Unsurprisingly,there were few tributes paid this week to Luis Echeverria Alvarez, president of Mexico from 1970 to 1976, who has died at 100 years of age.
Echeverria is perhaps best known for his part in the October 1968 student crackdown, when hundreds died after security forces opened fire on protestors in the Tlatelolco district of Mexico City. As interior minister, he has always been seen as instrumental in designing the strategy that repressed the student uprising.
As president, he broke with many of his predecessor’s core policies, embarking on populist political and economic reforms, nationalizing the mining and electricity sectors, redistributing private land to campesinos and imposing limits on foreign investment. He followed a non-aligned foreign policy, cozying up to the leaders of the Soviet Union and China, and offering support to leftist South American governments and movements.
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