A Crash Course on Mexico

Power against the people.

Last month the Mexican navy ship Cuauhtémoc, supposedly on a goodwill mission, slammed into the Brooklyn Bridge, killing two crew members and injuring 17 others. New Yorkers will find it hard to recall the last time Mexico’s navy clashed with any foreign foe. The same goes for Mexico’s army, often deployed against the Mexican people.

Persecution of Catholics under president Plutarco Calles launched the Cristero war or Cristiada, of 1926-1929. Calles was a member of the Partido Nacional Revolucionario, in 1939 renamed the Partido de la Revolución Mexicana, and in 1946 the Partido Revolucionario Institucional. As the late Mario Vargas Llosa noted, under the PRI Mexico was the “the perfect dictatorship,” with PRI bosses picking their successors followed by fake elections. In the run-up to the 1968 Olympics, with the world looking on, Mexicans saw a chance to protest.

On October 2, 1968, Mexican troops and police gunned down hundreds of student demonstrators in what became known as the Tlatelolco Massacre. President Diaz Ordaz and interior minister Luis Echeverria faced no charges and in 1970 Echeverria became president. He died at age 100 in 2022 and no Mexican official was ever held to account. Last year Claudia Sheinbaum apologized for the massacre but in the style of previous presidents released no full list of the murdered students.

In 2012, A Greater Glory, with Andy Garcia and Peter O’Toole, dramatized Mexico’s Cristero war. It’s long past time for a big-screen treatment of the 1968 massacre in Mexico City. The film could open in 2007, with construction workers near the massacre site uncovering bodies, one bearing a bullet from a military rifle. Police tell the architect not to file a report because her son might disappear. Cut to October 2, 1968, as Mexican students gather to protest. As Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) might say, that’s a terrific story the people might like.

Meanwhile, it’s still unclear why the Cuauhtémoc crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge. Just so you know, the Mexican ship was headed to Iceland, where Steve has been hanging out of late.