The 1968 Olympic Games and the Student Movement: Incompatible Realities?

The paper asks what was the relationship between the Olympic Games of 1968 (inaugurated on Oct. 12) and the student protest of the same year (July 23 to Oct. 2). This is a typical case in which the sequence of events should not be confused with causal explanation.   I argue, contrary to the arguments of other authors, that preparatory and university students did not direct their protests against the celebration of the games.  I propose another interpretation:  the students  found in the games a window of opportunity to press for demands related to civil and political liberties.   From an empirical point of view, I demonstrate my point using police records and participant testimonies that suggest that the games were understood as an international obligation that the students basically respected.   In effect, the idea that the students and their allies protested the holding of the games was the government’s propagandistic strategy to legitimate repression, particularly after Sept. 19 when the army occupied the campus of the National University.   Thus,  the government conducted an operation of counterinformation and dirty war in the media.