Snipers Triggered '68 Mexico Massacre

[villager]

Snipers Triggered '68 Mexico Massacre

Thu Oct 2, 3:16 AM ET

By MORGAN LEE, Associated Press Writer

MEXICO CITY - Once-secret government files show a massacre of student protesters 35 years ago was touched off when snipers under the command of the Mexican government fired into the crowd. At least 360 government gunmen were present, the documents indicate.


Government officials at the time said armed dissidents provoked the deadly confrontation on Oct. 2, 1968 — 10 days before the start of the Olympics hosted by Mexico — by firing on police during a protest against Mexico's lack of democracy. Estimates on the number of people killed range from 38 to several hundred.


As Mexicans prepared to hold an annual march to mark the anniversary of the shooting at Tlatelolco plaza, the files obtained by The Associated Press added to evidence backing up claims by student protesters that government operatives initiated the massacre.


The Supreme Court ordered the federal Attorney General's office to investigate how big a role the government played in the massacre, but the investigation by a special prosecutor has faltered because those in charge at the time of the attack refuse to testify.


Researchers say newly uncovered files with police names and the number of snipers may give new momentum to the case.

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=589&ncid=721&e=8&u=/ap/20031002/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_massacre

[burrowowl]

1. About time

this gets out!

[Judi Lynn]

2. Here's where Vicente Fox shows his extreme difference from George Bush

Can you possibly imagine George Bush doing ANYTHING similar to this?


From your article:
(snip) Until recently, prosecutors had brushed aside demands to prosecute those responsible for the massacre, claiming the statute of limitations had expired years ago.


But on the anniversary of the massacre two years ago, President Vicente Fox (news - web sites) promised to open secret government archives about the event.


Carrillo, the special prosecutor appointed by Fox to investigate crimes by past governments, said there is evidence 38 people were killed at Tlatelolco Plaza. Human rights groups have contended several hundred died, but government officials hid the bodies so an exact count was impossible. Government officials also seized photos of the carnage and ordered newspapers not to print photos of corpses. (snip)

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As vile and unforgiveable as this event was, it's best revealed and the wound cleansed. It took a lot of character of Fox's part to get this out in the open, and to officially "turn a new leaf" for Mexico.

It's kinda odd looking back at George W. Bush's first days, when he drug Vicente Fox around with him, like a child's Tonka Toy. He surely saw Fox as his poor country cousin, didn't he?

[Minstrel Boy]

3. Truth and reconciliation

It can do wonders for a country.

Good for Fox.

[tlb]

4. President Fox may have more practical motives then showing up Bush

If the files on the 1968 shootings show it was a government action, that falls on Fox's opposition the PRI. No ? The oopposition is discredited while Fox's own party cannot be hurt since it was powerless during the decades of PRI rule.

Are any persons named in the files still in government or probable candidates, and when are the next elections in Mexico?