StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Tlatelolco Massacre Issues - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The essay "Tlatelolco Massacre Issues" focuses on the critical, thorough, and multifaceted analysis of the major issues on the Tlatelolco Massacre from all viewpoints and would further examine the role of the CIA in response to the massacre which happened…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER93.1% of users find it useful
Tlatelolco Massacre Issues
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Tlatelolco Massacre Issues"

Tlatelolco Massacre All these centuries have brought different types of incidents to occur in this world, incidents which are of a cruel and harsh nature. These incidents can also be referred to as massacres which have taken place at many instances in the world today. The acts of massacres have basically been taken out through a strategy in which innocent people lose their lives. One such incident can be quoted in which General Dyer with his troops killed thousands of people in the Jallian Wala Bagh incident. This incident took place in the subcontinent ruled over by the British Raj. In this incident many innocent lives were lost because of the mass massacre taken on the order of General Dyer. The incident clearly violated the human rights of this century as it killed many innocent people of the subcontinent. Massacres have taken place through out the world at different instances. At some instances the governments of states itself has been involved in carrying out the massacres. In other words massacres can also be defined as the mass killing of people without any concrete reason. Furthermore the causes of some of the mass massacres which have taken place in the history of this world are yet to be known. One of the massacres of such intensity is known as Tlatelolco Massacre. This took place in the city of Mexico on the date of October 2, 1968. It is known to be the deadliest of massacres which took place over a century in the city of Mexico. This essay would further analyze the massacre from all view points and would further examine the role of CIA in response to the massacre which happened. The incident of Tlatelolco took place in October 1968 at Plaza de las Tres Culturas. It was an armed incident which took place in the response of student demonstrations in Mexico. The year 1968 marked different demonstrations of students taking place all over the world which inspired the Mexican students also. Furthermore the students started having different rallies all over the city to get some of their demands accepted. The students further started to threaten the authorities of dire consequences if their demands were not met. The students had different demands which in totality wanted abolition of certain authorities and wanted to get some officers dismissed. The students also had other demands which were not being accepted by the government. At that time the President of Mexico was Gustavo Diaz Ordaz. He was determined to end the student demonstrations through out Mexico through different means and he even took aggressive methods to end it up. Till October the demands of the students were yet not met and they threatened the event of Olympics which were to take place in Mexico 1968. This took the authorities with surprise and it is reported that the government asked for support from the US to stop any mishap from happening in the Olympics. The rallies of the students extended to such a number that it became alarming for the authorities and on the eve of October 2 at Plaza de las Tres Culturas aggressive means of methods were used against these students to make them finish their demonstrations. However after the massacre it was till 2003 not established as to who was responsible for the massacre. The government at that time claimed that some of the students hiding in other buildings had started firing on the security forces and in response the security forces did the same. Although different stories have been put up by the State department, FBI and CIA the view points of CIA would be emphasized more in this essay. The State department which was being informed by different sources about the incident is still not having clear claims as to how the incident occurred all the authorities have contradictory views as to from the first shot took place. The army is not blamed at by the authorities as the general of army was trying to disperse the crowd when the first shot was fired. The Federal Bureau of Investigation also had no prior knowledge as to how the incident was to occur. Furthermore the report of FBI showed that the incident of Tlatelolco occurred because of the confusion between military agents and security forces. According to FBI the Olympia Brigade a student association made to disrupt Olympics played a major role in making the incident of Tlatelolco occur. According to FBI some of the students positioned themselves on the nearby buildings as snipers and were the first ones to fire. This created confusion in the area and made the security forces to fire back in defense. The army general was the first one to be fired according to the FBI reports which further made the army and security officials to retaliate with gun shots. This story was almost the same as claimed by the government which also made the students responsible for the massacre. However CIA had a major role to track down the whole movement of students and putting it in piece. The CIA was tracking the student demonstrations from the very start of the demonstrations. According to the CIA student demonstrations may have been led due to political reasons by other rivals too. Luis Echevveria is believed to be one important figure which took part in dispersing the student demonstration by the CIA, however according to Luis himself he did not play any significant role to disperse the demonstrations. According to the CIA the government after all its tries went in vain tried to use force against the demonstrators. This force was specially designed by the government agencies to curb out the negatives of the demonstration and tried to solve matters by the method of force. The CIA documents have much helped to retrieve some of the original events which took place in 1968 as the then Embassy was covering up the major events which took place in that era. Since the demonstrations started the CIA started to give reports to the State Department. The CIA used many methods to gather intelligence i.e. by having sources in the students university and the government itself. Furthermore the intelligence had its own officers allocated to the demonstrations so that the whole situation could be analyzed according to its intensity. Most of the reports given by CIA emphasized on the information given out on students who wanted political revolution. The demonstrations were viewed as a movement of the Communist Party members or students by the CIA. Furthermore the CIA also took notice of the changes made within the universities by the regime only. The regimes move was closely taken into notice by the CIA. According to the sources of CIA the work done by the government to avoid any disorder during the rallies in August was effective and made the rallies peaceful. The government used the inside professors and members to make the students do a peace and calm rally. However the views of the CIA changed when they saw a change in the number of students taking part in the rallies. At first the CIA recognized the governments influence on the students but after a considerable time the agency came to the conclusion that the students were unifying for one clear objective i.e. defeating the views of the government and making them accept their demands. According to the CIA the main inspiration that the students of Mexico took was from other student uprisings all over the world. However in September the agency realized the rallies were getting aggressive and the regime of Diaz was aiming to bring an end to the movement either through aggressive or through peaceful means. The first aggressive act broke out on September 26 when clashes occurred between the government deployed forces and the students. This resulted in casualties and further made the students revolt and gather an even stronger group of students. The CIA could sense something foul to happen after this ugly incident occurred and showed in their documents that the Olympics which were to happen in Mexico were not safe enough. The CIA was the first organization to realize the government's stance hardening on the students as on September 29th the military forces were deployed in the city to disperse the student demonstrations. This can be viewed as a negative action taken by the government to disperse the crowd as it would further worsen the conditions of Mexico. The different types of involvement of military in the student matters were viewed as a negative by the CIA. It also stated in its reports that the military at times got aggressive with the students to make them accept the demands. In one report CIA is not pointing to anything particular but at the dissatisfaction of the Secretary of Defense with his officers due to their negligence of orders. This clearly shows that a role was played by these officers in the Tlatelolco incident. The reports of the CIA clearly show a role of military in the demonstrations being held in the city. The CIA felt that the conditions of Mexico had worsened till this extent that the security forces would not be able to protect the presidential candidate even. They believed that some of the elements which were against the United States could play a role in disturbing the security. However after the incident of Tlatelolco occurred on 2nd October it was established that none of the foreign obstacles played a role in it. Furthermore, CIA also established that a role was played by the security forces or the students to start the massacre, however not by the army. This is because the army general was trying to disperse the crowd when the first shot was fired from a nearby building. The students were helped by funding of the outsiders however not by weaponry. The CIA after examining different reports concluded that a group made by the students called Olympia Brigada was to bring hindrance to the Olympic Games held in Mexico. CIA had a limited role to play in avoiding the conflict but according to the documents it has previously given it can be said that CIA had expected such a response of the student uprisings. The CIA could clearly see as to where the uprisings were heading to and thus they advised the presidential candidate not to come to Mexico because of security concerns. Furthermore CIA played a major role in investigating as to how the incident occurred and they wrote a report of significance to the White House. The report though not directly but showed that the uprisings of the students clearly portrayed their aggressiveness and could have led to such a huge massacre to occur. This could be avoided if the government then had taken wise decisions so as to avoid such a major conflict. Different reports have been given in by the FBI CIA and State Department authorities which still clearly do not show as to which side started the gunshots first. Some of the major documents of the concerned authorities are still not open to public thus it cannot be concluded as to which party made the incident occur. Furthermore the role of CIA can be considered to be important in determining the factors which led to the massacre to occur. As it is mentioned above the CIA was able to determine the consequence of the situation in Mexico and warned the authorities before. The massacres original cause is also not determined by the CIA as some of their reports are still confined to the authorities and not shown the public. Bibliography Tlatelolco Massacre: Declassified U.S. Documents on Mexico and the Events of 1968. . Borden, Kara Michelle. Mexico '68: An Analysis of the Tlatelolco Massacre and Its Legacy. Thesis (Honors)--University of Oregon, 2005, 2005. Poniatowska, Elena. Massacre in Mexico. New York: Viking Press, 1975. Sherman, S. "Remembering Tlatelolco: Thirty Years After a Massacre of Demonstrators, Mexicans Want the Truth." NATION -NEW YORK-. 267. 19 (1998): 22-24. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Tlatelolco Massacre Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words”, n.d.)
Tlatelolco Massacre Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1502878-tlatelolco-massacre
(Tlatelolco Massacre Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 Words)
Tlatelolco Massacre Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 Words. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1502878-tlatelolco-massacre.
“Tlatelolco Massacre Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1502878-tlatelolco-massacre.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Tlatelolco Massacre Issues

Mexican Politics

It puts into consideration the historical trends as well as current and future political issues.... However, there are numerous challenges that the political platform of Mexico faces when issues of social order and political stability are considered.... As is the case with many federal governments, Mexican states that are away from the capital city have expressed issues with the service given by the federal government and feel they have not been well served....
9 Pages (2250 words) Research Paper

Refried Elvis: Rise of the Mexican Counterculture

This attitude change was toward issues... Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture Refried Elvis is a book written by Eric Zolov.... It is a book that explains the different roles that rock music and the youth culture have had in Mexico....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Historical Back Ground of the Sabra and Shatila Carnage

he Sabra and Shatila massacre is considered a forgotten incident in the western media.... srael on the contrary partially agrees of its link with the incident but denying any knowledge of a mass murder during the time of its procession clearing itself with the direct massacre of the refugee camp inhabitants.... Ang Swee Chai, an eye witness to the massacre reveals in her book " From Beirut to Jerusalem:"The truth hit me painfully.... [5]United Nations CondemnsOn Dec 16 1982 United Nations Organization's General Assembly condemned the massacre terming it as an act of "Genocide"The General Assembly, Recalled its resolution 95 (I) of 11 December 1946, It also recalled its resolu...
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Sharpeville Massacre

he story of freedom does not start from Sharpeville massacre, neither it is the case that a single incident can set the wheels in motion, it is always a sequence of events which builds up and a final push causes the dominoes to fall. ... he Sharpeville massacre catastrophe occurred on 21 March 1960, when a panicked South African police opened pre-emptive fire on a crowd of innocent black protesters killing 69 people, which included women and children as well....
12 Pages (3000 words) Essay

The El Mozote Massacre

In the paper 'The El Mozote massacre' the author describes the massacre, which occurred in the village of El Mozote, in the Morazan unit, El Salvador, when the Salvadoran defense force massacred no less than 1000 inhabitant in an anti-guerrilla operation.... The guerrilla's secret radio station started spreading news of a massacre of inhabitants in the region.... A number of Salvadoran human rights groups criticized the massacre....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Influence of Nanking Massacre

The 1937 Nanjing massacre is regarded by historians to be one of the most shocking, ghastly, and revolting massacres perpetrated by Japanese soldiers in the course of the Second Sino-Japanese War.... Nevertheless, whatever the importance of sheer recognition of the name, the memorial and history of the Nanjing massacre are deeply complicated.... he significance and implication of the Nanking massacre have constantly evolved over time.... Japan, and China have struggled with the Nanking massacre, and, in every nation, over time, new interpretations are introduced....
11 Pages (2750 words) Essay

Politics of Mexico - Current and Future Political Issues

This paper "Politics of Mexico - Current and Future Political issues" establishes without the government addressing serious issues relating to legitimacy, and addressing the complaints made by the marginalized states, it will be difficult to realize an internationally recognized political order.... There has been a huge movement of Mexico towards the North American side and issues to do with politics seem to emulate the North American way.... However, there are numerous challenges that the political platform of Mexico faces when issues of societal order and political stability are considered....
9 Pages (2250 words) Case Study

The Causes of the Myall Creek Massacre

The paper "The Causes of the Myall Creek massacre" is a wonderful example of a case study on history.... The Myall Creek massacre is just of the types that saw perpetrators being punished for crimes committed against the Aborigines.... The paper "The Causes of the Myall Creek massacre" is a wonderful example of a case study on history.... The Myall Creek massacre is just of the types that saw perpetrators being punished for crimes committed against the Aborigines....
8 Pages (2000 words) Case Study
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us