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

investigations never yielded more information. 96 No one ever paid for those acts of
violence. 97
By this time, Echeverría’s popularity had risen before the population because of
his quick response and his promise of justice. Two of the most important intellectuals in
Mexico, Carlos Fuentes and Octavio Paz, gave him their support in open letters
published in Excélsior. 98 They pointed out that Echeverría was not Díaz Ordaz. 99 Yet,
the Halcones repression showed clearly that the government would not allow
demonstrations like those that occurred in 1968. The halconazo sowed fear among
Mexicans regarding the strength of the repression; nevertheless, this did not prevent
Eduardo del Río, ‘Rius’, from criticising the violence and questioning the facts of that
day in an issue of Los Agachados. 100
Guerrilla and rebel groups
The violent repression against the demonstrations in 1968, and again on 10 June 1971,
caused many to question using peaceful means to bring about change. The violence in
1971 was for thousands of young people a push to decide to take up violent means. 101
For them, armed struggle was the only way to prepare a revolutionary organization. 102
96 According to Carlos Montemayor, based on declassified CIA documents, it was Echeverría himself
who gave the orders to Colonel Manuel Díaz Escobar Figueroa to attack the students. In Montemayor,
‘Lo personal y lo real’. Scherer García quotes an interview to Alfonso Martínez Domínguez, the Mayor of
the city at the time, made by Heberto Castillo in which Martínez points directly to Echeverría as the man
who orchestrated the massacre that day. Scherer, ‘Los patriotas’… pp. 11-139 (pp. 51-57).
97 Many years later, Luis Echeverría argued the facts, saying that ‘Los estudiantes se pelearon con ellos
[referring to Los Halcones]. Pero no hubo tal matazón realmente’. Echeverría quoted by Jorge G.
Castañeda, La herencia… p. 72.
98 Scherer, Los presidentes, p. 51.
99 José Agustín, Tragicomedia mexicana 2… p. 27.
100 The issue was published a year after the massacre, querying who the Halcones were and what
happened on that day. Eduardo del Río ‘Rius’, Los Agachados, 98. 30 July 1972.
101 Aguayo, La charola… p. 96. According to Sergio Aguayo, during the 1960s and 1970s there were
around 1,860 people organised in 29 different groups who joined to the clandestine groups. Ibid., p. 119.
102 Bellingeri, ‘La imposibilidad del odio’, p. 65.
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