Mexico’s Dirty War

[struggle4progress]

Sunday, November 19, 2006

MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government yesterday released a long-awaited report that for the first time officially blames ‘‘the highest command levels’’ of three former presidencies for the massacres, tortures and slayings of hundreds of leftists from the 1960s to the early 1980s.

Based partly on declassified Mexican military documents, the report posted on the Internet ends a five-year investigation by a special prosecutor named by President Vicente Fox to shed light on past crimes, including a 1968 student massacre and the disappearance of hundreds of leftist activists in the 1970s and early 1980s.

The report states that ‘‘the authoritarian regime, at the highest command levels,’’ broke the law and ‘‘committed crimes against humanity’’ that resulted in ‘‘massacres, forced disappearances, systematic torture and genocide to try to destroy a sector of society that it considered ideologically to be its enemy.’’ ...

Asked by reporters if the presidents <Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, José López Portillo and Luis Echeverría> knew of the atrocities but did nothing, <Special prosecutor Ignacio> Carrillo replied, ‘‘Yes.’’ ...

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/the_world/note.jsp?idContent=331847&hideIntro=true

[Vexatious Ape]

1. I wonder how much the CIA had to do with all that

went down in Mexico during that time frame?

[Judi Lynn]

3. I'll bet it was far more than just a little bit, Vexatious Ape. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

2. Good, good article: "........an authorized plan to do away with political dissidents.’’

From the article:

‘‘This was not about the behaviour of certain individuals,’’ Carrillo said. ‘‘It was the consequence of an authorized plan to do away with political dissidents.’’
In July, a federal judge threw out genocide charges against Echeverría, ruling that a 30-year statute of limitations had run out. Echeverría, 84, had been under house arrest for more than a week on charges that he organized a student massacre as interior secretary in 1968.
The massacre took place in Mexico City’s Tlatelolco Plaza on October 2, just before the capital hosted the Olympics. Officials said 25 people were killed, though human rights activists say as many as 350 may have died. The attaIck is considered one of the darkest moments of PRI rule.
Carrillo’s report found the most brutal period allegedly occurred under Echeverría’s so-called ‘‘Friendship Operation’’ launched by the military in 1970 in Guerrero.
The report says it has evidence the army conducted illegal searches, arbitrary detentions, torture and burned down villages.
(snip/)

Every possible government action should be made common knowledge concerning these murderous suppressions. The people are OWED the truth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Richard M. Nixon was very FOND of Luis Echeverría, apparently.

Richard Nixon and Luis Echeverría shared a common vision - and some common problems. Each considered himself a true world leader, not merely a head of state.
(snip)

Both men were waging secret wars. In 1969, the Nixon administration had begun the covert bombing of Cambodia, while Echeverría fought a clandestine "dirty war" against his own people. And each man wrestled with popular dissent - across the United States, nation-wide protests were at a fever pitch against the war in Vietnam, and in Mexico Echeverría faced growing demands for democracy and justice.

It is clear from the tapes that Richard Nixon felt a great affinity with Echeverría. He referred to him warmly in a dozen different conversations with White House aides as "bright, energetic," "a vigorous fellow," "a very attractive guy," and told his CIA Director Richard Helms, "he's strong, he wants to play the right games."

The two Presidents, speaking through a translator, barely touched upon the bilateral issues that normally crop up between the United States and Mexico, such as drugs, immigration or trade. They were too busy talking about geopolitics. Echeverría spent much of his time discussing communism's threat to the region. Latin America was in imminent danger, he told Nixon, beset by poverty and unemployment and bombarded by Soviet propaganda touting Fidel Castro's Cuba as the answer to the hemisphere's problems. The solution, he insisted, was private capital. Echeverría urged Nixon to promote American business investments in Mexico and the region.
(snip/...)

Portions of some of the Nixon tapes concerning Echeverría follows.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB95/