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Page last updated at 16:12 GMT, Wednesday, 1 October 2008 17:12 UK

In pictures: Mexico's bloody 1968

Protesters in Mexico City's main square in 1968 (Photo: El Universal archive)

In late 1968, Mexico was getting ready to host the Olympics. But social tensions were also simmering.

Police beat a protester during demonstrations in September 1968

Student protests erupted in the country, as they did elsewhere in the world that year, provoking a strong reaction at times.

Mexican army soldiers crouch with weapons ready  in Mexico City's Tlatelolco district on 2 October 1968

But there was little warning that the crackdown launched on 2 October would be so bloody.

Soldiers stand guard over people they arrested and made strip to their underwear in the midst of the 2 October 1968 violence

Security forces opened fire on a crowd protesting against the government in Mexico City's Tlatelolco Square.

Soldiers round up demonstrators on 3 October 1968

Hundreds were rounded up but the number of dead remains unclear to this day.

Soldiers cut the hair of one of the protesters they arrested on 3 October 1968

As the security forces continued the crackdown, the government said some 30 people, including police officers, had died.

Posters and pictures of people missing in the immediate aftermath of the Tlatelolco killings (Photo: El Universal archive)

But families of people who went missing, rights groups and the media believe the true figure is around 300.

Demonstrators march against the killings in 1968 (Photo: El Universal archive)

There was an official silence about the massacre for many years and subsequent inquiries shed little light. No-one has ever been punished.




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