Olympic Price

ON THE EVENING of October 2, in the Plaza Tlatelolco, in the center of a huge low-rent housing project in Mexico City, 1000 soldiers opened fire with machine guns and rifles on a crowd of 10,000 demonstrators, who had been hemmed into the plaza only minutes before. At least 49 demonstrators were killed, hundreds injured. The Mexican Defense Minister claimed that the firing was in response to sniping by students, yet, according to official counts, only one soldier was killed and seven hurt during a week of rioting.

Officials of the Mexican government have said repeatedly during the week of the "noche triste" that the 19th Olympic Games will be held no matter what steps have to be taken to insure it--including machine-gunning of peaceful demonstrators. The Mexican government is "protecting" the athletes and spectators at the Olympic Games form harm by mowing down potential troublemakers with bullets. This kind of protection should not be accepted or tolerated by athletes there--including the Harvard crew. All athletes at the Games ought to reject the barbarism of the Mexican authorities and refuse to participate in the Games.

The government of Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz is not acting in a state of temporary insanity--driven to such lengths by the booty offered it by the Olympic Games. Twice in the space of 18 months Diaz has ordered similar massacres of unarmed civilians--in the state of Guerrero last summer and at the University of Hermosillo a few months before. The Olympics must not be allowed to serve as a cover for Diaz plans for silencing students with genuine grievances.

"Noche triste" may be a very good way to learn about the problems of an Olympic Games that claims to be unpolitical and yet is inherently political. Avery Brundage, who has been president of the International Olympic Committee for decades, last week called the Olympics at Mexico City "a veritable oasis in a troubled world." That is an absurdity in Mexico City, an absurdity that can be exposed by the athletes. Their refusal to participate would be recognized by the world and would force a rethinking of the political implications of the Olympics as well as denounce the act of butchery committed by the Mexican government.