MEXICO CITY — Thousands of Mexicans marched across their nation's capital Thursday to demand justice for victims of a 1968 massacre of students by government troops -- contemporary Mexico's most traumatic atrocity and one that remains unresolved.
Survivors of that bloody night 40 years ago and Mexicans who had not been born then joined forces, chanting "Dos de octubre! No se olvide!" (Oct. 2! Don't forget!) as they converged on the downtown Zocalo plaza.
"I remember how the tanks rolled over the dead and the injured, how they attacked a number of my friends with bayonets," said Cuauhtemoc Padilla Marroquin, a teacher who was 15 when the massacre took place.
The killings -- official reports put the toll at 25 to 43 but human rights groups have long maintained that the number was closer to 350 -- started when government forces opened fire on a massive but peaceful student demonstration just days before the Olympic Games were to open in Mexico City. It was a time of political effervescence in the country and across the globe, and the Mexican government of the day was eager to conceal what had happened.
The incident in the Plaza of the Three Cultures, in the Tlatelolco zone of Mexico City, remained shrouded in secrecy for decades. Subsequent Mexican governments were not willing to appoint a truth commission to investigate, and two that were finally formed in the 1990s were ineffective. An accurate death toll was never established, and efforts by special prosecutors to try officials blamed for the massacre, including former President Luis Echeverria, failed.
"We can't forget that night because those responsible haven't been punished as they should have, and no society should forget something so traumatic, so as not to repeat it," said Hector Mora, 45, a professor at Mexico's National Autonomous University who was leading a group of his students in Thursday's march.
Some Mexicans argue that the failure of authorities to punish those responsible for the massacre has had long-lasting repercussions, including the stoking of Mexico's entrenched culture of impunity, in which rampant killings and kidnappings are rarely resolved.
"Today, some students didn't come to class because their parents didn't let them -- because some people still believe that Oct. 2 can be dangerous," Mora said. "The trauma continues for some."
Natalia Gonzales Servin, 18, was in Mora's group.
