Rise of the Guerrilla Groups
editThe 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 in ever increasingly violent ways[1]. The state enacted these 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 their 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 their terror tactics in the region. While this was done to keep the populace under their control, this constant stream of violence pushed many guerrillas to consider raising up arms against the PRI[1]. The rising up of guerrilla groups in the 1960s and 1970s provided the state an excuse to focus their resources on suppressing the armed activities of the guerrillas. The army would become infamous for their tactics in repressing the rebels in the rural areas of Mexico, where such practices such as the death flights were initiated[2]. This period of state violence in the state of Guerrero helped to bring about numerous guerrilla organizations. One of these groups was the Party of the Poor (PDLP), which was influenced by Marxism and people like Che Guevara[3]. This 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. PDLP actions become more violent towards the rich after events such as the 1967 Atoyac massacre, where leaders like Lucio Cabanas tried to use the peasants anger to bring about true revolution[4]. As the 1960s and 1970s would go on, the PDLP would gain attention around the nation for acts like their kidnapping of Ruben Figueroa who was a prominent member of the PRI[5]. 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 Cabanas on December 2, 1974 in an attempt to cause his movement to fall apart[6]. Another school teacher turned revolutionary, Genaro Vazquez, 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[7].
Women's Role in the Guerrilla Movements
editDespite the fact that there were over 30 guerrilla groups that had formed between the mid 1960s and 1970s to resist the authoritarian government, there is much information that is simply not known about the organizations.[8] Considering how most of these organizations were secretive about their activities and under threat by the government of the time, the lack of information on this aspect of the Dirty War is understandable. This makes the issue of determining women's role in these guerrilla groups more challenging for without that data, researchers of the period have to rely on any available sources that are present. Generally, women who joined these groups tended to be from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds and young students and professionals who usually part of the student movements that had risen up during this period.[9] Some of the women in the groups would even receive some form of military training to help the group they were a part of in their struggles. While this would not typically be direct conflict with government forces, the women did help in attacks on a number of businesses, where the guerrillas would 'expropriate' them to gather supplies to keep the groups operating.[10] Women would also have positions of leadership in some of the groups as the 1970s came to a close.
Women's active participation in these guerrilla groups also subjected them to torture and abuse by the governmental forces, which is a common tactic employed by secret police forces in authoritarian regimes. Politically active women in Mexico were especially terrorized by the state, for women of the time were generally painted as a wife or a mother that focused on home life and not political dealings.[11]
Torture
editTorture 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 is 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 down 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[12]. 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 regimes social and political norms[13]. 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[14]. This stage of violent and public repression of differing ideals was similar to the regimes of the Southern Cone governments, such as Argentina.
Aftermath of the Dirty War
editWhile 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[15]. 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[16]. 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[16]. This failure by the government to address these problems of the past has been a cause of tension at times in Mexico, as citizens become untrusting of a state that does not address the old regime and its reign of terror.
References
edit- ^ a b Calderon, Fernando Herrera; Cedillo, Adela (2012). Challenging Authoritarianism in Mexico: Revolutionary Struggles and the Dirty War, 1964-1982. New York: Routledge. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-415-88904-9.
- ^ Garcia, Jorge M. (November 2016). "Reconstructing the Collective Memory of Mexico's Dirty War". Latin American Perspectives. 43, no. 6: 129 – via Discover @ Georgia Southern.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Calderon, Fernando Herrera; Cedillo, Adela (2012). Challenging Authoritarianism in Mexico: Revolutionary Struggles and the Dirty War, 1964-1982. New York: Routledge. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-415-88904-9.
- ^ Calderon, Fernando Herrera; Cedillo, Adela (2012). Challenging Authoritarianism in Mexico: Revolutionary Struggles and the Dirty War, 1964-1982. New York: Routledge. pp. 166–167. ISBN 978-0-415-88904-9.
- ^ Calderon, Fernando Herrera; Cedillo, Adela (2012). Challenging Authoritarianism in Mexico: Revolutionary Struggles and the Dirty War, 1964-1982. New York: Routledge. p. 169. ISBN 978-0-415-88904-9.
- ^ Calderon, Fernando Herrera; Cedillo, Adela (2012). Challenging Authoritarianism in Mexico: Revolutionary Struggles and the Dirty War, 1964-1982. New York: Routledge. p. 171. ISBN 978-0-415-88904-9.
- ^ MacManus, Viviana B. (March 2015). ""'We are not Victims, we are Protagonists of this History'."". International Feminist Journal of Politics. 17, no. 1: 48 – via Discover @ Georgia Southern.
- ^ Garcia, Jorge M. (November 2016). "Reconstructing the Collective Memory of Mexico's Dirty War". Latin American Perspectives. 43, no. 6: 131 – via Discover @ Georgia Southern.
- ^ MacManus, Vivianna B. (March 2015). "We are not Victims, we are Protagonists of this History". International Feminist Journal of Politics. 17, no. 1: 52 – via Discover @ Georgia Southern.
- ^ McCormick, Gladys (January 2017). "The Last Door: Political Prisoners and the Use of Torture in Mexico's Dirty War". Americas. 74, no. 1: 60 – via Humanities Full Text, EBSCOhost.
- ^ McCormick, Gladys (January 2017). "The Last Door: Political Prisoners and the Use of Torture in Mexico's Dirty War". Americas. 74, no. 1: 61 – via Humanities Full Text, EBSCOhost.
- ^ a b Calderon, Fernando Herrera; Cedillo, Adela (2012). Challenging Authoritarianism in Mexico: Revolutionary Struggles and the Dirty War, 1964-1982. New York: Routledge. p. 207. ISBN 978-0-415-88904-9.