Former Mexican President Luis Echeverria, who took office in 1970 promising a democratic opening for the country but led six of the toughest years of the so-called “dirty war” against dissidents, has died aged 100.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador confirmed the death today, offering his condolences to Echeverría’s family.
As an elderly man, Echeverria avoided efforts by Mexican prosecutors to charge him with genocide for his role in two notorious massacres of student protesters in 1968 and 1971 that defined an era of brutal state repression.
Bald and bespectacled, Echeverria denied any wrongdoing and said his conscience was clear. He refused to testify about crimes that have not been fully solved to this day.
His presidency (1970-1976) was marred from the start by accusations that he ordered the military to open fire on thousands of students peacefully demonstrating in the Tlatelolco district of Mexico City on October 2, 1968 while he was minister of the interior.
At the time, the government said just 30 people were killed and injured in the massacre, which took place just days before the start of the Olympics in Mexico City. Witnesses said several more bodies were removed from the scene.
Hundreds of students were beaten and jailed after the demonstration, which came as student uprisings had erupted around the world. A definitive death toll was never given.
Source: AMPE
Source: Capital
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