The Dawn of Mexico's Dirty War

7.12.15

The Dawn of Mexico's Dirty War: [nsarchive.gwu.edu] For many U.S. analysts, they suggested the troubling possibility that impoverished Mexicans were waking up to the oppressive bonds of a stultified one-party system that no longer offered hope for change.

In telling the tale of Lucio Caba�as's brief career as a guerrilla leader, declassified U.S. documents released under the Freedom of Information Act and held in the National Archives indicate that the United States perceived the popularity of the Guerrero rebels as a sign of the further disintegration of the legitimacy of the Mexican regime during the 1970's, following the Tlatelolco and Corpus Cristi massacres.

The documents also make clear that Echeverr�a used the hunt for the radical left to mollify a disgruntled army and bolster his standing with the right. They describe how given the choice between repression and negotiation, political stasis or change the regime predictably, inexorably chose violence to preserve the status quo.