The Fearsome Falcons

Amid a riot of banners, 10,000 students took time out from examinations last week and began marching toward Mexico City's giant Monument of the Revolution. They were protesting, among other things, the continued imprisonment of 40 students arrested during the October 1968 antigovernment demonstrations in the capital, during which more than 50 people died. The protesters had managed to proceed less than half a mile, however, when a skirmish line of police blocked their advance and fired off volleys of tear gas. Suddenly, as if on signal, waves of men carrying bamboo poles and clubs swooped out of gray-painted buses waiting on a nearby street, shouting "Halcones! Halcones! --Falcons! Falcons!" It was the first real show of force by the Falcons, an organization of antistudent, antileftist goons, mostly in their 20s. Their bloodcurdling war cry is likely to echo throughout Mexico for some time to come.

Military Fashion. The Falcons began beating demonstrators. Moments later a second wave appeared, armed with pistols, M-2 carbines and submachine guns and firing at random. All told, perhaps 1,000 Falcons joined the fray, clubbing newsmen and firing up at high buildings where they suspected cameramen might be taking pictures. "They executed their movements in military fashion," said one witness. "They were well trained in the Japanese art of fighting with bamboo staves and equipped with a radio communications system."

The students fled in every direction. Homeowners opened their doors to rescue them. Construction workers tossed down rocks and pieces of wood for the students to defend themselves with. Within minutes, nine students were dead from gunfire, and more than 200 other people were injured.

Then the Falcons invaded the Ruben Lenero Hospital near by, where many of the wounded had been taken. They took captive all those who could walk and carried them off to Falcon headquarters, where it is feared more may have been murdered. Through it all, the police made no move to intervene. Who are the Falcons? Spokesmen for President Luis Echeverria Alvarez put the blame on a right-wing student group known as "Muro." But many Mexicans suspect that the city government is involved. Mayor Alfonso Martinez Dominguez, a former head of the ruling Partido Revolucionario Institutional, denounced the students and denied that the city has the Falcons on the payroll. At week's end, the students issued a statement calling for the mayor's removal.

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