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Since then, violence has fed on violence. Teachers and students staged demonstrations demanding the reinstatement of Union Chief Salazar, whom Lopez Mateos (even as he was protesting his leftism) fired for calling an illegal strike. A fortnight ago, a brutal battle broke out near the Mexico City Normal School between 6,000 demonstrators and 700 police and firemen; 70 students were injured, some severely. Last week, protesting police violence, several hundred students tried to battle their way through riot lines around Mexico City's main plaza, the Zocalo. Two students were shot.
Rounding up agitators, the police hauled in Artist Siqueiros, who for the past three months has been head of Mexico's Communist Party. The day after the Zocalo riot, Siqueiros promised Lopez Mateos' regime "no peace until all political prisoners are freed." He was booked on a charge of "social dissolution." By going to the length of jailing Mexico's foremost artist (who has lately been at work on a large mural for the government at Chapultepec Castle), Lopez Mateos' government probably invited new trouble. An angry official promised at week's end that future demonstrations and riots would be met with a "mailed fist."