The “Falconazo”
Echeverría is also responsible for another of the darkest passages in the country’s history, along with that of 1968: “El Halconazo”, which occurred on June 10, 1971. The official figure was 17 dead, unofficially it was He talked about many more.
UNAM and IPN students left the streets of Casco de Santo Tomás towards the Zócalo, in support of their colleagues from the University of Nuevo León (UANL) who were on strike for better budgets for education.
The event concluded with a repression by the so-called “halcones”, at the order of the then federal government. As in 1968, the number of people who died at the scene is unknown.
On June 10, 2021, within the framework of the 50th anniversary of those tragic events, dozens of people gathered outside Echeverría’s house to protest and so that they would not go unpunished.
However, in a conference he offered on July 2, 2002, the former president never assumed responsibility and, on the contrary, accused Alfonso Martínez Domínguez, then head of the Department of the Federal District in 1971, of being responsible for the massacre. of students on June 10 of that year, at the hands of the paramilitary group “Los Halcones”.
In June 2006, Luis Echeverría Álvarez “LEA” was accused of genocide for the massacre of 1968 and “El Halconazo”, which is why he was placed under house arrest.
However, a week later that conviction was withdrawn. On March 26, 2009, his absolute freedom was decreed and he was exonerated of that charge due to lack of evidence, although the social condemnation remains.
