Leticia Neria PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText ...

–and in the subsequent years- did not receive considerable support from international
communist groups or countries, and even CIA ‘asentó que el conflicto se originaba en
contradicciones nacionales y no por la intervención cubana o soviética, según el
gobierno mexicano argumentaba’. 15
In his paranoia, Díaz Ordaz did not hesitate to use the full range of repressive
power at his disposal, in order to safeguard national security. He justified his actions by
pointing out that ‘aunque gobernar no es imponer la voluntad del gobernante sobre el
gobernado, si eso se necesita para imponer el orden, eso haré’. 16
But the student movement in 1968 did not aim to threaten Mexican national
security. It was a manifestation of the desire for change among certain sections of
Mexican society, an evolution in their mentality and interests. A group of people
emerged who wanted social change: respect for human rights, more social and
economic opportunities, democratisation, and the modernisation of apolitical system
characterised by the continuity of a single ruling party which was closed to civilian
participation. 17 All these modern ideas seemed risky to those embedded in the political
system and its structures, and their brutal repression confirmed that the government
would go to any lengths to keep power and to preserve the system unchanged. After
months of clashes between the student movement and the army and police, on 2 October
1968 (just some days before the opening of the Olympic Games) hundreds of students
and other civilians were massacred at the hands of the army and paramilitary groups
during a demonstration in Mexico City. The power of the government was made
ruthlessly clear, and it was also clear how far the government would go in order to keep
15 Carlos Montemayor, ‘Lo personal y lo real’, Proceso, 5 October 2008, p. 43.
16 Gustavo Díaz Ordaz quoted by Enrique Krauze, La presidencia imperial: ascenso y caída del sistema
político mexicano, 1940-1996 (Mexico: Tusquest Editores, 1997) p. 300.
17 Cordera, ‘Del desarrollo como crisis…’, p. 268 and Francisco Pérez Arce, El principio. 1968-1988:
años de rebeldía (Mexico: Itaca, 2007), p. 45.
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