Luis Echeverria Alvarez, President of Mexico from 1970 to 1976 passed away on the night of Friday, July 8 at 100 years old, according to reports in the local media.
Echeverría Álvarez turned 100 years old on January 17. On November 14, 1969, he was elected as a candidate for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to the presidency of the Republic. He won the 1970 elections.
The Mexican politician was a key actor in the massacres of October 2, 1968 in Tlatelolco and of June 10, 1971, known as the “falcon”.
Echeverría is known for his role in the so-called “dirty war” or “State terrorism“, when his government supported the Revolution in Cuba, Salvador Allende in Chile and Sandinism in Nicaragua, but behind closed doors it persecuted leftist and student movements.
He faced trials for genocide for his role in the massacre of October 2, 1968, when he was Secretary of the Interior of the President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz (1964-1970) during the massacre in Tlatelolco of more than 300 students, according to figures from civil organizations, who were protesting against the government.
Already as president, he is held responsible for the “halconazo” or the massacre of the corpus thursday on June 10, 1971, when paramilitaries organized by the government, called “los halcones”, attacked student demonstrators and left 17 dead.
After leaving the presidency, he was appointed ambassador of Mexico to the UNESCO in Paris until 1979.
They are last public appearance It was in April 2021 to receive his covid-19 vaccine.