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 Editorials | Issues | December 2006 
Report: Echeverría Planned Attack
 El Universal
| | As evidence that Echeverría was directly involved, the report sites the deployment of the "Olympic Battalion" against the protesters, which was directly under Echeverría´s command. |
The killing of hundreds of demonstrating students on Oct. 2, 1968, was entirely planned and overseen by then-Interior Secretary Luis Echeverría, according to court documents cited in last month´s decision to accept genocide charges filed against him.
The ruling, reached by Magistrate Ricardo Paredes Calderón on Nov. 29, argues that there was no justification for the repression against the students, who had gathered in a Mexico City plaza to call for democracy and protest government spending for the Olympics, which Mexico hosted that year.
The 920-page report, obtained by EL UNIVERSAL, was compiled through the testimony of victims, witnesses and alleged perpetrators, along with videos, books and press clippings.
It argues that there was no proof to support government claims that communists had infiltrated the student movement and were plotting against the state. Additionally, the problem could have been solved without bloodshed, the document reads, citing calls for dialogue by leaders of the student movement.
As evidence that Echeverría was directly involved, the report sites the deployment of the "Olympic Battalion" against the protesters, which was directly under Echeverría´s command. It also claims that troops at the plaza were the first to fire, countering statements that they responded to gunfire from the demonstrators.
Echeverría, 84, became president in 1970, and is accused of organizing the killings and disappearances of hundreds of activists and guerrillas during the nation´s so-called "Dirty War."
The report also implicates Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, now dead, who was president during the incident.
The special prosecutor for past crimes, Ignacio Carrillo, appointed by former President Vicente Fox in 2002, has sought to bring genocide charges against Echeverría because the statute of limitations has expired for other charges. He first sought Echeverria´s arrest in July 2004 in connection with the 1971 student massacre and for the disappearance of leftist activists during his term. All of the charges had been thrown out or blocked by courts.
Echeverría was placed under house arrest in Mexico City in June - the first time a warrant has been served against a former Mexican president. But the case was dismissed in July after a judge ruled the statute of limitations had expired.
It is unlikely Echeverría would go to jail in any case, since a 2004 law designed to reduce costs in the criminal justice system allows judges to grant house arrest for suspects 70 and older.
The former president has been briefly hospitalized twice in the past year and is considered to be in poor health.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
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