Editing Death squad (section)

===North America===

==== Dominican Republic ====
[[Rafael Trujillo]]'s Dominican government employed a death squad, known as ''la 42'' and led by Miguel Angel Paulino. Paulino would often drive a red [[Packard]] called the Carro de la Muerte (Death Car).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Green |first1=W. John |title=A History of Political Murder in Latin America: Killing the Messengers of Change |date=2015 |page=241}}</ref> During the 12-year regime of [[Joaquín Balaguer]], the ''Frente Democrático Anticomunista y Antiterrorista'', also known as ''La Banda Colorá'', continued the practices of ''la 42''. Balaguer was also known for directing the [[Servicio de Inteligencia Militar|SIM]] to kill Haitians in the [[Parsley massacre]].

==== Haiti ====
{{Main|Tonton Macoute}}
The ''[[Tonton Macoute]]'' was a paramilitary force created in 1959 by Haitian dictator [[François Duvalier|François "Papa Doc" Duvalier]], they murdered 30,000 to 60,000 Haitians.

==== Mexico ====
[[File:Cristeroscolgados.jpg|thumb|Cristero rebels publicly hanged on telegraph poles in [[Jalisco, Mexico]]. The bodies often remained on the poles until the ''pueblo'' or town renounced public religious practice.]]

In a way similar to the [[American Indian Wars]], the [[Centralist Republic of Mexico]] struggled against [[Apache]] raids. Between 1835 and 1837, only 15 years after the [[Mexican War of Independence]] and in the midst of the [[Texas Revolution|Texan Revolution]], the [[State governments of Mexico|Mexican state governments]] of [[Sonora]] and [[Chihuahua (state)|Chihuahua]] (that border with the U.S. states of [[Texas]], [[New Mexico]] and [[Arizona]] ) put a bounty on the [[Apache]] bands that were in the area. In the case of Chihuahua the bounty attracted "[[bounty hunter]]s" from the United States, that were often [[Anglo-Americans|Anglo Americans]], [[Fugitive slaves in the United States|runaway slaves]] and even from other [[Tribe (Native American)|Indian tribes]]. It was paid based on Apache scalps, 100 pesos per warrior, 50 pesos per woman, and 25 pesos per child.<ref>{{cite book |first=James L. |last=Haley |author-link=James L. Haley |year=1981 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RAfJwmMeq5IC&pg=PA51 |title=Apaches: A History and Culture Portrait |publisher=[[University of Oklahoma Press]] |page=51 |isbn=978-0806129785 |access-date=23 April 2017 |archive-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316173822/https://books.google.com/books?id=RAfJwmMeq5IC&pg=PA51 |url-status=live }}</ref> As historian [[Donald E. Worcester]] wrote: "The new policy attracted a diverse group of men, including Anglos, runaway slaves led by Seminole [[John Horse]], and Indians — [[James Kirker|Kirker]] used [[Lenape|Delawares]] and [[Shawnee]]s; others, such as Terrazas, used [[Rarámuri people|Tarahumaras]]; and Seminole Chief [[Wild Cat (Seminole)|Coacoochee]] led a band of his own people who had fled from [[Indian Territory]].".<ref>{{cite book |first=Donald Emmet |last=Worcester |year=1985 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ah41qFanhIEC |title=Pioneer Trails West |publisher= Caxton Press | page=93 |isbn= 978-0870043048}}</ref>

During [[Benito Juárez]]'s regime and his [[Restored Republic (Mexico)|comeback as president]], he used a death squad to kill [[Maximilian I of Mexico]], [[Tomás Mejía]], and [[Miguel Miramón]] for treason and reforms Maximilian made and for his support to French emperor [[Napoleon III]]. One of the soldiers on the death squad named [[Aureliano Blanquet]] would then later be sentenced to death by firing squad under [[Francisco I. Madero]] 45 years later in 1912. Francisco was then later executed a few months later in 1913.

=====After the Mexican Revolution=====
{{Main|Cristero War}}
For more than seven decades following the [[Mexican Revolution]], Mexico was a [[one-party state]] ruled by the ''[[Partido Revolucionario Institucional]]'' (PRI). During this era, death squad tactics were routinely used against suspected enemies of the state.

During the 1920s and 1930s, the PRI's founder, President [[Plutarco Elías Calles]], used death squads against Mexico's [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] majority in the [[Cristero War]]. Calles explained his reasons in a private telegram to the Mexican Ambassador to the [[French Third Republic]], [[Alberto J. Pani]]. ''"...[[Catholic Church in Mexico]] is a political movement, and must be eliminated  ... free of religious hypnotism which fools the people... within one year without the sacraments, the people will forget the faith..."''<ref>[[Jean Meyer]], PhD ''La Cristiada: The Mexican People's War for Religious Liberty'', {{ISBN|978-0-7570-0315-8}}. SquareOne Publishers.</ref>

Calles and his adherents used the [[Mexican Army]] and police, as well as paramilitary forces like the [[Red Shirts (Mexico)|Red Shirts]], to abduct, torture, and execute priests, nuns, and actively religious laity. Mexican Catholics were also routinely hanged from telegraph poles along the railroad lines. Prominent victims of the Mexican State's campaign against Catholicism include the teenager [[Jose Sanchez del Rio]], the [[Jesuit]] priest Father [[Miguel Pro]], and the [[Christian Pacifist]] [[Anacleto González Flores]] (see also [[Saints of the Cristero War]]).

In response, an armed revolt against the Mexican State, the [[Cristero War]], began in 1927. Composed largely of peasant volunteers and commanded by retired General [[Enrique Gorostieta Velarde]], the Cristeros were also responsible for atrocities. Among them were the assassination of former Mexican President [[Álvaro Obregón]], train robberies, and violent attacks against rural teachers. The uprising largely ended after the [[Holy See]] and the Mexican State negotiated a compromise agreement. Refusing to lay down his arms despite offers of [[amnesty]], General Gorostieta was [[killed in action]] by the Mexican Army in [[Jalisco]] on 2 June 1929. Following the cessation of hostilities, more than 5,000 Cristeros were summarily executed by Mexican security forces. The events of the Cristero War are depicted in the 2012 film ''[[For Greater Glory]]''.

=====During the Cold War=====
{{Main|Mexican Dirty War}}
During the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, death squads continued to be used against anti-PRI activists, both [[Marxism|Marxists]] and [[Social conservatism|social conservatives]]. One example of this is the 1968 [[Tlatelolco massacre]], in which an anti-regime protest rally was attacked by security forces in [[Mexico City]]. After this event, paramilitary groups like "[[Halcones (paramilitary group)|Los Halcones]]" (The Hawks) and the "Brigada blanca" (White brigade) were used to attack, hunt and exterminate political dissidents.

Allegations have been made by both journalists and American law enforcement of collusion between senior PRI statesmen and the Mexican [[drug cartel]]s. It has even been alleged that, under PRI rule, no drug traffickers were ever successful without the permission of the Mexican State. If the same drug trafficker fell from favor, however, [[Law enforcement in Mexico|Mexican law enforcement]] would be ordered to move against their operation, as happened to [[Pablo Acosta Villarreal]] in 1987. Drug lords like [[Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo]], [[Rafael Caro Quintero]], and [[Juan José Esparragoza Moreno]] would use the [[Dirección Federal de Seguridad]] as a death squad to kill [[Drug Enforcement Administration]] agents and [[Federal Judicial Police]] commanders who investigated or destroyed drug plantations in the 1970s and 1980s in Mexico. One example was the murder (after torture) of DEA agent [[Kiki Camarena]], who was killed in [[Guadalajara, Jalisco|Guadalajara]] for his part in the Rancho Bufalo raid. The DFS also organized death squads to kill journalists including [[Manuel Buendía]] who was killed by orders of DFS chief José-Antonio Zorrilla.

=====Regime change and "drug war tactics"=====
{{Main|Mexican drug war}}
By the early 1990s, the [[Institutional Revolutionary Party|PRI]] started to lose the grip on its absolute political power, however, its [[Corruption in Mexico|corruption]] became so pervasive that [[Juárez Cartel]] boss [[Amado Carrillo Fuentes]] was even able to purchase a window in Mexico's air defense system. During this period, his airplanes were permitted to [[Illegal drug trade in Latin America|smuggle narcotics]] into the United States without the interference of the [[Mexican Air Force]]. As a result, Carillo Fuentes became known as "The Lord of the Skies." During the 1990s drug cartels were on the rise in Mexico and groups like the [[Gulf Cartel]] would form death squads like [[Los Zetas]] to suppress, control, and uproot rival cartel factions.

The PRI also used death squad tactics against the [[Zapatista Army of National Liberation]] in the [[Chiapas conflict]]. In 1997, [[Acteal massacre|forty-five people were killed]] by a Mexican security forces in [[Chenalhó]], [[Chiapas]].<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.epw.in/journal/1998/1-2/commentary/mexico-massacre-chenalho-erasing-chiapas-uprising.html|title=MEXICO-Massacre at Chenalho Erasing Chiapas Uprising|issue=23, 23, 23, 23, 23, –1|pages=7, 7, 7, 7, 7–8, 8, 8, 8, 8|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|date=5 June 2015|volume=50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 33|access-date=2016-04-05|archive-date=21 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160421192444/http://www.epw.in/journal/1998/1-2/commentary/mexico-massacre-chenalho-erasing-chiapas-uprising.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/604071.stm|title=Chiapas massacre convictions overturned|date=2000-01-14|newspaper=BBC|access-date=2016-04-05|archive-date=5 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105010032/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/604071.stm|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2000, however, during an internal power struggle between former President [[Carlos Salinas de Gortari]] and President Zedillo, the PRI was peacefully voted out from power in the [[2000 Mexican general election]], until 2013 when they partially regained their influence and power, only to lose again in the [[2018 Mexican general election]].
It is also alleged that, during the time they first lost the presidency, some of the most powerful PRI members were supporting and protecting drug cartels that they used as death squads against their criminal and political rivals, with it being one of the real reasons the [[National Action Party (Mexico)|National Action Party]] government accepted to start the Mexican drug war against the Cartels.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.elmanana.com/diario/noticia/nacional/noticias/elchapometiomuchodineroalacampanadepenanietoagentedeladea/2391737|title=El Chapo metió mucho dinero a la campaña de Peña Nieto: agente de la DEA|work=elmanana.com|access-date=4 March 2014|archive-date=4 March 2014|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140304185218/http://www.elmanana.com/diario/noticia/nacional/noticias/elchapometiomuchodineroalacampanadepenanietoagentedeladea/2391737|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|website=Diariocambio.com/mx|title=EPN y PRI pactaron la liberación de Caro Quintero: ex agente de la DEA|date=26 February 2014|url=http://www.diariocambio.com.mx/2014/nacional/item/49167-epn-y-pri-pactaron-la-liberacion-de-caro-quintero-ex-agente-de-la-dea|access-date=4 March 2014|archive-date=4 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140304205040/http://www.diariocambio.com.mx/2014/nacional/item/49167-epn-y-pri-pactaron-la-liberacion-de-caro-quintero-ex-agente-de-la-dea|url-status=live}}</ref> However, it is also alleged that during this period of time the turmoil of war has been used by the parties in power to exterminate even more political dissidents, activists and their own rivals. An example of this is the case of the 2014 forced disappearance and [[2014 Iguala mass kidnapping|assassination of 43 activist rural students from the Ayotzinapa]] Teachers' College, in the hands of police officers colluded with the [[Guerreros Unidos]] drug cartel. Six years later in 2020, it was confirmed that members from the Mexican Army base in town had worked with police and gang members to kidnap the students.<ref>{{Cite news| url=https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-43422705| title=La ONU dice que la investigación de la desaparición de los 43 estudiantes de Ayotzinapa en México fue "afectada por torturas y encubrimiento"| newspaper=BBC News Mundo| date=2018-03-15| last1=Rojas| first1=Ana Gabriela| access-date=28 November 2018| archive-date=29 November 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181129025803/https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-43422705| url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web| url=https://www.animalpolitico.com/2015/09/caso-ayotzinapa-fue-el-estado-dice-morena-y-prd-de-guerrero-completa-el-pri/| title=Caso Ayotzinapa: "Fue el Estado", dice Morena y PRD; "…de Guerrero", completa el PRI| date=2015-09-10| access-date=28 November 2018| archive-date=29 November 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181129013210/https://www.animalpolitico.com/2015/09/caso-ayotzinapa-fue-el-estado-dice-morena-y-prd-de-guerrero-completa-el-pri/| url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://aristeguinoticias.com/1204/mexico/mensajes-entre-guerreros-unidos-muestran-debilidad-de-verdad-historica-del-caso-ayotzinapa-centro-pro/ | title=Mensajes entre 'Guerreros Unidos' muestran "debilidad" de "verdad histórica" del caso Ayotzinapa: Centro Pro - Aristegui Noticias | access-date=28 November 2018 | archive-date=29 November 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181129013141/https://aristeguinoticias.com/1204/mexico/mensajes-entre-guerreros-unidos-muestran-debilidad-de-verdad-historica-del-caso-ayotzinapa-centro-pro/ | url-status=live }}</ref> The [[Sinaloa Cartel]] has been known for having enforcer death squads like [[Gente Nueva]], [[Los Ántrax]], and enforcers forming their own death squads. From 2009 to 2012, the [[Jalisco New Generation Cartel]] under the name Los Matazetas did massacres in the states of [[Veracruz]] and [[Tamaulipas]] with their intention to remove the rival [[Los Zetas|Los Zetas Cartel]]. One example was the Boca del Rio massacre in 2011, where 35 corpses were found under a bridge in trucks covered with paper bags. Gente Nueva was accused of collaborating with the organization.

==== United States ====

During the [[California Gold Rush]], the [[Government of California|state government]] between 1850 and 1859 financed and organized militia units to hunt down and kill [[Indigenous peoples of California|Indigenous Californians]]. Between 1850 and 1852 the state appropriated almost one million dollars for the activities of these militias, and between 1854 and 1859 the state appropriated another $500,000, almost half of which was reimbursed by the federal government.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.militarymuseum.org/MilitiaandIndians.html|title=Militia and Indians|work=militarymuseum.org|access-date=11 March 2012|archive-date=18 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151218092552/http://www.militarymuseum.org/MilitiaandIndians.html|url-status=live}}</ref> By one estimate, at least 4,500 Californian Indians were killed in the [[California genocide]] between 1849 and 1870.<ref name=nisev>{{cite web|url=http://www2.learncalifornia.org/doc.asp?id=1933 |title=Minorities During the Gold Rush |publisher=[[California Secretary of State]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201074206/http://www2.learncalifornia.org/doc.asp?id=1933 |archive-date=1 February 2014 |df=mdy }}</ref> Contemporary historian Benjamin Madley has documented the numbers of Californian Indians killed between 1846 and 1873; he estimates that during this period at least 9,492 Californian Indians were killed by non-Indians. Most of the deaths took place in what he defined as more than 370 [[List of Indian massacres|massacres]] (defined as the "intentional killing of five or more disarmed combatants or largely unarmed noncombatants, including women, children, and prisoners, whether in the context of a battle or otherwise").<ref name=dmad>{{cite book|last=Madley |first=Benjamin |title=An American Genocide, The United States and the California Catastrophe, 1846–1873 |publisher= Yale University Press|year=2016|isbn=978-0-300-18136-4|pages=11, 351}}</ref> Some scholars contend that the state financing of these militias, as well as the US government's role in other massacres in California, such as the [[Bloody Island Massacre|Bloody Island]] and [[Yontoket Massacre]]s, in which up to 400 or more natives were killed in each massacre, constitutes acts of genocide against the native people of California.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cabrillo.edu/~crsmith/anth6_americanperiod.html|editor-first=Joel R.|editor-last=Hyer|location=San Marcos|title=Exterminate Them: Written Accounts of the Murder, Rape, and Enslavement of Native Americans during the California Gold Rush, Michigan State UP, 1999|access-date=11 March 2012|archive-date=11 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120511152205/http://www.cabrillo.edu/~crsmith/anth6_americanperiod.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Benjamin|last=Madley|title=American Genocide: The California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873|publisher=Yale University Press|date=2012}}</ref>

[[File:Battle of Lawrence.png|thumb|Quantrill's 1863 raid burned the town of [[Lawrence Massacre|Lawrence]] and killed 164 defenders.]]
Beginning in the 1850s, pro-slavery [[Bushwhacker]]s and anti-slavery [[Jayhawker]]s waged war against each other in the [[Kansas Territory]]. Due to the horrific atrocities committed by both sides against civilians, the territory was dubbed "[[Bleeding Kansas]]". After the [[American Civil War]] began, the fraternal bloodshed increased.

The most infamous atrocity which was committed in Kansas during the American Civil War was the [[Lawrence Massacre]]. A [[Quantrill's Raiders|large force group of Partisan Rangers]] who were led by [[William Clarke Quantrill]] and [[Bloody Bill Anderson]] and affiliated with the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]] attacked and burned down the pro-[[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] town of [[Lawrence, Kansas]] in retaliation for the Jayhawkers' earlier destruction of [[Osceola, Missouri]]. The Bushwhackers shot down nearly 150 unarmed men and boys.

During the [[Reconstruction era]], embittered Confederate veterans supported the [[Ku Klux Klan]] and similar [[vigilante]] organizations throughout the [[Southern United States|American South]]. The Klan and its counterparts terrorized and [[lynching|lynched]] African Americans, northern [[carpetbagger]]s, and Southern "[[scalawag]]s". This was often done with the unofficial support of the Democratic Party leadership. Historian Bruce B. Campbell has called the KKK, "one of the first proto-death squads". Campbell alleges that the difference between it and modern-day death-squads is the fact that the Ku Klux Klan was composed of members of a defeated regime rather than members of the ruling government. "Otherwise, in its murderous intent, its links to private elite interests, and its covert nature, it very closely resembles modern-day death squads."<ref>{{cite book | editor-first1=Arthur D. | editor-last1=Brenner | editor-first2=Bruce B. | editor-last2=Campbell | title=Death Squads in Global Perspective: Murder With Deniability | location=New York | publisher=St. Martin's Press | year=2000}}</ref>

President [[Ulysses S. Grant|Ulysses S Grant]] pushed the [[Ku Klux Klan Act]] through [[United States Congress|Congress]] in 1871 and called on the [[United States Army]] to help federal officials the arrest and breakup of the Klan. 600 Klansmen were convicted, and 65 men were sent to prison for as long as five years.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-08-21|title=The US government destroyed the Ku Klux Klan once. It could do so again {{!}} Allyson Hobbs|url=http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/21/us-government-ku-klux-klan-charlottesville|access-date=2022-01-07|website=the Guardian|language=en|archive-date=27 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127222514/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/21/us-government-ku-klux-klan-charlottesville|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=The 150-year-old Ku Klux Klan Act being used against Trump in Capitol attack|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/02/18/ku-klux-klan-act-capitol-attack/|access-date=2022-01-07|issn=0190-8286|archive-date=19 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210519142005/https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/02/18/ku-klux-klan-act-capitol-attack/|url-status=live}}</ref>

In June 2020, Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff Austreberto "Art" Gonzalez filed a claim against the county, claiming that approximately twenty percent of the deputies operating in the [[Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department]]'s [[Compton, California|Compton]] station belonged to a secret death squad. Gonzales alleges that the group, named "[[Compton Executioners|The Executioners]]", carried out multiple extrajudicial killings over the years and that members followed initiation rituals, including being tattooed with skulls and Nazi imagery.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-08-20/lasd-gangs-who-are-the-compton-executioners|title=Compton Executioners deputy gang lied about guns and hosted inking parties, deputy says|date=21 August 2020|website=Los Angeles Times|access-date=23 September 2020|archive-date=11 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210911164042/https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-08-20/lasd-gangs-who-are-the-compton-executioners|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/los-angeles-deputy-says-colleagues-are-part-of-violent-gang/2020/08/04/9aed4050-d697-11ea-a788-2ce86ce81129_story.html|title=Los Angeles deputy says colleagues are part of violent gang|first=Stefanie|last=Dazio|via=www.washingtonpost.com|access-date=23 September 2020|archive-date=8 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201008130249/https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/los-angeles-deputy-says-colleagues-are-part-of-violent-gang/2020/08/04/9aed4050-d697-11ea-a788-2ce86ce81129_story.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://losangeleno.com/features/lasd-whistleblower-executioners/|title=Whistleblower: Deputy Who Shot Andres Guardado Was Trying to Join Executioners|date=1 September 2020|website=Los Angeleno|access-date=27 November 2020|archive-date=4 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201204014156/https://losangeleno.com/features/lasd-whistleblower-executioners/|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Central America ====

===== El Salvador =====
{{main|Death squads in El Salvador}}
{{See also|1980 murders of U.S. missionaries in El Salvador|Óscar Romero}}
[[File:Masakro-ĉe-Suchitoto-Salvadoro.jpg|thumb|A billboard serving as a reminder of one of many [[List of massacres in El Salvador|massacres]] that occurred during the civil war]]
During the [[El Salvador Civil War|Salvadoran civil war]], death squads (known in Spanish by the name of Escuadrón de la Muerte, "Squadron of Death") achieved notoriety when a [[sniper]] assassinated Archbishop [[Óscar Romero]] while he was performing [[Mass (Roman Rite)|Mass]] in March 1980. In December 1980, [[1980 murders of U.S. missionaries in El Salvador|three American nuns and a lay worker]] were [[gangrape]]d and murdered by a military unit later found to have been acting on specific orders. Death squads were instrumental in killing thousands of peasants and activists. Funding for the squads came primarily from right-wing Salvadoran businessmen and landowners.<ref>Bonner, Raymond, Weakness and Deceit:: U.S. Policy and El Salvador, New York Times Books, 1984, p.330</ref> Because the death squads involved were found to have been soldiers of the [[Armed Forces of El Salvador|Salvadoran Armed Forces]], which were receiving U.S. arms, funding, training and advice during the [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]], [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] and [[George H. W. Bush]] administrations, these events prompted some outrage in the U.S. Human rights activists criticized U.S. administrations for denying Salvadoran government links to the death squads. Veteran Human Rights Watch researcher Cynthia J. Arnson writes that "particularly during the years 1980–1983 when the killing was at its height (numbers of killings could reach as far as 35,000), assigning responsibility for the violence and human rights abuses was a product of the intense ideological polarization in the United States. The Reagan administration downplayed the scale of abuse as well as the involvement of state actors. Because of the level of denial, as well as the extent of U.S. involvement with the Salvadoran military and security forces, the U.S. role in El Salvador- what was known about death squads, when it was known, and what actions the United States did or did not take to curb their abuses- became an important part of El Salvador's death squad story."<ref>Arnson, Cynthia J. "Window on the Past: A Declassified History of Death Squads in El Salvador" in ''Death Squads in Global Perspective: Murder with Deniability'', Campbell and Brenner, eds, 88</ref> Some death squads, such as [[Sombra Negra]], are still operating in El Salvador.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://banderasnews.com/0709/nw-manoblanco.htm |title=El Salvador Death Squads Still Operating |publisher=Banderasnews.com |access-date=13 November 2011 |archive-date=29 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929175128/http://banderasnews.com/0709/nw-manoblanco.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[Salvadoran Army]]'s U.S.-trained [[Atlácatl Battalion]] was responsible for the [[El Mozote massacre]] where more than 800 civilians were murdered, over half of them children, the [[El Calabozo massacre]], and the [[1989 murders of Jesuits in El Salvador|murders of six Jesuits]] in 1989.<ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-12-09-mn-1714-story.html Notorious Salvadoran Battalion Is Disbanded : Military: U.S.-trained Atlacatl unit was famed for battle prowess but was also implicated in atrocities.]  ''Los Angeles Times.'' 9 December 1992.</ref>

===== Honduras =====
Honduras had death squads active through the 1980s, the most notorious of which was [[Battalion 3-16 (Honduras)|Battalion 3–16]]. Hundreds of people, teachers, politicians, and union bosses were assassinated by government-backed forces. Battalion 316 received substantial support and training from the United States [[Central Intelligence Agency]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.baltimoresun.com/bal-negroponte1a,0,1240201.story?%3Ftrack=sto-relcon |title=When a wave of torture and murder staggered a small U.S. ally, truth was a casualty. – |work=The Baltimore Sun |date=11 June 1995 |access-date=13 November 2011 |archive-date=30 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930035142/http://www.baltimoresun.com/bal-negroponte1a,0,1240201.story?%3Ftrack=sto-relcon |url-status=dead }}</ref> At least 19 members were [[Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation|School of the Americas]] graduates.<ref name="republic_SOA_nonstop">{{cite web |url=http://republicbroadcasting.org/?p=3299 |title=U.S. continues to train Honduran soldiers |publisher=Republic Broadcasting Network |date=21 July 2009 |access-date=3 August 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723181431/http://republicbroadcasting.org/?p=3299 |archive-date=23 July 2011 |url-status=dead |df=dmy }}</ref><ref name="derechos_316_soa">{{cite web|last=Imerman |first=Vicky |author2=Heather Dean |title=Notorious Honduran School of the Americas Graduates |publisher=Derechos Human Rights |year=2009 |url=http://www.derechos.org/soa/hond-not.html |access-date=3 August 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204195846/http://www.derechos.org/soa/hond-not.html |archive-date=4 December 2008 |url-status=live |df=dmy }}</ref> Seven members, including [[Billy Joya]], later played important roles in the administration of President [[Manuel Zelaya]] as of mid-2006.<ref name="mesoamerica_200606">{{cite web|last=Holland |first=Clifton L. |title=Honduras – Human Rights Workers Denounce Battalion 3–16 Participation in Zelaya Government |publisher=Mesoamérica Institute for Central American Studies |date=June 2006 |url=http://www.mesoamericaonline.net/MES0_ARCHIVES/Countries/Hond/HOJUN06.pdf |access-date=3 August 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720160941/http://www.mesoamericaonline.net/MES0_ARCHIVES/Countries/Hond/HOJUN06.pdf |archive-date=20 July 2011 |url-status=usurped |df=dmy }}</ref> Following the [[2009 Honduran constitutional crisis|2009 coup d'état]], former Battalion 3–16 member [[Nelson Willy Mejía Mejía]] became Director-General of Immigration<ref name="NCR_NWMejiaMejia">{{cite news|last=Hodge |first=James |author2=Linda Cooper |title=U.S. continues to train Honduran soldiers |newspaper=[[National Catholic Reporter]] |date=14 July 2009 |url=http://ncronline.org/news/global/us-continues-train-honduran-soldiers |access-date=5 August 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090801004820/http://ncronline.org/news/global/us-continues-train-honduran-soldiers |archive-date=1 August 2009 |url-status=live |df=dmy }}</ref><ref name="cofadeh_NMWW">{{cite web| title =Comunicado| publisher =[[Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras|COFADEH]]| date =3 July 2009| url =http://www.cofadeh.org/html/noticias/golpe_estado_comunicado.html| access-date =5 August 2009| language =es| archive-date =27 February 2021| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20210227065104/http://www.cofadeh.org/html/noticias/golpe_estado_comunicado.html| url-status =usurped}}</ref> and Billy Joya was ''de facto'' President [[Roberto Micheletti]]'s security advisor.<ref name="DemocNow_Zelaya">{{cite web |last=Goodman |first=Amy |title=Zelaya Speaks |publisher=[[Z Communications]] |date=31 July 2009 |url=http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/22175 |access-date=1 August 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224112717/http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/22175 |archive-date=24 December 2013 |url-status=dead |df=dmy }}</ref> Another former Battalion 3–16 member, [[Napoleón Nassar Herrera]],<ref name="mesoamerica_200606"/><ref name="nizkor_nassar">{{cite web|last=Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras |author-link=Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras |title=Hnd – Solicitan al Presidente Zelaya la destitución de integrantes del Batallón 3–16 nombrados en el Ministerio del Interior |publisher=Nizkor |date=February 2007 |url=http://www.radionizkor.org/honduras/ |access-date=7 August 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090924080706/http://www.radionizkor.org/honduras/ |archive-date=24 September 2009 |url-status=live |df=dmy }}</ref> was high Commissioner of Police for the north-west region under Zelaya and under Micheletti, and also became a Secretary of Security spokesperson "for dialogue" under Micheletti.<ref name="elnuevo_nazar">{{cite web|last=Leiva |first=Noe |title=No se avizora el fin de la crisis hondureña |publisher=El Nuevo Herald/[[Agence France-Presse|AFP]] |date=2 August 2009 |url=http://www.elnuevoherald.com/ultimas-noticias/story/510138.html |access-date=7 August 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090805142325/http://www.elnuevoherald.com/ultimas-noticias/story/510138.html |archive-date= 5 August 2009 |url-status=dead |df=dmy }}</ref><ref name="mines_nassar">{{cite web|last=Mejía |first=Lilian |author2=Mauricio Pérez |author3=Carlos Girón |title=Pobladores Exigen Nueva Ley De Minería: 71 Detenidos Y 12 Heridos En Batalla Campal |publisher=MAC: Mines and Communities |date=18 July 2009 |url=http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=2064 |access-date=7 August 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090917130401/http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=2064 |archive-date=17 September 2009 |url-status=live |language=es |df=dmy }}</ref> Zelaya claimed that Joya had reactivated the death squad, with dozens of government opponents having been murdered since the ascent of the Michiletti and Lobo governments.<ref name="DemocNow_Zelaya" />

===== Guatemala =====
Throughout the [[Guatemalan Civil War]], both military and "civilian" governments utilized death squads as a counterinsurgency strategy. The use of "death squads" as a government tactic became particularly widespread after 1966. Throughout 1966 and the first three months of 1967, within the framework of what military commentators referred to as "el-contra terror", government forces killed an estimated 8,000 civilians accused of "subversive" activity.<ref>Michael MeClintock, The American Connection, vol. 2, State Terror and Popular Resistance in Guatemala (London: Zed, 1985), pp. 84–85.</ref> This marked a turning point in the history of the Guatemalan security apparatus and brought about a new era in which mass murder of both real and suspected subversives by government "death squads" became a common occurrence in the country. A noted Guatemalan sociologist estimated the number of government killings between 1966 and 1974 at approximately 5,250 a year (for a total death toll of approximately 42,000 during the presidencies of [[Julio César Méndez Montenegro]] and [[Carlos Arana Osorio]]).<ref>Gabriel Aguilera Peralta, "The Militarization of the State", in Guatemala in Rebellion: Unfinished History</ref> Killings by both official and unofficial security forces would climax in the late 1970s and early 1980s under the presidencies of [[Fernando Romeo Lucas García]] and [[Efraín Ríos Montt]], with over 18,000 documented killings in 1982 alone.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://shr.aaas.org/guatemala/ciidh/qr/english/chap4.html |title=Chapter 4: The 1980s |publisher=Shr.aaas.org |date=31 January 1980 |access-date=13 November 2011 |archive-date=5 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130505224859/http://shr.aaas.org/guatemala/ciidh/qr/english/chap4.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Greg Grandin claims that "Washington, of course, publicly denied its support for paramilitarism, but the practice of political disappearances took a great leap forward in Guatemala in 1966 with the birth of a death squad created, and directly supervised, by U.S. security advisors."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/12/14/unholy_trinity/index1.html |title=America's trinity of terrorism |first=Greg |last=Grandin |work=salon.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081013172719/http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/12/14/unholy_trinity/index1.html |archive-date=13 October 2008 |df=dmy }}</ref> An upsurge in rebel activity in Guatemala convinced the US to provide increased counterinsurgency assistance to Guatemala's security apparatus in the mid to late 1960s. Documents released in 1999 details how United States military and police advisers had encouraged and assisted Guatemalan military officials in the use of repressive techniques, including helping establish a "safe house" from within the presidential palace as a location to coordinate counter insurgency activities.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB11/docs/|title=U.S. POLICY IN GUATEMALA, 1966-1996|work=gwu.edu|access-date=5 November 2011|archive-date=9 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141009173122/http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB11/docs/|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1981, it was reported by Amnesty International that this same "safe house" was in use by Guatemalan security officials to coordinate counterinsurgency activities involving the use of the "death squads."<ref>AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, 1981, Guatemala: A Government Program of Political Murder, in: The New York Review of Books, 19 March 1981</ref>

According to a victim's brother, Mirtala Linares "He wouldn't tell us anything; he claimed they hadn't captured [Sergio], that he knew nothing of his whereabouts – and that maybe my brother had gone as an illegal alien to the United States! That was how he answered us."<ref>{{cite web|last=Jones|first=Nate|title=Astonishing Discovery of Remains of Guatemalan Death Squad Diary Victims|url=http://nsarchive.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/astonishing-discovery-of-remains-of-guatemalan-death-squad-diary-victims/|publisher=NSA Archive|access-date=4 May 2012|date=2011-12-04|archive-date=19 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120519212451/http://nsarchive.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/astonishing-discovery-of-remains-of-guatemalan-death-squad-diary-victims/|url-status=live}}</ref>

===== Nicaragua =====
Throughout the Ortega government, starting in 2006, but escalating with the [[2018–2020 Nicaraguan protests]], [[Sandinista National Liberation Front]] government has employed death squads also known as "''Turbas''" or militia groups armed and aided by the [[National Police of Nicaragua|National Police]] to attack pro-democracy protesters. The government's crackdown of lethal force was condemned by the international community, the Organization of American States, Human Rights Watch, and the local and international Catholic Church.<ref>{{Cite news| url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/facing-down-the-death-squads-of-nicaragua-33| title=Facing Down the Death Squads of Nicaragua| newspaper=The Daily Beast| date=2018-06-12| last1=Jagger| first1=Christopher Dickey&#124;Bianca| access-date=8 July 2018| archive-date=2 August 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180802131407/https://www.thedailybeast.com/facing-down-the-death-squads-of-nicaragua-33| url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=http://en.mercopress.com/2018/06/20/ortega-s-paramilitary-groups-on-shooting-spree-against-protestors-church-dialogue-backed-talks-collapse | title=Ortega's paramilitary groups on shooting spree against protestors; Church dialogue backed talks collapse | access-date=8 July 2018 | archive-date=22 June 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622165152/http://en.mercopress.com/2018/06/20/ortega-s-paramilitary-groups-on-shooting-spree-against-protestors-church-dialogue-backed-talks-collapse | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web| url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/06/22/oas-condemn-egregious-abuses-nicaragua| title=OAS: Condemn Egregious Abuses in Nicaragua| date=2018-06-22| access-date=8 July 2018| archive-date=22 June 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622151404/https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/06/22/oas-condemn-egregious-abuses-nicaragua| url-status=live}}</ref>