Six on Mexico: Why Mexico isn’t stopping the migrant caravan; Fifty Years of Mexican October; Tales of Loss: Six Great Mexica
philip panaritis
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"In understanding contemporary Mexican politics and society, the careful observer might well draw a line before and after October 2, 1968.
That was the day when Mexican soldiers killed, wounded and detained hundreds of students and civilians who had peacefully assembled in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City to demand a more democratic government and socially just nation.
Fifty years later, the first days of October in Mexico were dedicated to the golden anniversary of an event that shaped — and continues shaping — the course of the nation.
Across the country this past week, tens of thousands of students, teachers and people from all walks of life organized forums and staged commemorative marches. News outlets were filled with stories dissecting the events surrounding Oct. 2. Pundits debated the facts and meaning of a fateful day so many years ago and its relevance today. President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador used the occasion to announce a planned transformation of the armed forces into an “army of peace,” and a commitment to never use force against civil society."
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Washington D.C., October 2, 2018—"Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of the notorious Tlatelolco massacre, when the Mexican government killed dozens of students and bystanders protesting the authoritarian regime in a public plaza at Tlatelolco, Mexico City. Across the country, citizens are commemorating the event with marches and rallies, "Smart city technology in Puebla is slated to include “safe crosswalks, free internet, video surveillance, seismic alarm, playground, trash cans, signage, ecological benches and payment modules”. In January, the city of Atlixco, about half an hour from Tonantzintla, became Latin America’s first smart city, complete with a new bike path, security cameras, speed sensors for cars and free internet access.
But in being presented with this futuristic-sounding vision, it appears that residents of Santa Maria Tonantzintla found themselves caught in a conflict repeated the world over, between centuries-old customs and new development trends.
We want a clinic, parks, things to entertain ourselves, so we don’t have to go all the way to Puebla [city]
Lupita Tecual Porquillo
While smart city planning has largely been undertaken in dense metropolises, some smaller cities have embraced its ideology. The Dutch city of Eindhoven has become an emblematic example of a small smart city – it embraces urban experimentation with less than half a million residents. Key to smart city planning, though, is responding to local needs. Eindhoven’s smart city programme manager, Guus Sluijter, emphasised that the programme comes from the ground up. “Our citizens are key in addressing problems and central to solving them,” Sluijter told Smart City Hub. “We see [smart cities] becoming a society for the people, by the people, in which citizens actively identify issues in their city.”
Residents like Tecual Porquillo don’t understand the true goal of the project, says architect Victor Campos, who was involved in the design on behalf of the municipality’s secretary of public works."
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