(SIX FEET) DOWN IN MEXICO
On one day in early 1922, Betty White and former Mexican President Luis Echeverría both came into this world. Only the latter achieved the centenary, probably aided by the fact that Echeverría’s PR team wasn’t jinxing their client’s upcoming birthday with premature celebrations, instead insisting for years he was too ill to go to prison. How worthy was el señor presidente of his cien años?
Echeverría rose into the Mexican political scene as the Secretary of the Interior under Gustavo Díaz Ordaz. Echeverría, alongside Díaz Ordaz and the Secretary of Defense, co-orchestrated the Tlatelolco massacre of several hundred student protestors in 1968. He succeeded Díaz Ordaz at the top post, where he orchestrated a second massacre of student protestors known as the Corpus Christi Massacre and continued his predecessor’s Dirty War against leftist dissent. Though his tenure initially boasted a robust economy, that too became a moot point late in his term when his policies plunged Mexico into an economic crisis and the value of the peso cratered. His one term was succeeded by his handpicked successor, who continued similar sleazy policy, while Echeverría himself attempted a campaign for UN Secretary General in a pick-your-poison race against Kurt Waldheim. Luis Echeverría evaded justice till his dying breath, only going on trial in the aughts well after the statute of limitations for genocide had expired.
The answer – not all that worthy.
Five teams picked Luis Echeverría, including three world leaders theme teams. It’s a proper fiesta for Complications from a fall, who gains points from two sods in a day. ¡Arriba, arriba!
Luis Echeverría
17 January 1922 – 8 July 2022, aged 100
5 TEAMS (💀💀💀💀 4 POINTS)