Mexican Dirty War - Wikipedia

Mexican Dirty War - Wikipedia

Mexican Dirty War

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search

Mexican Dirty War
Part of the Cold War
Mexican Army soldiers in the streets in 1968
Date 1964–1982[1][4] Location Mexico Result Government victory Continued rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party Most leftist guerrilla groups disbanded After the conflict Implementation of neoliberal policies.[5] Several acts of violence have not yet been clarified.[6] Political defeat of the PRI in the 2000 presidential elections before the National Action Party (PAN). Grouping of the political left and formation of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).[7] Dissolution of Dirección Federal de Seguridad for crimes committed during Mexican Dirty War and for having alliances with Guadalajara Cartel and drug lords like Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo and Rafael Caro Quintero
Belligerents
Left-wing groups[1] People's Guerrilla Group  Party of the Poor National Revolutionary Civic Association Liga Comunista 23 de Septiembre Various other social and armed movements in the country	Mexico  Institutional Revolutionary Party DFS - Security Directorate (Intelligence)  Armed Forces (Military)  Judicial Police (Law enforcement) Supported by:  United States (support)  Central Intelligence Agency Special "White Brigade" and other death squads[2][3]
Casualties and losses
Estimated at least 3,000 people disappeared and executed, 3,000 political prisoners, and 7,000 tortured[1]:8

The Mexican Dirty War (Spanish: Guerra sucia) refers to the Mexican theater of the Cold War, an internal conflict in the 1960s and 1970s between the Mexican PRI-ruled government under the presidencies of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Luis Echeverría and José López Portillo, which were backed by the US government, and left-wing student and guerrilla groups.^[8][9] During the war, government forces carried out disappearances, estimated at 1,200,^[10] systematic torture, and "probable extrajudicial executions".^[11]

The judicial investigation into State crimes against political movements was not opened until the end of the 71-year long PRI regime and the accession to power of Vicente Fox in 2000, which created the Special Prosecutor's Office for Social and Political Movements of the Past (FEMOSPP). However, despite revealing much about the history of the conflict, the FEMOSPP has not been able to finalize prosecutions against the main instigators of the Dirty War.^[12]

In March 2019, the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, publicly released the archives of the defunct Federal Security Directorate, which contain a great amount of previously undisclosed information about the Dirty War and the political persecution by the PRI governments in the 20th century. López Obrador stated that "We lived for decades under an authoritarian regime which limited freedoms and persecuted those who struggled for social change" and issued an official apology on behalf of the Mexican State towards the victims of the repression. López Obrador further stated that judicial action will be taken against the surviving perpetrators of the repression, and promised that the surviving victims will be able to claim compensation under the law.^[13][14]

Contents

• 1Events
• 2Cessation of hostilities
• 3Guerrilla groups
• 4Torture
• 5Aftermath
• 6See also
• 7References

Events[edit source]

Poster denouncing the forced disappearance of Felix Barrientos Campos, arrested on July 5, 1975 in Acapulco (Guerrero, Mexico) and whose whereabouts are unknown until the date of the poster's placement in 2010. The announcement was placed in the Alameda Central of Mexico City.

The war was characterized by a backlash against the active student movement of the late 1960s which ended in the Tlatelolco massacre at a 1968 student rally in Mexico City,^[11] in which 30 to 300 (according to official reports; non-governmental sources claim death toll in the thousands) students were killed, and in the Corpus Christi massacre, another massacre of student demonstrators in Mexico City on June 10, 1971.^[8]

There were several barely connected groups fighting against the government during this period. Among the most important, the September 23 Communist League was at the forefront of the conflict, active in several cities throughout Mexico, drawing heavily from Christian Socialist and Marxist student organizations. They carried out confrontations with Mexican security forces, several kidnappings, and attempted to kidnap Margarita López Portillo, the sister of the president. In Guerrero, the Party of the Poor, ostensibly fighting against landholder impunity and oppressive police practices in rural areas, was led by the ex-teacher Lucio Cabañas; they carried out ambushes of the army and security forces and the abduction of Guerrero's governor-elect.^[11]

Cessation of hostilities[edit source]

The legalization of left-wing political parties in 1978 along with the amnesty of imprisoned and at large guerrillas caused a number of combatants to end militant struggle against the government. However, certain groups continued fighting, and the National Human Rights Commission states the hostilities continued into 1982.^[11]

In June 2002, a report prepared for Vicente Fox, the first president not from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 71 years, detailed the government's actions from 1964 to 1982. The report states, according to BBC News, that the Mexican army "kidnapped, tortured, and killed hundreds of rebel suspects" in the period and accused the Mexican state of genocide. The Mexican Special Prosecutor claimed the report was overly biased against the military and that it failed to detail crimes committed by rebels, including kidnappings, bank robberies, and assassinations.^[11][15] However, general consensus is that the report accurately assessed the government's culpability. Instead of ensuring the security of innocent civilians, it victimized them and killed them alike.^{[16][17][18][19][20][21]}

Guerrilla groups[edit source]

The year 1960 marked the beginning of a decade of terror in the region of Guerrero as the state slowly began to deal with the citizens and peasants there ever-more violently.^[1]:46 The state enacted the acts of suppression on Guerrero to keep the numerous different political reform movements stifled, as the local people over time grew agitated with the way the government was wielding its power and meddling with their rights. As the citizens grew more determined to speak out against the government in the 1960s, the PRI continued to increase its terror tactics in the region. While that was done to keep the populace under its control, the constant stream of violence pushed many guerrillas to consider raising up arms against the PRI.^[1]:46

The rising of guerrilla groups in the 1960s and 1970s provided the state an excuse to focus its resources on suppressing the armed activities of the guerrillas. The army would become infamous for its tactics in repressing the rebels in the rural areas of Mexico, where such practices such as the death flights were initiated.^[22]

This period of state violence in the state of Guerrero helped to bring about numerous guerrilla organizations. One of the groups was the Party of the Poor (PDLP), which was influenced by Marxism and people like Che Guevara.^[23] That group tended to be focused more on the rural regions like Guerrero, where they would be more likely to find support among the peasants there. The PDLP actions become more violent towards the rich after events such as the 1967 Atoyac massacre, where leaders like Lucio Cabañas tried to use the peasants anger to bring about true revolution.^[24]

As the 1960s and 1970s would go on, the PDLP would gain attention around the nation for acts like its kidnapping of Ruben Figueroa who was a prominent leader of the PRI.^[25] While this act inspired those downtrodden by the government, this also marked the decline of the organization as the government began to focus more on taking out this guerrilla group. Eventually the army found and killed Cabañas on December 2, 1974 in an attempt to cause his movement to fall apart.^[26] Another school teacher turned revolutionary, Genaro Vázquez Rojas, founded the National Revolutionary Civic Association (ACNR) as a response to the governments actions in Guerrero. These two leaders and their movements emerged as the armed phase of this social struggle against a corrupt government, which would continue long after the deaths of the leaders.^[1]:42

Torture[edit source]

Torture was one of the many tools used by the PRI-run state in its drive to keep the numerous guerrilla groups and political dissidents repressed. While torture was illegal in many countries during this time, the numerous authoritarian regimes that sprung up from the Cold War used it to great effect. The Mexican state used torture to get information from captured rebels and guerrillas about attacks and plans. This torturing would be done at any number of clandestine detention centers, where guerrillas would be sent to before arriving at a legal prison so as the state's activities would be kept secret from outside sources.^[22] Typically both male and female guerrilla prisoners would be tortured at these areas. It was more common for women to be sexually assaulted by their guards. This, combined with other forms of physical and psychological gender-based transgressions leads some to believe that the state employed this form of gender policing to try and deter women from breaking the regime's social and political norms.^[27]

The detaining and torturing of political prisoners became more systematic after the student uprisings in 1968, for the government decided that heavy-handed responses were necessary to deal with the unrest.^{[clarification needed][28]} This stage of violent and public repression of differing ideals was similar to the regimes of the Southern Cone governments, such as Argentina.

Aftermath[edit source]

While Mexico's Dirty War has been over for several years, not much is known of the extent of the number of victims the war claimed, due to its elusive nature throughout its length.^[28] Part of the reason for this problem is that since there was no large-scale truth commission to bring justice to the perpetrators and closure for the victim's families, Mexico never had its "Pinochet moment" in regards to the war.^[1]:207 From the early 2000s onward, some local investigations have been carried out by NGOs, providing some insight into the tactics and dynamics of the war, as well as the scale of crimes. One example, conducted by the Association of Relatives of Victims of Disappearance, Detention and Human Rights Violations in Mexico (AFADEM) documented over 470 disappearances at the hands of state forces during the 1970s just in the municipality of Atoyac.^[29] Another problem was the lack of response in the wake of the 2006 report by Carillo Prieto, which documented some of the atrocities inflicted by the PRI regime. Despite this evidence of numerous crimes that violated human rights, ex-president Echeverria and several other PRI officials had their cases dismissed and became free men.^:207 The failure by the government to address these problems of the past has been a cause of tension at times in Mexico, as citizens become distrustful of a state that does not address the old regime and its reign of terror.

See also[edit source]

• Military history of Mexico
• Arturo Durazo Moreno
• Central American crisis
• List of wars involving Mexico
• Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro
• Miguel Nazar Haro
• Rosario Ybarra
• Operation Condor
• Timeline of 1960s counterculture
• Roma (2018 film)

References[edit source]

1. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e f g} Calderon, Fernando Herrera; Cedillo, Adela (2012). Challenging Authoritarianism in Mexico: Revolutionary Struggles and the Dirty War, 1964–1982. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-88904-9.
2. ^ "El gobierno creó en 1976 brigada especial para "aplastar" a guerrilleros en el valle de México - la Jornada".
3. ^ "La "brigada blanca", otro escuadrón de la muerte: Eduardo Valle - Proceso". September 23, 1978.
4. ^ Forero, Juan (November 22, 2006). "Details of Mexico's Dirty Wars From 1960s to 1980s Released". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
5. ^ http://www.ejournal.unam.mx/rca/191/RCA19105.pdf
6. ^ "Fue Un Dos de Octubre".
7. ^ "ELECCIONES-MEXICO: Fox gana la Presidencia". July 3, 2000.
8. ^ Jump up to:^a b Reuters Editorial (April 5, 2007). "Rights group urges Mexico to resolve "dirty war"". Reuters. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
9. ^ Michael Evans. "The Dawn of Mexico's Dirty War". Gwu.edu. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
10. ^ Reuters Editorial (July 8, 2008). "Mexico looks for 'dirty war' graves on army base". Reuters. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
11. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e} "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 8, 2013. Retrieved March 7,2013.
12. ^http://catarina.udlap.mx/u_dl_a/tales/documentos/lri/garcia_r_d/capitulo2.pdf
13. ^ "Mexico's president opens archives on 'dirty war period". Yahoo News. AFP. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
14. ^ Zavala, Misael. "Estado pide perdón a víctimas de represión". El Universal. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
15. ^ "Americas | Mexico 'dirty war' crimes alleged". BBC News. February 27, 2006. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
16. ^ Jornada, La. "Sedena extendió acciones de la guerra sucia contra campesinos inocentes - La Jornada". Retrieved August 17, 2016.
17. ^ "Desaparecidos. 'Guerra sucia' deja 480 víctimas". Eluniversal.com.mx. August 16, 2015. Retrieved August 17,2016.
18. ^ "Padre de uno de los 43 admite que su hijo fue militar, pero "desertó" - Proceso". Procesco.com. June 23, 2015. Retrieved August 17, 2016.
19. ^ "EPN ha provocado una cacería brutal de inocentes por medio de escuadrones de la muerte: expertos". Revoluciontrespuntocero.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved August 17, 2016.
20. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on October 2, 2015. Retrieved September 29, 2015.
21. ^ "Urgente, una ley general de desaparición forzada". Animalpolitico.com. September 21, 2015. Retrieved August 17, 2016.
22. ^ Jump up to:^a b Garcia, Jorge M. (November 2016). "Reconstructing the Collective Memory of Mexico's Dirty War". Latin American Perspectives. 43 (6): 124–140. doi:10.1177/0094582X16669137. S2CID 220735744.
23. ^ Avina, Alexander (2014). Specters of Revolution: Peasant Guerrillas in the Cold War Mexican Countryside. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 138–139. ISBN 978-0-19-993659-5.
24. ^ Avina, Alexander (2014). Specters of Revolution: Peasant Guerrillas in the Cold War Mexican Countryside. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 141. ISBN 978-0-19-993659-5.
25. ^ Avina, Alexander (2014). Specters of Revolution: Peasant Guerrillas in the Cold War Mexican Countryside. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 158. ISBN 978-0-19-993659-5.
26. ^ Avina, Alexander (2014). Specters of Revolution: Peasant Guerrillas in the Cold War Mexican Countryside. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 160. ISBN 978-0-19-993659-5.
27. ^ MacManus, Viviana Beatriz (January 2, 2015). "We are not Victims, we are Protagonists of this History". International Feminist Journal of Politics. 17 (1): 40–57. doi:10.1080/14616742.2013.817847. S2CID 143243977.
28. ^ Jump up to:^a b McCormick, Gladys (January 2017). "The Last Door: Political Prisoners and the Use of Torture in Mexico's Dirty War". The Americas. 74 (1): 57–81. doi:10.1017/tam.2016.80.
29. ^ "Rosendo Radilla case: new investigations in Atoyac de Álvarez". PBI Mexico.

hide v t e Cold War
USA USSR NATO Warsaw Pact ANZUS SEATO Baghdad Pact (METO) Non-Aligned Movement
1940s	Morgenthau Plan Hukbalahap Rebellion Jamaican political conflict Dekemvriana Percentages agreement Yalta Conference Guerrilla war in the Baltic states  Operation Priboi Operation Jungle Occupation of the Baltic states Cursed soldiers Operation Unthinkable Operation Downfall Potsdam Conference Gouzenko Affair Division of Korea Operation Masterdom Operation Beleaguer Operation Blacklist Forty Iran crisis of 1946 Greek Civil War Baruch Plan Corfu Channel incident Turkish Straits crisis Restatement of Policy on Germany First Indochina War Truman Doctrine Asian Relations Conference May 1947 crises Marshall Plan Comecon 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état Al-Wathbah uprising 1947–1949 Palestine war  1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine 1948 Arab–Israeli War 1948 Palestinian exodus Tito–Stalin split Berlin Blockade Western betrayal Iron Curtain Eastern Bloc Western Bloc Chinese Civil War Malayan Emergency March 1949 Syrian coup d'état Albanian Subversion
1950s	Bamboo Curtain Korean War McCarthyism Mau Mau Uprising Algerian War Egyptian revolution of 1952 1953 Iranian coup d'état East German uprising of 1953 Pact of Madrid Bricker Amendment 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état Capture of Tanker Tuapse 1954 Geneva Conference Jebel Akhdar War Vietnam War First Taiwan Strait Crisis Cyprus Emergency Kashmir Princess Geneva Summit (1955) Bandung Conference Poznań protests of 1956 Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Suez Crisis "We will bury you" Ifni War Operation Gladio Arab Cold War  Syrian Crisis of 1957 1958 Lebanon crisis Iraqi 14 July Revolution Sputnik crisis Second Taiwan Strait Crisis 1959 Tibetan uprising 1959 Mosul uprising Cuban Revolution  Aftermath of the Cuban Revolution Kitchen Debate Sino-Soviet split
1960s	Congo Crisis Simba rebellion 1960 U-2 incident Bay of Pigs Invasion 1960 Turkish coup d'état Soviet–Albanian split Iraqi–Kurdish conflict  First Iraqi–Kurdish War Berlin Crisis of 1961 Berlin Wall Papua conflict Sand War Portuguese Colonial War  Angolan War of Independence Guinea-Bissau War of Independence Mozambican War of Independence Cuban Missile Crisis El Porteñazo Sino-Indian War Communist insurgency in Sarawak Ramadan Revolution Eritrean War of Independence North Yemen Civil War 1963 Syrian coup d'état Assassination of John F. Kennedy Aden Emergency Cyprus crisis of 1963–64 Vietnam War Shifta War Mexican Dirty War  Tlatelolco massacre Guatemalan Civil War Colombian conflict 1964 Brazilian coup d'état Dominican Civil War Rhodesian Bush War South African Border War Transition to the New Order (Indonesia) Domino theory ASEAN Declaration Laotian Civil War 1966 Syrian coup d'état Argentine Revolution Korean DMZ Conflict Greek military junta of 1967–1974 Years of Lead (Italy) USS Pueblo incident Six-Day War War of Attrition Dhofar Rebellion Al-Wadiah War Nigerian Civil War Protests of 1968  May 68 Cultural Revolution Prague Spring 1968 Polish political crisis Communist insurgency in Malaysia Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia 17 July Revolution 1969 Libyan coup d'état Football War Goulash Communism Sino-Soviet border conflict Communist rebellion in the Philippines Corrective Move
1970s	Détente Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Black September Alcora Exercise Corrective Movement (Syria) Western Sahara conflict Cambodian Civil War Vietnam War Koza riot Realpolitik Ping-pong diplomacy 1971 JVP insurrection Corrective Revolution (Egypt) 1971 Turkish military memorandum 1971 Sudanese coup d'état Four Power Agreement on Berlin Bangladesh Liberation War 1972 Nixon visit to China North Yemen-South Yemen Border conflict of 1972 Yemenite War of 1972 Munich massacre Communist insurgency in Bangladesh Eritrean Civil Wars 1973 Uruguayan coup d'état 1973 Afghan coup d'état 1973 Chilean coup d'état Yom Kippur War 1973 oil crisis Carnation Revolution Spanish transition to democracy Metapolitefsi Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Second Iraqi–Kurdish War Turkish invasion of Cyprus Angolan Civil War Mozambican Civil War Oromo conflict Ogaden War 1978 Somali coup d'état attempt Western Sahara War Ethiopian Civil War Lebanese Civil War Sino-Albanian split Cambodian–Vietnamese War Operation Condor Dirty War (Argentina) 1976 Argentine coup d'état Libyan–Egyptian War German Autumn Korean Air Lines Flight 902 Nicaraguan Revolution Uganda–Tanzania War NDF Rebellion Chadian–Libyan conflict Yemenite War of 1979 Grand Mosque seizure Iranian Revolution Saur Revolution Sino-Vietnamese War New Jewel Movement 1979 Herat uprising Seven Days to the River Rhine Struggle against political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union
1980s	Salvadoran Civil War Soviet–Afghan War 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics boycotts Gera Demands Peruvian Revolution Eritrean Civil Wars 1980 Turkish coup d'état Ugandan Bush War Gulf of Sidra incident Casamance conflict Falklands War 1982 Ethiopian–Somali Border War Ndogboyosoi War United States invasion of Grenada Able Archer 83 Star Wars 1985 Geneva Summit Iran–Iraq War Somali Rebellion Reykjavík Summit 1986 Black Sea incident South Yemen Civil War Toyota War 1987 Lieyu massacre 1987–1989 JVP insurrection Lord's Resistance Army insurgency 1988 Black Sea bumping incident 8888 Uprising Solidarity (Soviet reaction) Contras Central American crisis RYAN Korean Air Lines Flight 007 People Power Revolution Glasnost Perestroika First Nagorno-Karabakh War Afghan Civil War United States invasion of Panama 1988 Polish strikes 1989 Tiananmen Square protests Revolutions of 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall Fall of the inner German border Velvet Revolution Romanian Revolution Peaceful Revolution
1990s	Mongolian Revolution of 1990 Min Ping Yu No. 5540 incident Gulf War Min Ping Yu No. 5202 German reunification Yemeni unification Fall of communism in Albania Breakup of Yugoslavia Dissolution of Czechoslovakia Dissolution of the Soviet Union  1991 August Coup
Frozen conflicts	Abkhazia China-Taiwan Korea Kosovo Nagorno-Karabakh South Ossetia Transnistria Sino-Indian border dispute North Borneo dispute
Foreign policy	Truman Doctrine Containment Eisenhower Doctrine Domino theory Hallstein Doctrine Kennedy Doctrine Peaceful coexistence Ostpolitik Johnson Doctrine Brezhnev Doctrine Nixon Doctrine Ulbricht Doctrine Carter Doctrine Reagan Doctrine Rollback Kinmen Agreement
Ideologies	Capitalism Liberalism Chicago school Keynesianism Libertarianism Monetarism Neoclassical economics Reaganomics Supply-side economics Democratic capitalism Socialism Communism Marxism–Leninism Castroism Eurocommunism Guevarism Hoxhaism Juche Ho Chi Minh Thought Maoism Trotskyism Naxalism Stalinism Titoism Other Imperialism Anti-imperialism Nationalism Ultranationalism Chauvinism Ethnic nationalism Racism Zionism Fascism Neo-Nazism Islamism Totalitarianism Authoritarianism Autocracy Liberal democracy Illiberal democracy Guided democracy Social democracy Third-Worldism White supremacy White nationalism White separatism Apartheid
Organizations	NATO SEATO METO EEC Warsaw Pact Comecon Non-Aligned Movement ASEAN SAARC Safari Club
Propaganda	Pro-communist Active measures Izvestia Pravda TASS Pro-democratic Amerika Crusade for Freedom Voice of America Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Radio Free Asia Red Scare Soviet Life
Technological competition	Arms race Nuclear arms race Space Race
Historians	Gar Alperovitz Thomas A. Bailey Michael Beschloss Archie Brown Warren H. Carroll Adrian Cioroianu John Costello Michael Cox Nicholas J. Cull Willem Drees Robert D. English Herbert Feis Robert Hugh Ferrell André Fontaine Anneli Ute Gabanyi John Lewis Gaddis Lloyd Gardner Timothy Garton Ash Gabriel Gorodetsky Fred Halliday Jussi Hanhimäki John Earl Haynes Patrick J. Hearden Tvrtko Jakovina Tony Judt Harvey Klehr Gabriel Kolko Walter LaFeber Walter Laqueur Melvyn Leffler Geir Lundestad Mary Elise Sarotte Vojtech Mastny Jack F. Matlock Jr. Thomas J. McCormick Timothy Naftali Marius Oprea David S. Painter William B. Pickett Ronald E. Powaski Yakov M. Rabkin Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Ellen Schrecker Giles Scott-Smith Shen Zhihua Athan Theoharis Andrew Thorpe Vladimir Tismăneanu Patrick Vaughan Alex von Tunzelmann Odd Arne Westad William Appleman Williams Jonathan Reed Winkler Rudolph Winnacker Ken Young
Espionage and intelligence	List of Eastern Bloc agents in the United States Soviet espionage in the United States Russian espionage in the United States American espionage in the Soviet Union and Russian Federation CIA and the Cultural Cold War CIA SS (MI5) SIS (MI6) KGB Stasi
See also	Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War Soviet Union–United States relations USSR–USA summits Russia–NATO relations War on terror Brinkmanship Second Cold War Russian Revolution