During the protests of 1968 , Mexican government killed an estimated 30 to 300 students and civilian protesters . This killing is known as in the Tlatelolco massacre . killing of an estimated 30 to 300 students and civilians by military and police on October 2 , 1968 , in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City . The events are considered part of the Mexican Dirty War , when the government used its forces to suppress political opposition . The massacre occurred 10 days before the opening of the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City . More recent student movements include Yo Soy 132 in 2012 . Yo Soy 132 was a social movement composed for the most part of Mexican university students from private and public universities , residents of Mexico , claiming supporters from about 50 cities around the world . It began as opposition to the Institutional Revolutionary Party ( PRI ) candidate Enrique Peña Nieto and the Mexican media 's allegedly biased coverage of the 2012 general election . The name Yo Soy 132 , Spanish for " I Am 132 " , originated in an expression of solidarity with the original 131 protest 's initiators . The phrase drew inspiration from the Occupy movement and the Spanish 15-M movement . The protest movement was self-proclaimed as the " Mexican spring " ( an allusion to the Arab Spring ) by its first spokespersons , and called the " Mexican occupy movement " in the international press
Tlatelolco massacre
Tlatelolco massacre
Student activism