Instituto Politécnico Nacional in the context of "Mexican Movement of 1968"

The Tlatelolco massacre (Spanish: La Masacre de Tlatelolco) was a military massacre committed by the Mexican Armed Forces against the students of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) and other universities in Mexico.

The massacre followed a series of large demonstrations known as the Mexican Movement of 1968 and is considered part of the Mexican Dirty War when the U.S.-backed Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) government violently repressed political and social opposition. The event occurred ten days before the opening ceremony of the 1968 Summer Olympics, which were carried out as scheduled.

The National Strike Council, the Consejo Nacional de Huelga (CNH) was created on August 2, 1968, composed of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN), El Colegio de Mexico, the School of Agriculture of Chapingo, the Universidad Iberoamericana, the Universidad La Salle and other universities in Mexico.

It was created in response to developments against the student community, such as the intervention of the army in a confrontation between students of the Vocational School #2 (IPN) and the preparatory high school "Isaac Ochenterena" incorporated to the UNAM, in which several students from both schools were detained and the destruction caused by a bazooka used by the army at the entrance of the high school at the Colegio de San Ildefonso.