The two men selected by then-President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz to mediate the 1968 student conflict separately lamented the decision to violently repress the student movement, testimony to the special prosecutor investigating the state-sponsored violence reveals.Andrés Caso Lombardo and Jorge de la Vega Domínguez were commissioned as presidential emissaries by Díaz Ordaz in 1968, but they were unable to resolve the growing crisis and could not dissuade the president from repressing the student protests.
The testimony is part of the 920-page report - obtained by EL UNIVERSAL - that was the basis for the genocide case filed against former President Luis Echeverría last month.
Both emissaries expressed regret at the inability to prevent the bloodshed - they were named by Díaz Ordaz on Sept. 28, 1968, only five days before the massacre in Tlatelolco Plaza.
They were charged with winning reconciliation with the student protest leaders, primarily focused on re-opening classes at the Mexico City universities and promoting public peace in the capital.
Caso Lombardo testified that he met with three of the prominent student leaders on the morning of Oct. 2, 1968, and had arranged a tentative schedule for formal dialogue later in the week. But later that day, the Army attacked the protesters and hundreds of students were reportedly killed and hundreds more jailed.
The two emissaries actively worked to win the release of student leaders and faculty sympathetic to the protests, negotiating directly with President Díaz Ordaz. They were successful in winning the release of a large group of the prisoners in question and even convinced the president to grant "safe-conduct" privileges so that the emissaries could continue talks to deal with the crisis that resulted from the Tlatelolco massacre.
Díaz Ordaz even summoned the presidential guard to protect the protesters who were participating in the talks, since local police authorities often surrounded the house where the talks were taking place.
Caso Lombardo and de la Vega Domínguez argued for the Army to retreat from the Casco de Santo Tomás campus of the National Polytechnical Institute and Díaz Ordaz eventually ordered the campus vacated by the troops.
Despite this limited success, both emissaries expressed regret that they were not given the time nor the opportunity to work before the violence took place.
The brutality of the repression and the jail terms served by many protest leaders and faculty members decapitated the student movement and the two emissaries were soon removed from their responsibilities.
