CIA funded right-wing student groups in Mexico prior to Tlatelolco massacre

Declassified documents analyzed by the National Security Archive reveal that the CIA funded right-wing student groups in Mexico in the days leading up to the Tlatelolco massacre. Researchers Claire Dorfman and Arturo Jiménez-Bacardí state that the Agency managed at least five projects over two decades aimed at controlling student leadership in Mexican universities.

These operations involved infiltrating and attempting to influence the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the National Federation of Technical Students (FNET), and student leaders at the National Polytechnic Institute. The researchers suggest that while the Agency may have played an active role in polarizing student politics, its close ties to Mexican security officials could imply a more direct role in orchestrating the violence at Tlatelolco.

The partially declassified history shows CIA support for right-wing groups dating back to the 1950s, including involvement in the 1952 expulsion of the UNAM rector, Luis Garrido Díaz, and providing funds to various social and economic research institutes.