were killed by government forces.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tlatelolco_massacre
= new reply since forum marked as read
police aggression at the high schools and this particular date, el día del bazukazo
or realize the number of protests before and after Tlatelolco
and not only students were in the crossfire
Thank you for posting this history link
For those who lost thier lives at Tlatelolco
