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Tlatelolco And The Living Memory of Repression in Mexico

Historical memory in Mexico finds in Tlatelolco one of its most painful milestones. On October 2, 1968, the “Plaza de las Tres Culturas” became the scene of a repression that would forever mark the relationship between the State and the citizenry. The student movement of that year, made up of students from UNAM, the IPN, and other institutions, demanded democratic freedoms and an end to authoritarianism. That afternoon, after a peaceful rally, army forces and the paramilitary group “Batallón Olimpia” surrounded the square and opened fire on those attending. Official figures speak of twenty deaths, but the CNDH itself acknowledges that the number of students who died could never be determined.

Decades later, the memory of that night continues to challenge new generations. In May 2012, the “#YoSoy132” movement emerged at the “Universidad Iberoamericana” in response to media manipulation during the presidential campaign. That nonpartisan and plural collective not only recovered the democratization demands of ’68, but also symbolically occupied the same square where the massacre had been perpetrated. On May 26, 2012, the interuniversity assembly met in the “Plaza de las Tres Culturas” to define its lines of action, establishing a direct bridge with the 1968 student movement. The writer Elena Poniatowska recognized then that the members of “#YoSoy132” were “the generational relay” of the young people of ’68.

The connection between Tlatelolco and the present did not stop there. The forced disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa student teachers in September 2014 reopened the wound. Various academic studies point to a historical continuity between both events, understanding them as expressions of the same pattern of state violence against youthful dissidence. Digital memory played a key role: the relationship between Tlatelolco and Ayotzinapa went viral on social media, creating a contestatory narrative that challenges the official account and reconfigures the country’s historical memory.

In 2026, the struggle for justice remains open. The “Comité 68 Pro Libertades Democráticas” announced that the “Fiscalía Especial en Materia de Derechos Humanos” will reactivate judicial proceedings against the perpetrators of state crimes of the 1960s and 1970s. However, impunity persists: the special prosecutor’s office that sought to try the events of Tlatelolco was dissolved in 2007 without achieving any conviction. The commemoration of the 57th anniversary of the massacre, in October 2025, once again filled the streets of Mexico City, in a march that brought together some 10,000 people and was overshadowed by incidents of violence that the Mexico City government attributed to a “well-organized provocation.”

The history of Tlatelolco is still an open wound that explains why in Mexico memory has become a battlefield. From the demands of ’68 to the cry of “#YoSoy132”, passing through the pain of Ayotzinapa, Mexican society continues to demand truth, justice, and the right not to be forgotten.

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