The Student March along the Route of Freedom: The National Central Committee of Mexican Students (CNED) in the 1966 Nicolaite University Conflict

Abstract

This article examines the participation of the National Democratic Student Confederation (CNED) in the 1966 student movement in Michoacán against the state government, as well as the organization's subsequent mobilization through the so-called "Student March along the Route of Freedom." It advances the hypothesis that the Mexican state responded to these mobilizations with violent repression because they undermined one of the foundations of its hegemonic rule: corporatism. Drawing on documentary, newspaper, bibliographical, and oral sources, the article contributes to the historiography of another chapter in the history of the contentious relationship between the student movement and Mexico's authoritarian political system. It concludes that, despite their defeat, these mobilizations helped force the democratic opening of the national political arena.