President of Mexico declassifies 300,000 documents from dirty war on popular movements
Persecution started in 1947, when Truman created the CIA and invented the Cold War
La Jornada
Revelan 300 mil documentos de la 'guerra sucia' de 1965 a 1990
By Gustavo Castillo García - September 15, 2024
The National Intelligence Center (CNI) delivered to the General Archive of the Nation (AGN) 300,986 documents from the now-defunct Federal Security Directorate (DFS), which contain photographs, documents, video tapes, microfiches, microfilms and 215,000 cards with data on guerrilla groups, political, social, union and activist actors “related to the dirty war; that is, all information regarding possible human rights violations and political persecutions linked to political and social movements, as well as acts of corruption,” which occurred between 1965 and 1990, the AGN reported.
This is the second time that the main civil intelligence agency of the Mexican government has delivered, for public consultation, thousands of files related to the dirty war. The first time this happened was in 2001 during the government of Vicente Fox Quesada, a member of the PAN, and it was used by the now-defunct Special Prosecutor's Office for Social and Political Movements of the Past (Femospp) to integrate part of this documentation into hundreds of previous investigations.
In particular, the information was used to bring criminal charges in June 2006 against former President Luis Echeverría Álvarez (1970-1976) for genocide, for the massacre of October 2, 1968, and the massacre of June 10, 1971. The former president spent three years under house arrest and was finally exonerated of the charges.
In particular, the information was used to bring criminal charges in 2006 against former President Luis Echeverría Álvarez (1970-1976) for genocide. The former president spent three years under house arrest and was finally exonerated of the charges.
In 2001, a decree was issued ordering the agencies to hand over to the AGN the information that was in the hands of the Center for Investigation and National Security (Cisen), the body that succeeded the DFS, and finally on February 19, 2002, 4,223 boxes of files from the DFS and the General Directorate of Political and Social Investigations (DGIPS) were transferred. These files contained approximately 58,302 files with information from the period from 1947 to 1985.
In 1945 Truman became the only president to receive the 33rd degree of the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite.
Serving as the 33rd President of the United States from 1945-1953, Most Worshipful Brother Harry S. Truman is well known for launching the Marshall Plan, leading the Cold War through the Truman Doctrine and NATO, and for intervening in the Korean War. - Grand Lodge of Ohio
AMLO issues agreement
On March 1, 2019, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador issued an agreement in which he instructed the AGN to “receive, organize, guard, preserve and provide unrestricted consultation of the historical documents that are transferred to it because they are related to the dirty war.”
On April 18, 2023, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) issued recommendation 98VG/2023 on cases of serious violations of human rights, freedom, legal security, personal integrity and the right to be treated with dignity arising acts of illegal detention, false imprisonment and acts of torture, forced disappearance and extrajudicial execution, as well as violations of the right to truth and the best interests of children, during the period of state political violence between 1965 and 1990.
“In this regard, in compliance with the presidential agreement and recommendation 98VG/23, during the period from October 6, 2023 to June 21, 2024, the AGN received through the Directorate of Legal and Archival Affairs (DAJA) from the CNI, a total of 495 boxes containing information that could be related to serious human rights violations,” the AGN reported.
The archive
The CNI delivered 74,434 envelopes containing 563,272 photographs and negatives with 3,965 “file documents” that the AGN identified as being glossed in 58 documents, which include a total of 11,687 pages.
Regarding the 3,037 microfiches, it was identified that they are made up of a total of 10,049 sheets, and regarding the 411 documents, the AGN identified that they contain 4,448 sheets and cards.
In total, the General Archive of the Nation stated, “300,986 documents with 589,456 items were delivered by the CNI.” The DAJA “is managing the incorporation of the documentation referred to the historical collection of the AGN, so at this time they are only available to be consulted by the authorities of prosecution and administration of justice,” said the institution. But it explained that “once their state of conservation has been verified and their control and protection is guaranteed, anyone will be able to consult them in their entirety.” This will be done when “the definitive archival control and consultation instruments that will allow their consultation are generated.”
Initial list
The General Archive of the Nation already has an initial list that outlines the content of each of the boxes delivered by the CNI.
As regards documentary material, there are files such as the one identified with the reference number 009-005-033 L1, which covers the period from July 1, 1979 to February 29, 1980 and which is related to the “operational order to follow up on marches and rallies called by unions, student, worker, peasant and popular organizations on various issues.”
Documents were handed over related to former President José López Portillo (1976-1982); Alfonso Martínez Domínguez, who was head of the Federal District Department (d:December 1, 1970 to June 15, 1971); Carlos Jongitud Barrios, leader of the National Union of Education Workers, from 1989 to February 2013.
Also included are files with information on Genaro Vázquez Rojas, founder of the Guerrero Civic Association in 1959, which became one of the opposition groups to the government. An archive of photographs, with images of Cuban exiles, Uruguayan asylum seekers, and speakers at events such as the constitution of the Workers’ Union of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
The microfiches contain information divided by productive activities, branches of production, social organizations, political parties, indigenous groups, conflicts, religious institutions, foreign policy and domestic policy, among other subjects.