No Police, No Violence at Memorial March for Tlatelolco Massacre in Mexico City Andalusia Knoll - VICE News
go to original October 4, 2014

Watch Mexico City protesters hit the streets Oct. 2, 2014 in memory of Tlatelolco massacre (RuptlyTV)

Several central subway transfer stations were shut down, iconic buildings were blocked off with temporary metal siding walls, and major thoroughfares were closed to vehicular traffic. But in the end, not a single arrest was reported during the annual march in Mexico City marking the anniversary of the October 2, 1968 massacre at Tlatelolco.

The outcome stood in stark contrast to the aftermath of the Tlatelolco memorial march last year, which ended in violent confrontations between masked anarchists and riot police. Last October 2, 102 people were arrested — four of whom remain incarcerated — and human-rights workers documented 46 cases of excessive aggression against journalists covering the march.

But what stood out most to demonstrators this week was the fact the march saw virtually no police monitoring the route, or menacingly attacking civilians at random as was seen in 2013. Why the dramatic change?

Mexico City's police force initially said it planned to deploy more than 3,700 officers to patrol the march. But on Thursday morning, just hours before the first protesters began gathering at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas at Tlatelolco to march to the downtown Zócalo central square, Mexico City police chief José Rodríguez Almeida announced during a radio interview that no one "in uniform" would be covering the march's route.

Police were in fact present during the protest, but were deployed out of view of the planned path, VICE News reporters observed.

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