Editing Death squad (section)

==== 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.