My bride and I arrived in Mexico City on Tuesday after the Bay of Pigs calamity. There was a lot of yelling in the streets and a few cars being torched. Americanos were cowering in the hotel lobbies for the most part, but I told my wife not to worry, that stuff went on all the time. Next morning we were in a small shop in a side street when a caravan of Army trucks pulled in and troops with hard hats and riot guns piled out. The shopkeeper pointed out that the U.S. embassy was across the street and perhaps there was some rumor that there might be trouble. But he said only about 2% of the 40,000 university students were actually Communists, but they could always raise a street crowd on almost any occasion.
It was pretty clear to me that most of the people at the Cuautemoc Cardenas rally really did not care, did not know the songs, and were there for the free bus ride into town. They must have kept them at the rally with a raffle or something.