Mexico 1968: Mechanisms of State Control--Tlatelolco, the PRI, and the Student Movement
Date
2014-06
Authors
Wilton, Samuel David
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
On October 2 1968, Mexican government troops fired on hundreds of unarmed student protestors at la Plaza de Las Tres Culturas in Mexico City, killing an unknown number of those gathered. The event illustrated a breakdown in Mexican politics, specifically in the legitimacy of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (the PRI, for short). The party created its own brand of manufactured democracy, which allowed it to hold the Mexican presidency (under a variety of specific names) from 1929 to 2000. Using violence, generous media and union control, as well as other means, the PRI fought against an upstart student movement. The government massacre on October 2, 1968 illustrated a breakdown in normal mechanisms of control, to which excessive violence was a response. Exceedingly effective in the short term, the massacre delegitimized the PRI in the long-term, and partially contributed to the election of a non-PRI president in 2000, according to many historians. This thesis proposes that in the understandable haste to condemn the Mexican government’s actions the night of October 2, 1968, not enough attention is focused on the effectiveness of the violence in silencing student—to a certain degree, popular—resistance to the government.
Description
60 pages. A thesis presented to the Department of History and the Clark Honors College of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree of Bachelor of Arts, Spring 2014.
Keywords
Mexico 1968, Tlatelolco, Student Movement, PRI, Partido Revolucionario Institucional