Once upon a time in 1986, “El Grupo de los Seis”- a group of 6 world leaders- came to Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo to conclude their meetings, calling for world peace and the end of the Cold War. The date was August 6, 1986, which was the 41st anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.
El Grupo de los Seis consisted of Mexico’s President Miguel de la Madrid, Argentina’s President Raúl Alfonsín, Greece’s Prime Minister Andreas Papandreu, Sweden’s Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson, India’s Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and the Tanzania’s President Julios Nyerere.
To commemorate that meeting, Plaza Olof Palme, designed by ward-winning architect José Antonio Priani Piña, was built as a tribute to Olaf Palme, the Prime Minister of Sweden who had been part of the original Grupo de los Seis, but was assasinated 6 months prior to the meeting. The plaza was built next to the Museo Arqueológico de la Costa Grande, and was made of volcanic stone which supported the 6 palm trees representing El Grupo de los Seis.
Sadly, without ceremony or announcement to the people of Zihuatanejo, Plaza Olaf Palme was destroyed last month, as part of the ongoing renovation of downtown Zihuatanejo. The iconic trees no longer hover majestically where the canal meets the bay, greeting people as the cross the canal bridge. Most never even knew their story, or that they represented a small part in the history of the end of the Cold War.
We know that nothing lasts forever, and some things remain simply etched in our hearts. But Plaza Olaf Palme was not simply a bunch of uniquely placed trees surrounded by stone. Plaza Olaf Palme represented a major part of world history that took place in Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo. It represented an important part in our history. It represented something we wanted future generations of Zihuatanejo to learn about, understand and be proud of.
Newspaper article about the meeting in the newspaper El Pais (in Spanish) 05 August, 1986
