June 10, 1971 is a dark day in Mexican history. To some, the events didnt even happen. Or they didnt happen the way it was told at least.
That day, democracy was crushed in Mexico City. Died, the flame extinguished along with the lives of more than one hundred protestors. Just when they had thought the nightmare of Tlatelolco would never happen again, two years later, it did, at the massacre of Jueves de Corpus.
That Thursday afternoon, Corpus Christi day, a huge protest was planned in downtown Mexico City by students in support of student protests in the northeastern city of Monterrey. The plan was to go down Avenida de los Maestros all the way to the main square el Zocalo.
The students protested peacefully, yelling pro democracy slogans and shouting barbs aimed at President Luis Echeverria Alvarez and the totalitarian dictatorship the country was under, under the rule of PRI, the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
The side streets were blocked by Mexico City anti riot police troops and buses. Regular beat cops also patrolled the street but were under orders to "not participate" in the march.
Near La Normal Subway Station some armed youths emerged. They were armed with long bamboo sticks, 2 x 4s and chains. They rushed the protestors and started mercilessly attacking them.
These thugs, wearing white and wielding sticks and beating up everyone, even the women and girls, were Los Halcones, a paramilitary group put together by the PRI to crush student demonstrations after the Tlatelolco massacre in 1968.
They were trained in martial arts, weapons handling and crowd control tactics by the Mexican CIA, the Directorate of Federal Security, and by American agents of the Central Intelligence Agency.
The student protestors werent docile this Thursday afternoon and counterattacked. The youths fought a massive street battle in the streets. Some Halcones retreated.
The attack wasnt over, it had just begun. Some Halcones now brandished submachine guns, pistols and shotguns.
They started to open fire on the crowd, chasing down fleeing women and men and shooting them dead in the street. Chaos reigned.
The Halcones took over police squad cars and buses in a bloodthirsty hunt for hiding and fleeing protestors. Most were shot point blank in the head or shot in the back as they ran for their lives.
The injured and dead were taken to Ruben Lenero Hospital. The nightmare wasnt over. Halcon thugs entered the hospital and shot dead the injured on gurneys and inside recovery rooms and in operating theaters. They intimidated the staff and doctors and after killing a dozen or more victims they left.
More than 120 people died in the Jueves de Corpus Massacre. The State controlled media reported a gang of thugs from the university, friends of the protestors, had turned on their own group and had attacked and killed them. Some 20 people were dead.
The truth was repressed for years under the PRI government. Only those who survived that afternoon and night of horror knew the facts. Their own government had plotted to exterminate, not only their dreams of freedom and democracy but their very lives.
Neither President Echeverria, members of his cabinet nor any members of the Halcones paramilitary group were ever arrested or put on trial for the brutal slaughter.
According to some historians, Los Halcones never even existed.
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