Comité 68 Calls March to Mark 57th Anniversary of October 2nd Repression

ByMexico Solidarity

This article originally appeared in the September 29, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Mexico City. The ’68 Committee for Democratic Freedoms called for a march commemorating the 57th anniversary of the repression of the 1968 student movement and reiterated its demand for “trial and punishment of those responsible for the genocide, and an end to the repression and criminalization of social protest.”

The group affirmed that “the people’s fight against impunity will not cease until justice is achieved for all.”

In a statement read by attorney Víctor Guerra in the capital’s main square in front of the National Palace, the group urged “patronage or thug groups” unrelated to the 68 Committee to issue their own protests. They also asked the Mexico City government to prevent the “defunct” riot police from participating and to ensure that access to the main square is not obstructed. As every year, the mobilization will begin at 4:00 PM in the Plaza of the Three Cultures in Tlatelolco.

In the message, Committee 68 also invited young people “to participate in an organized manner, to form and find their contingents, to unleash their creativity, to document any acts of provocation or intimidation in the vicinity of the march and during their journeys by subway, to be punctual at their appointments, and to avoid falling for provocations.”

Photo: Jay Watts

Victor Guerra emphasized that 57 years after the student massacre, demands for democratic freedoms persist, “and emphatically for access to justice in the cases of October 2, 1968, June 10, 1971, and the counterinsurgency period known as the Dirty War.”

These cases remain open and active before the Attorney General’s Office, in the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Human Rights (FEMDH), because as crimes against humanity, they do not have a statute of limitations. The proceedings and investigations must continue and guarantee full access to truth and justice, as well as full reparation for the victims.

The activists added other demands, such as the defense of Palestine and the clarification of the disappearance of the students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College. Added to this, according to Committee 68, is the “criminalization, harassment, and budgetary asphyxiation of the Rural Teachers’ Colleges, with a view to their extinction or transformation.”

He demanded recognition of the Federation of Socialist Peasant Students of Mexico (FECSM) as a national student organization and a solution to the demands of the member schools.

Photo: Cristina Rodríguez

Furthermore, Committee 68 warned that the persecution and criminalization of high school and college students has worsened in various states across the country. In Guadalajara, Puebla, Oaxaca, and Mexico City, “harassment, attacks by thugs, punitive measures, and expulsions against organized students and teachers have escalated.”

This adds to the precarious conditions and a general climate of uncertainty that destabilizes and inhibits the academic development of thousands of young people who managed to access secondary and higher education institutions, he said.

The message read by attorney Guerra included a denunciation of the situation of young people “excluded from the education system, already living in violent environments and, due to the need to work, becoming victims of trafficking, forced disappearance, or death.”

Defenders of the land, the environment, and natural resources also experience harassment from local governments and organized crime. In the last ten years, 189 environmental activists have been murdered, the group reported.

Committee 68 included among its demands respect for the rights of indigenous peoples and urban communities, and expressed solidarity with the struggles of the National Coordinator of Education Workers, the Mexican Union of Electricians (SME), the Popular Union of Street Vendors (UPVA) “October 28,” the National Front for the 40-Hour Workday, and the entire working class.