Abstract
In the eyes of most historians the Tlatelolco massacre of 2 October 1968, when scores (perhaps hundreds) of unarmed student demonstrators in a central square of Mexico City were shot dead by the military, was the central act of the Díaz Ordaz presidency. It was central both in terms of the numbers of dead, the symbolism of the location and the international publicity given to the event, and also in the (retrospectively) apparently predictable nature of the Díaz Ordaz government’s response. This response, aside from its barbarism, was a classic demonstration of the power of the Mexican presidency. It led to a considerable reappraisal of the nature of the Mexican system.
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Notes
See, for example, the shift in perspective between (on the one hand) Robert Scott Mexican Government in Transition (University of Illinois, 1964) and P. Gonzalez Casanova Democracy in Mexico (Oxford University Press, 1970, first published in Spanish with ERA; 1965) and, on the other, R.D. Hanson The Politics of Mexican Development (Johns Hopkins, 1974) and S.K. Purcell The Mexican Profit-Sharing Decision: Policymaking in an Authoritarian Regime (University of California, 1975).
See, for example, Cal y Arena, Pensar en 1968; E. Stevens’ Protest and Response in Mexico (MIT, 1974);
E. Zermeno, México: Una Democracia Utopica: El Movimiento estudantil en 1968 (Siglo XXI, 1978);
J. Scherer, Los Presidentes (Grijabo, 1986);
Jose Cabrera Parra, Díaz Ordaz y el 68 (Grijabo, 1980);
and J.A. Hellman, Mexico in Crisis (2nd edn, Holmes & Meier, 1983).
S. Loaeza, Classes Medics y La Politica en Mexico (Colegio de Mexico, 1988) p.324.
J. Gunther, Inside Latin America (Hamish Hamilton, 1942) p.46. For a more scholarly account of the Avila Camacho fiefdom see W. Pansters ‘Paradoxes of Regional Power’ in W. Pansters and A. Onweed, Regions, State and Capitalism in Mexico. ( Cedla: Amsterdam, 1989).
D. Cosio Villegas, La Sucesion Presidencial (Joaquin Mortiz, 1975).
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H. Aguila Camín, Despues del Milagro (Cal y Arena, 1988).
I. Roxborough, Unions and Politics in Mexico (Cambridge University Press, 1984); E. Stevens, Protest and Response in Mexico;
A. Alonso El Movimiento Ferrocarrilero en México 1958–68 (Era, 1972). See also the British Foreign Office file FCO 371, AM 218.
See D. Mares, Penetrating the International Market: Theoretical Considerations and a Mexican Case Study (Columbia University Press, 1987) and S. Sanderson Agrarian Populism and the Mexican State: the case of Sonora. (University of California, 1981).
M. Morley, Imperial State and Revolution. (Cambridge University Press, 1987). However the British Embassy believed that López Mateos was seriously embarrassed when Cárdenas shared a platform with Castro in Havana on 26 July 1959. On 16 October 1959 Ambassador Noble wrote that “President López Mateos is known to be annoyed and seriously angry with Cardenas” as a result of the latter’s continuing support for Castro. (Noble to Lloyd, AM 1015/11).
A. Lajous, La Contienda Presidencial 1988: Los Candidatos y Sus Partidos ( Diana, Mexico, 1988) pp. 56–7.
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Studies include Sanderson, Agrarian Populism; T. Ugalde, Power and Conflict in a Mexican Community (University of New Mexico, 1970);
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The classic account of this process is in P. Smith Labyrinths of Power: Political Recruitment in Twentieth Century Mexico (University of Princeton, 1979).
See, for example, E. Marquez, ‘Political Anachronisms: The Navista Movement and Political Processes in San Luis Potosi 1958–85’, in A. Alvarez, ed., Electoral Patterns and Perspectives in Mexico;
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R.A. Camp, The Making of a Government: Political Leaders in Mexico (University of Arizona, 1984).
P. Cleaves, Professions and the State (University of Arizona, 1987).
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© 1992 George Philip
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Philip, G. (1992). Díaz Ordaz and the Student Massacre at Tlatelolco. In: The Presidency in Mexican Politics. St Antony’s. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12192-2_2
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