MEXICO 68: A Movement, a Massacre, and a 40-Year Search for the Truth
In the summer of 1968, students in Mexico began to challenge the country’s authoritarian
government. But the movement was short-lived, lasting less than three months. It ended on
October 2, 1968, ten days before the opening of the Olympics in Mexico City, when military
troops opened fire on a peaceful student demonstration. The shooting lasted over two hours.
The next day the government sent in cleaners to wash the blood from the plaza floor. The
official announcement was that four students were dead, but eyewitnesses said hundreds
were killed. The death toll was not the only thing the government covered up about that event.
The Massacre of Tlatelolco has become a defining moment in Mexican history, but for forty
years the truth of that day has remained hidden.
Mexico ’68 airs on NPR’s All Things Considered at 430pm (ET) Monday December 1st
You can also hear the story and see photographs of the 1968 student movement in Mexico,
along with secret government footage and declassified documents about the massacre at:
http://www.radiodiaries.org
Produced by Joe Richman and Anayansi Diaz-Cortes of Radio Diaries.
The editor was Deborah George. Production help from Ben Shapiro, Eric Pearse Chavez, Marco A. Morales, Samara Freemark, Posey Gruener and Julia Botero. Our website designer is Sue Johnson.
We also want to remind you that today (Monday, Dec. 1st) is World AIDS Day. To mark the
day, we are releasing a special podcast of our 2005 documentary, Thembi’s AIDS Diary,
with an introduction by Desmond Tutu.
To subscribe to the monthly Radio Diaries podcast visit:
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_detail.php?siteId=92190683
Thanks for listening,
Joe Richman, Anayansi Diaz-Cortes, Samara Freemark
Radio Diaries
A not-for-profit organization
www.radiodiaries.org
Blog de Octavio Islas 