Editing Death squad

{{Short description|Armed group that conducts extrajudicial killings}}
{{More citations needed|date=December 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2018}}
[[File:Italian soldiers shooting Slovenian hostages.jpg|thumb|[[Italians|Italian]] soldiers shooting [[Slovenes|Slovenian]] hostages. 31 July 1942]]

A '''death squad''' is an armed group whose primary activity is carrying out [[extrajudicial killing]]s, [[massacre]]s, or [[enforced disappearance]]s as part of [[political repression]], [[genocide]], [[ethnic cleansing]], or [[revolutionary terror]]. Except in rare cases in which they are formed by an insurgency, domestic or foreign governments actively participate in, support, or ignore the death squad's activities.

Death squads are distinguished from assassination groups{{Such as|date=November 2024}} by their permanent organization and the larger number of victims (typically thousands or more) who may not be prominent individuals. Other violence, such as rape, torture, arson, or bombings may be carried out alongside murders.<ref>{{Cite book|doi=10.1057/9780230108141_1|chapter=Death Squads: Definition, Problems, and Historical Context|title=Death Squads in Global Perspective|year=2000|last1=Campbell|first1=Bruce B.|pages=1–26|isbn=978-1-4039-6094-8}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/hurq3&id=539&div=&collection=|title=Extrajudicial Executions: An Insight into the Global Dimensions of a Human Rights Violation|first1=Edy|last1=Kaufman|first2=Patricia Weiss|last2=Fagen|date=27 November 1981|journal=Human Rights Quarterly|volume=3|issue=4|pages=81–100|doi=10.2307/762112|jstor=762112|access-date=27 November 2020|archive-date=4 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220404161640/https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals%2Fhurq3&id=539&div=&collection=|url-status=live}}</ref> They may comprise a [[secret police]] force, [[paramilitary]] [[militia]] groups, government soldiers, policemen, or combinations thereof. They may also be organized as vigilantes, bounty hunters, mercenaries, or contract killers. When death squads are not controlled by the state, they may consist of insurgent forces or organized crime, such as the ones used by cartels.

== History ==
Although the term "death squad" was not widely used until the activities of such groups became widely known in [[Central America|Central]] and [[South America]] during the 1970s and 80s, death squads have been employed under different guises throughout history. The term was first used by the [[Fascism|fascist]] [[Iron Guard]] in [[Romania]]. It officially installed Iron Guard death squads in 1936 in order to kill political enemies.<ref>Laignel-Lavastine, Alexandra. Cioran, Eliade, Ionesco. L'oubli du fascisme. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2002, 116.</ref> It was also used during the [[Battle of Algiers (1957)|Battle of Algiers]] by [[Paul Aussaresses]].<ref>Interview of [[Paul Aussaresses]] by [[Marie-Monique Robin]] in ''Escadrons de la mort – l'école française'' ([http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/2926696/ See here, starting at 8min38] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090522013436/http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/2926696/ |date=22 May 2009 }})</ref>

=== Cold War usage ===
In [[Latin America]], death squads first appeared in [[Brazil]] where a group called ''Esquadrão da Morte'' (literally "Death Squad") emerged in the 1960s; they subsequently spread to [[Argentina]] and [[Chile]] in the 1970s, and they were later used in Central America during the 1980s. Argentina used extrajudicial killings as a way of crushing the liberal and communist opposition to the [[military junta]] during the "[[Dirty War]]" of the 1970s. For example, [[Alianza Anticomunista Argentina]] was a far-right death squad mainly active during the "Dirty War". The Chilean military regime of 1973–1990 also committed such killings. See [[Operation Condor]] for examples.

During the [[Salvadoran Civil War]], death squads became notorious following the assassination of Archbishop [[Óscar Romero]] by a [[sniper]] as he said [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]] inside a convent chapel on 24 March 1980. In December 1980, three American nuns, [[Ita Ford]], [[Dorothy Kazel]], and [[Maura Clarke]], and a lay worker, [[Jean Donovan]], were [[gang rape]]d and murdered by a military unit later found to have been carrying out orders. Death squads were instrumental in killing hundreds of real and suspected Communists. Priests who were spreading [[liberation theology]], such as Father [[Rutilio Grande]], were also targeted. The murderers in this case were found to have been soldiers from the Salvadoran military, which was receiving U.S. funding and had U.S. [[military advisors]] during the [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] administration. These events prompted outrage in the U.S. and led to a temporary ending of military aid at the end of his presidency.<ref>{{cite news | first=Juan | last=de Onas | title=U.S. Suspends New Aid to El Salvador until Deaths Are Clarified | newspaper=New York Times | date=6 December 1980 | page=1}}</ref>

Honduras also had death squads active through the 1980s, the most notorious of which was the army unit [[Battalion 316]]. Hundreds of people, teachers, politicians, and union leaders were assassinated by government-backed forces. Battalion 316 received substantial training from the United States [[Central Intelligence Agency]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bal-negroponte1a-story.html|title=When a wave of torture and murder staggered a small U.S. ally, truth was a casualty|newspaper=Baltimore Sun|date=11 June 1995|access-date=13 October 2015|archive-date=16 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170216211314/http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bal-negroponte1a-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In [[Southeast Asia]], extrajudicial killings were conducted by both sides during the [[Vietnam War]].

=== Recent use ===
{{As of|2010}}, death squads have continued to be active in [[Chechnya]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/russian-death-squads-pulverise-chechens-v99wwqbwtn2|title=Russian death squads 'pulverise' Chechens|location=London|work=[[The Times]]|first=Mark|last=Franchetti|date=26 April 2009|access-date=1 May 2010|archive-date=3 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210803140025/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/russian-death-squads-pulverise-chechens-v99wwqbwtn2|url-status=live}}</ref>

== By continent ==

=== Africa ===

==== Egypt ====
{{Main|Extrajudicial executions in Egypt}}
The [[Iron Guard of Egypt]] was a pro-palace political movement or a secret palace organization of the [[Kingdom of Egypt]] which assassinated [[Farouk of Egypt]]'s enemies or a secret unit with a licence to kill, which was believed to personally take orders from Farouk. It was involved in several deadly incidents.

==== Ivory Coast ====
Death squads are reportedly active in this country.<ref name="planetark.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/30001/story.htm |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20050318180603/https://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/30001/story.htm |title=Villagers Tortured to Death in Ivory Coast Park – UN |publisher=Planet Ark |date=18 March 2005 |archivedate=18 March 2005 |url-status=usurped |access-date=22 February 2022}}</ref><ref name="Soro">{{cite web|title=Soro Guillaume et son escadron de la mort|website=Afrik.com|url=https://www.afrik.com/soro-guillaume-et-son-escadron-de-la-mort|date=2004-02-17|access-date=6 May 2020|archive-date=9 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200509074155/https://www.afrik.com/soro-guillaume-et-son-escadron-de-la-mort|url-status=live}}</ref>

This has been condemned by the US<ref name="Ivory Coast">{{cite web |url=http://www.genocide-watch.com/cotedivoire.html |title=Ivory Coast |publisher=Genocidewatch.org |access-date=22 February 2022 |archive-date=4 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220404161640/http://www.genocide-watch.com/cotedivoire.html |url-status=live }}</ref> but appears to be difficult to stop. Moreover, there is no proof as to who is behind the killings.<ref name="washingtonpost.com">{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45644-2005Jan28.html | newspaper=The Washington Post | title=Ivory Coast First Lady Leads Death Squad, Report Alleges | first=Colum | last=Lynch | date=29 January 2005 | access-date=1 May 2010 | archive-date=4 November 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104084526/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45644-2005Jan28.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

In an interview with the Pan-African magazine "Jeune Afrique", [[Laurent Gbagbo]] accused one of the opposition leaders, [[Alassane Ouattara]] (ADO), to be the main organizer of the media frenzy around his wife's involvement in the killing squads. He also successfully sued and won, in French courts, in cases against the French newspapers that made the accusations.<ref name="jeune_afrique">{{cite web|title=Les vérités de Gbagbo|url=http://www.jeuneafrique.com/Article/LIN16097lesvrobgabg0/les-verites-de-gbagbo.-Actualite_Info.html|website=Jeuneafrique.com|date=2007-09-18|access-date=16 September 2010|archive-date=5 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105010035/https://www.jeuneafrique.com/96828/archives-thematique/les-v-rit-s-de-gbagbo/|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Kenya ====
In December 2014, Kenyan Anti-Terrorism Police Unit officers confessed to ''[[Al Jazeera Arabic|Al-Jazeera]]'' that they were responsible for almost 500 of the [[extrajudicial killing]]s. The murders reportedly totalled several hundred homicides every year. They included the assassination of Abubaker Shariff Ahmed "Makaburi", an [[Al-Shabaab (militant group)|Al-Shabaab]] associate from Kenya, who was among 21 [[Islamic extremism|Islamic extremists]] allegedly murdered by the Kenyan police force since 2012. According to the agents, they resorted to the killing after the [[Kenya Police]] could not successfully prosecute terror suspects. In doing so, the officers indicated that they were acting on the direct orders of Kenya's National Security Council, which consisted of the Kenyan President, Deputy President, Chief of the Defence Forces, Inspector General of Police, National Security Intelligence Service Director, Cabinet Secretary of Interior, and Principal Secretary of Interior. Kenyan President [[Uhuru Kenyatta]] and the National Security Council of Kenya members denied operating an extrajudicial assassination program. Additionally, the officers suggested that Western security agencies provided intelligence for the program, including the whereabouts and activities of government targets- alleging that the [[Government of the United Kingdom|British government]] supplied further logistics in the form of equipment and training. One Kenyan officer within the council's General Service Unit also indicated that Israeli instructors taught them how to kill. The head of the [[International Bar Association]], [[Mark Ellis (lawyer)|Mark Ellis]], cautioned that any such involvement by foreign nations would constitute a breach of international law. The United Kingdom and Israel denied participation in the Kenyan National Security Council's reported death squads, with the [[Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office|UK Foreign Office]] indicating that it had approached the Kenyan authorities over the charges.<ref name="Kctpctejk">{{cite news|title=Kenyan counter-terrorism police confess to extra judicial killings|url=http://www.modernghana.com/news/585087/1/kenyan-counter-terrorism-police.html|access-date=18 January 2015|agency=Al Jazeera Africa|date=7 December 2014|archive-date=20 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220054020/http://www.modernghana.com/news/585087/1/kenyan-counter-terrorism-police.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== South Africa ====
Beginning in the 1960s, the [[African National Congress]] (ANC), their ally, the [[South African Communist Party]] (SACP), and the [[Pan Africanist Congress of Azania|Pan-Africanist Congress]] (PAC), began a campaign to topple South Africa's [[National Party (South Africa)|National Party]] (NP)-controlled [[Apartheid]] Government. Both the ANC's armed wing, [[Umkhonto we Sizwe]] (MK), and South African security forces routinely engaged in bombings and targeted killings, both at home and abroad. Particularly notorious death squads used by the apartheid government included the [[Civil Cooperation Bureau]] (CCB) and the [[South African Police]]'s counter-insurgency unit C10, commanded by Colonel [[Eugene de Kock]] and based at the [[Vlakplaas]] farm west of [[Pretoria]], itself also a center for [[torture]] of prisoners.

After the end of Apartheid, death squad violence conducted by both the National Party and the ANC was investigated by the [[Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa)|Truth and Reconciliation Commission]].

==== Uganda ====

From 1971 to 1979, Ugandan dictator [[Idi Amin]] set up death squads to murder enemies of the state.

===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>

=== South America ===

==== Argentina ====
{{Main|Argentine Dirty War}}
Amnesty International reports that "the [[Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic|security forces in Argentina]] first started using "death squads" in late 1973. One example was [[Alianza Anticomunista Argentina]], a far-right death squad mainly active during the "[[Dirty War]]". By the time military rule ended in 1983 some 1,500 people had been killed directly by "death squads", and over 9,000 named people and many more undocumented victims had been "disappeared"—kidnapped and murdered secretly—according to the officially appointed National Commission on Disappeared People (CONADEP).<ref name="autogenerated6">Amnesty International – Getting Away With Murder: Political Killings and Disappearances in the 1990s, 1993,36</ref>

==== Brazil ====
[[File:Esquadrão da Morte.jpg|thumb|Esquadrão da Morte]]
The ''Esquadrão da Morte'' ("Death Squad" in Portuguese) was a paramilitary organization that emerged in the late 1960s during the [[Military dictatorship in Brazil|Brazilian military dictatorship]]. It was the first group to have received the name "Death Squad" in Latin America, but its actions resembled traditional vigilantism as most executions were not exclusively politically related. The greater share of the political executions during the 21 years of military dictatorship (1964–1985) were carried out by the [[Brazilian Armed Forces]] itself. The purpose of the original "Death Squad" was, with the consent of the military government, to persecute, torture and kill suspected criminals (''marginais'') regarded as dangerous to society. It began in the former [[Guanabara State|state of Guanabara]] led by Detective Mariel Mariscot, one of the "Twelve Golden Men of Rio de Janeiro's Police", and from there it spread throughout Brazil in the 1970s. In general, its members were politicians, members of the judiciary, and police officials. As a rule, these groups were financed by members of the business community.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=qSzkF0bosWQC ''Sociedade, cultura e política: ensaios críticos'']. Ana Amélia da Silva, Miguel Wady Chaia, Carmen Junqueira – 2004 – p. 625</ref>

In the 1970s and 1980s, several other organizations were modeled after the 1960s ''Esquadrão da Morte''. The most famous such organization is ''Scuderie Detetive Le Cocq'' (English: ''Shield of Detective Le Cocq''), named after deceased Detective Milton Le Cocq. The group was particularly active in the Brazilian southeastern states of Guanabara and [[Rio de Janeiro (state)|Rio de Janeiro]], and remains active in the state of [[Espírito Santo]]. In the [[São Paulo (state)|state of São Paulo]], death squads and individual gunmen called ''justiceiros'' were pervasive and executions almost were exclusively the work of off-duty policemen. In 1983, a police officer nicknamed "[[Florisvaldo de Oliveira|Cabo Bruno]]" was convicted of murdering more than 50 victims.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Hp3pXKrcDqAC&pg=PA211 Vigilantism and the state in modern Latin America: essays on extralegal violence] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231108152915/https://books.google.com/books?id=Hp3pXKrcDqAC&pg=PA211 |date=8 November 2023 }} Martha Knisely Huggins (ed.) – 1991 – p. 211</ref>

The "Death Squads" active under the rule of the military dictatorship continue as a cultural legacy of the Brazilian police. In the 2000s, police officers remain linked with death squad-type executions. In 2003, roughly 2,000 extrajudicial murders occurred in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, with Amnesty International claiming the numbers are likely far higher.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4463010.stm | work=BBC News | title=Brazilian police 'execute thousands' | date=23 November 2005 | access-date=1 May 2010 | first=Angus | last=Stickler | archive-date=9 June 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100609145626/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4463010.stm | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/amnesty-demands-crackdown-on-police-death-squads-in-brazil-517886.html |work=The Independent |location=London  | title=Amnesty demands crackdown on police death squads in Brazil | first=Karin | last=Goodwin | date=3 December 2005 | access-date=1 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090522223304/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/amnesty-demands-crackdown-on-police-death-squads-in-brazil-517886.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=22 May 2009}}</ref> Brazilian politician [[Flávio Bolsonaro]], the son of Brazilian ex-President [[Jair Bolsonaro]], was accused of having ties to death squads.<ref>{{cite news |title=Jair Bolsonaro's son a growing risk to Brazil's government |url=https://www.dw.com/en/jair-bolsonaros-son-a-growing-risk-to-brazils-government/a-47223072 |publisher=Deutsche Welle |date=24 January 2019 |access-date=25 March 2019 |archive-date=24 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324165213/https://www.dw.com/en/jair-bolsonaros-son-a-growing-risk-to-brazils-government/a-47223072 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Video: As Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro Prepares to Meet Donald Trump, His Family's Close Ties to Notorious Paramilitary Gangs Draw Scrutiny and Outrage |url=https://theintercept.com/2019/03/18/jair-bolsonaro-family-militias-gangs-brazil/ |work=The Intercept |date=18 March 2019 |access-date=25 March 2019 |archive-date=15 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191015154559/https://theintercept.com/2019/03/18/jair-bolsonaro-family-militias-gangs-brazil/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Chile ====
{{Further|Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional|Chile under Pinochet|Operation Condor|Caravan of Death}}

One of the most notorious murder gangs operated by the [[Chilean Army]] was the '''Caravan of Death''', whose members travelled by helicopter throughout Chile between 30 September and 22 October 1973. During this foray, members of the squad ordered or personally carried out the execution of at least 75 individuals held in Army custody in these garrisons.<ref name=BBC07>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6973614.stm Chile priest charged over deaths] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201006171558/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6973614.stm |date=6 October 2020 }}, [[BBC]], 1 September 2007</ref>  According to the NGO ''Memoria y Justicia'', the squad killed 26 in the South and 71 in the North, making a total of 97 victims.<ref name=Justicia>[http://www.memoriayjusticia.cl/english/en_focus-caravan.html Caravan of Death] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050829012641/http://www.memoriayjusticia.cl/english/en_focus-caravan.html |date=29 August 2005 }}, ''Memoria y Justicia''</ref> [[Augusto Pinochet's arrest and trial|Augusto Pinochet was indicted]] in December 2002 in this case, but he died four years later without having been convicted. The trial, however, is on-going {{as of|2007|September|lc=y}}, other militaries and a former military chaplain having been indicted in this case.
On 28 November 2006, Víctor Montiglio, charged of this case, ordered Pinochet's house arrest<ref>[http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/177449/0/pinochet/procesado/homicidios/ Procesan a Pinochet y ordenan su arresto por los secuestros y homicidios de la "Caravana de la Muerte"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190905163627/https://www.20minutos.es/noticia/177449/0/pinochet/procesado/homicidios/ |date=5 September 2019 }}, ''[[20minutos]]'', 28 November 2006.</ref> According to the Chilean Government's own Truth and Reconciliation (Rettig) report, 2,279 people were killed in the operations of Pinochet's regime.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/resources/collections/truth_commissions/Chile90-Report/Chile90-Report.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130929123423/http://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/resources/collections/truth_commissions/Chile90-Report/Chile90-Report.pdf |archive-date=2013-09-29 |url-status=dead|title=Report of the Chilean National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation|work=[[United States Institute of Peace]]}}</ref> In June 1999, judge [[Juan Guzmán Tapia]] ordered the arrest of five retired generals.

==== Colombia ====
{{See also|Right-wing paramilitarism in Colombia|Plan Colombia|Muerte a Secuestradores|Colombian parapolitics scandal}}

The [[United States]] supported death squads in Colombia, El Salvador and Guatemala during the 1980s.<ref name=kovalik>{{Cite web| last = Kovalik| first = Dan| title = Death Squads Continue to Reign in Colombia| work = Huffington Post| access-date = 2018-11-28| date = 2014-03-24| url = https://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kovalik/death-squads-colombia_b_5021244.html| archive-date = 21 August 2018| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180821141440/https://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kovalik/death-squads-colombia_b_5021244.html| url-status = live}}</ref> In 1993, [[Amnesty International]] reported that clandestine military units began covertly operating as death squads in 1978. According to the report, throughout the 1980s political killings rose to a peak of 3,500 in 1988, averaging some 1,500 victims per year since then, and "over 1,500 civilians are also believed to have "disappeared" since 1978."<ref name=autogenerated1>{{Cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/document/?indexNumber=amr29%2f015%2f1996&language=en|title=Document|website=www.amnesty.org|access-date=27 November 2020|archive-date=8 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108191708/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/document/?indexNumber=amr29/015/1996&language=en|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia|AUC]], formed in 1997, was the most prominent paramilitary group.

According to a 2014 report published by [[Human Rights Watch]] (HRW) on [[Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca|Buenaventura]], a port town in Colombia, "entire neighborhoods were dominated by powerful paramilitary successor groups" HRW reports that the groups "restrict residents' movements, recruit their children, extort businesses, and routinely engage in horrific acts of violence against anyone who defies their will." It is reported that scores of people have been "disappeared" from the town over the years. Bodies are dismembered before they are disposed of and residents have reported the existence of ''casas de pique'', "chop-up houses" where people are slaughtered. Many residents have fled and are considered to have been "forcibly displaced": 22,028 residents fled in 2011, 15,191 in 2012, and 13,468 between January and October 2013.<ref name=kovalik />

In Colombia, the terms "death squads", "[[paramilitary|paramilitaries]]" or "[[self-defense]] groups" have been used interchangeably and otherwise, referring to either a single phenomenon, also known as [[Paramilitarism in Colombia|paramilitarism]], or to different but related aspects of the same.<ref>Rangel, Alfredo (editor); William Ramírez Tobón, Juan Carlos Garzón, Stathis Kalyvas, Ana Arjona, Fidel Cuéllar Boada, Fernando Cubides Cipagauta (2005). El Poder Paramilitar. Bogotá: Editorial Planeta Colombiana S.A., 26.</ref> There are reports that [[Los Pepes]], the death squad led by brothers [[Carlos Castaño Gil|Fidel]] and [[Carlos Castaño Gil|Carlos Castaño]], had ties to some members of the [[Colombian National Police]], especially the [[Search Bloc]] (Bloque de Búsqueda) unit.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://hrw.org/spanish/informes/1998/guerra4A.html |title=human rights watch &#124; colombia ? guerra sin cuartel |publisher=Hrw.org |access-date=2011-03-15 |archive-date=9 July 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120709100800/http://hrw.org/spanish/informes/1998/guerra4A.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

A report from the country's public prosecutors office at the end of 2009 reported the number of 28,000 disappeared by paramilitary and guerrilla groups. {{As of|2008}} only 300 corpses were identified and 600 in 2009.

At least 40% of the national legislature are said to have ties to paramilitary groups.<ref name=kovalik /> In August 2018, prosecutors in Colombia charged 13 [[Chiquita]] brands with supporting the right wing death squad that killed hundreds in the [[Urabá Antioquia]] region between 1996 and 2004.<ref>{{Cite web| title = Piden investigar a exgobernadores de Antioquia en caso Chiquita Brands| work = [[El Tiempo (Colombia)|El Tiempo]]| access-date = 2018-11-28| date = 2018-08-31| url = https://www.eltiempo.com/justicia/investigacion/piden-investigar-a-tres-exgobernadores-de-antioquia-por-financiacion-de-paramilitares-262926| archive-date = 28 November 2018| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181128122816/https://www.eltiempo.com/justicia/investigacion/piden-investigar-a-tres-exgobernadores-de-antioquia-por-financiacion-de-paramilitares-262926| url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web| title = Chiquita Brands faces new death squad charges in Colombia| work = AP NEWS| access-date = 2018-11-28| date = 2018-08-31| url = https://apnews.com/8e01b036fd2b487d96ad79d65d442dad| archive-date = 28 November 2018| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181128122720/https://apnews.com/8e01b036fd2b487d96ad79d65d442dad| url-status = live}}</ref> [[Salvatore Mancuso]], a jailed paramilitary leader, has accused [[Del Monte Foods|Del Monte]], [[Dole Food Company|Dole]] and Chiquita of funding right wing death squads. Chiquita was fined $25&nbsp;million after admitting they had paid $1.7&nbsp;million to paramilitaries over six years; the reason for the payments remains a matter of dispute, with Chiquita claiming the money was routine extortion money paid to paramilitary groups to protect workers. Activists, on the other hand, insist that a portion of the money paid by Chiquita was used to finance political assassinations.<ref>{{Cite news| issn = 0261-3077| last1 = Carroll| first1 = Rory| title = Colombian warlord says US firms paid death squads for bananas| work = The Guardian| access-date = 2018-11-28| date = 2007-05-18| url = https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/may/19/colombia.foodanddrink| archive-date = 28 November 2018| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181128164454/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/may/19/colombia.foodanddrink| url-status = live}}</ref>

==== Peru ====
{{Further|Grupo Colina|Rodrigo Franco Command}}
[[Peruvian government]] death squads carried out massacres against radicals and civilians in their fight against [[Shining Path]] and [[Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.juicioysancionafujimori.org/ingles/baltos.htm |title=Caso Barrios Altos |publisher=Juicioysancionafujimori.org |access-date=13 November 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080219182340/http://www.juicioysancionafujimori.org/ingles/baltos.htm|url-status=usurped|archive-date=19 February 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.juicioysancionafujimori.org/ingles/sotanos.htm |title=Sótanos del SIE |publisher=Juicioysancionafujimori.org |access-date=13 November 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090416050417/http://www.juicioysancionafujimori.org/ingles/sotanos.htm|url-status=usurped|archive-date=16 April 2009}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cverdad.org.pe/ifinal/pdf/TOMO%20VII/Casos%20Ilustrativos-UIE/2.19.%20COMANDO%20RODRIGO%20FRANCO.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040401004412/http://www.cverdad.org.pe/ifinal/pdf/TOMO%20VII/Casos%20Ilustrativos-UIE/2.19.%20COMANDO%20RODRIGO%20FRANCO.pdf |archive-date=2004-04-01 |url-status=live|title=Comando Rodrigo Franco}}</ref>

==== Uruguay ====
{{Main|Death squads in Uruguay}}
In Uruguay, Death Squads were far-right paramilitary groups that were active in the early 1970s and carried out extrajudicial killings and other criminal actions.

==== Venezuela ====
{{Main|Extrajudicial killings in Venezuela|Colectivo (Venezuela)}}
In its 2002 and 2003 world reports, [[Human Rights Watch]] reported the existence of death squads in several [[Venezuela]]n states, involving members of the local police, the [[DISIP]] and the [[National Guard of Venezuela|National Guard]]. These groups were responsible for the extrajudicial killings of civilians and wanted or alleged criminals, including street criminals, looters and drug users.<ref name="World Report 2002: Venezuela">{{cite web |title=World Report 2002: Venezuela |url=http://hrw.org/wr2k2/americas10.html |publisher=Human Rights Watch |access-date=26 December 2006 |archive-date=26 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226044738/https://www.hrw.org/legacy/wr2k2/americas10.html%20 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="World Report 2003: Venezuela">{{cite web |title=World Report 2003: Venezuela |url=http://hrw.org/wr2k3/americas10.html |publisher=Human Rights Watch |access-date=26 December 2006 |archive-date=26 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226044749/https://www.hrw.org/legacy/wr2k3/americas10.html%20 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2019, amid the [[Crisis in Bolivarian Venezuela]], the government of [[Nicolás Maduro]] was accused by a UN human rights report of using death squads to conduct thousands of extrajudicial executions. The report relayed a multitude of eyewitness accounts, describing the government's [[Special Action Forces]] (FAES) frequently arriving at homes in unmarked vehicles, executing male suspects on the spot, then planting drugs or weapons on the corpse to make it appear the victim died resisting arrest. According to the report, the executions were part of a campaign aimed at "neutralizing, repressing and criminalizing political opponents and people critical of the government".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-un-idUSKCN1TZ1PW|title=Venezuela death squads kill young men, stage scenes, U.N. report says|first=Tom|last=Miles|newspaper=Reuters|date=4 July 2019|via=www.reuters.com|access-date=27 November 2020|archive-date=10 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201210225235/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-un-idUSKCN1TZ1PW|url-status=live}}</ref> The Maduro government condemned the report as "openly biased".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dw.com/en/venezuelas-army-death-squads-kill-thousands-un/a-49477147|title=Venezuela's army death squads kill thousands — UN &#124; DW &#124; 04.07.2019|website=DW.COM|access-date=14 December 2019|archive-date=19 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190819084407/https://www.dw.com/en/venezuelas-army-death-squads-kill-thousands-un/a-49477147|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Asia ===
==== Afghanistan ====

[[Human Rights Watch]] asserted in a 2019 report that the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] was backing death squads in the [[War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)|War in Afghanistan]].<ref name="HRWV">{{Cite web|title=CIA-Backed 'Death Squads' Are Committing War Crimes in Afghanistan, Report Says|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/cia-backed-death-squads-are-committing-war-crimes-in-afghanistan-report-says/|access-date=2021-08-23|website=Vice.com|date=31 October 2019 |language=en|archive-date=18 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220318170938/https://www.vice.com/en/article/a358a5/cia-backed-death-squads-are-committing-war-crimes-in-afghanistan-report-says|url-status=live}}</ref> The report alleges that the CIA-supported [[History of the Afghan Armed Forces (2002–2021)|Afghan Armed Forces]] committed "[[summary execution]]s and other grave abuses without accountability" over the course of more than a dozen night raids that took place between 2017 and 2019. The death squads allegedly committed "extrajudicial killings of civilians, [[forced disappearance]]s of detainees, and attacks on healthcare facilities that treat insurgents," according to [[Vice (magazine)|''Vice'']]'s reporting on the contents of the Human Rights Watch report.<ref name="HRWV" /> According to the same article, "The forces are recruited, equipped, trained, and deployed under the auspices of the CIA to target insurgents from the [[Taliban]], [[Al-Qaeda|Al Qaeda]], and [[Islamic State|ISIS]]." The article also states these Afghan forces have the ability to call in [[United States Air Force]] airstrikes, which have resulted in the deaths of civilians, including children, and have occurred in civilian areas, including at weddings, parks, and schools.

==== Bangladesh ====
{{See also|Rapid Action Battalion}}

In contemporary times, the Bangladeshi "Rapid Action Battalion" has been criticized by rights groups for its use of [[extrajudicial killings]].<ref>*{{cite web|title=Bangladesh: End Unlawful Violence Against Protesters|url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/03/bangladesh-end-unlawful-violence-against-protesters|website=[[Human Rights Watch]]|access-date=2 April 2017|date=2013-05-03|archive-date=2 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170402173130/https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/03/bangladesh-end-unlawful-violence-against-protesters|url-status=live}}
*{{cite news |title=WikiLeaks: U.K. trained Bangladeshi 'death squad' |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna40773855 |work=NBC News |date=21 December 2010 |access-date=14 November 2019 |archive-date=14 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201014042206/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/40773855 |url-status=live }}</ref> In addition, there have been many reports of torture in connection with the battalion's activities.<ref>{{cite news |title=Death of Youth in Rab Action |url=http://archive.thedailystar.net/2007/05/21/d7052101107.htm |newspaper=The Daily Star |date=21 May 2007 |access-date=23 July 2018 |archive-date=12 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230112123912/https://archive.thedailystar.net/2007/05/21/d7052101107.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.unpo.org/article.php?id=1984 |title=Rapid Action Battalion won't be used for political purpose |date=18 February 2005 |website=Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation |access-date=23 July 2018 |archive-date=12 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230112123920/https://www.unpo.org/article.php?id=1984 |url-status=live }}</ref> Several battalion members have been accused of murder and obstruction of justice during the [[Narayanganj Seven murder]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://en.prothom-alo.com/bangladesh/news/136079/Nur-Hossain-Tarek-among-26-get-death-penalty|title=Ex-AL men, Ex-RAB officials among 26 handed death penalty|newspaper=Prothom Alo|access-date=2017-01-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170119051853/http://en.prothom-alo.com/bangladesh/news/136079/Nur-Hossain-Tarek-among-26-get-death-penalty|archive-date=19 January 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=http://www.thedailystar.net/country/security-beefed-ahead-nganj-7-murder-verdict-1346107|title=7-murder: Nur Hossain, Rab commander Tareque, 24 others get death|date=2017-01-16|newspaper=The Daily Star|language=en|access-date=2017-01-21|archive-date=19 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170119135822/http://www.thedailystar.net/country/security-beefed-ahead-nganj-7-murder-verdict-1346107|url-status=live}}</ref> They've been known to kill civilian suspects for the explicit purpose of avoiding trials.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Janzon|first1=Beatrice|title=Exclusive: Officer Exposes Brutal Killings by Bangladeshi Elite Police Unit RAB|url=http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=83&artikel=6665807|access-date=27 November 2017|work=Swedish Radio|date=4 April 2017|archive-date=30 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171130104313/http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=83&artikel=6665807|url-status=live}}</ref> They have also been accused of carrying out a campaign of [[Forced disappearance in Bangladesh|forced disappearances]].<ref>{{cite news |author=Muktadir Rashid |date=30 August 2014 |title=The List grows Longer |url=http://newagebd.net/43141/the-list-grows-longer/ |newspaper=New Age |location=Dhaka |access-date=31 August 2014 |archive-date=14 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150114102401/http://newagebd.net/43141/the-list-grows-longer/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Cambodia ====
{{Main|Khmer Rouge}}
The [[Khmer Rouge]] began employing death squads to purge Cambodia of non-communists after taking over the country in 1975. They rounded up their victims, questioned them and then took them out to killing fields.<ref>{{cite web|author=Chandler, David|title=The Killing Fields|publisher=The Digital Archive Of Cambodian Holocaust Survivors|url=http://www.cybercambodia.com/dachs/killing/killingfields.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090220044952/http://cybercambodia.com/dachs/killing/killingfields.html|archive-date=20 February 2009|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

==== India ====
{{Main|Secret killings of Assam}}
The secret killings of Assam (1998–2001) was probably the darkest chapter in Assam's political history when relatives, friends, sympathisers of [[United Liberation Front of Asom]] insurgents were systematically killed by unknown assailants. These extrajudicial murders happened in Assam between 1998 and 2001. These extrajudicial killings were conducted by the [[Government of Assam]] using [[SULFA]] members and the security forces in the name of counter-insurgency operations. The victims of these killings were relatives, friends and colleagues of ULFA militants. The most apparent justification for the whole exercise was that it was a tit-for-tat response to the ULFA-sponsored terrorism, especially the killings of their old comrades—the SULFAs.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/states/story/19991108-spate-of-clandestine-killings-in-assam-strengthens-public-fears-781612-1999-11-08|title=Spate of clandestine killings in Assam strengthens public fears that the state has adopted new strategy to terrorise suspected ULFA sympathisers|date=8 November 1999|work=India Today|access-date=31 August 2018|archive-date=31 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180831174945/https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/states/story/19991108-spate-of-clandestine-killings-in-assam-strengthens-public-fears-781612-1999-11-08|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.catchnews.com/india-news/secret-killings-in-assam-400-people-murdered-but-no-one-killed-them-1448896038.html|title=Secret killings in Assam: 400 people murdered. But no one killed them|website=catchnews|access-date=28 July 2018|archive-date=29 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180729012929/http://www.catchnews.com/india-news/secret-killings-in-assam-400-people-murdered-but-no-one-killed-them-1448896038.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/publication/faultlines/volume9/article1.htm|title=SULFA - Terror By Another Name|website=South Asia Terrorism Portal|access-date=30 July 2018|archive-date=3 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230103133215/https://www.satp.org/satporgtp/publication/faultlines/volume9/Article1.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://himalmag.com/secret-killings-of-assam-in-literature/|title=The 'secret killings' of Assam in literature|date=1 November 2013|work=Himal SouthAsian|access-date=31 August 2018|archive-date=31 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180831174834/http://himalmag.com/secret-killings-of-assam-in-literature/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22Secret+Killings+Assam%22"|title=Justice K.N. Saikia Commission Report on Secret Killings of Assam|date=12 March 2016|website=Internet Archive}}</ref>

==== Indonesia ====
{{Main|Indonesian mass killings of 1965–1966|Petrus killings}}
During the [[transition to the New Order]] in 1965–1966, with the backing of the United States government and its Western allies, the [[Indonesian National Armed Forces]] and right-wing paramilitary death squads massacred hundreds of thousands of leftists and those believed tied to the [[Communist Party of Indonesia]] (PKI) after a failed coup attempt which was blamed on the Communists.<ref>{{cite news|last=Perry|first=Juliet|title=Tribunal finds Indonesia guilty of 1965 genocide; US, UK complicit|url=http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/21/asia/indonesia-genocide-panel/index.html|work=CNN|date=21 July 2016|access-date=20 August 2017|archive-date=8 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190608134956/https://www.cnn.com/2016/07/21/asia/indonesia-genocide-panel/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Robinson |first=Geoffrey B. |date=2018 |title=The Killing Season: A History of the Indonesian Massacres, 1965–66 |url=https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11135.html |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |pages=206–207 |isbn=978-1-4008-8886-3 |access-date=17 May 2021 |archive-date=19 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190419011656/https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11135.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bevins |first1=Vincent|author-link=Vincent Bevins |title=[[The Jakarta Method|The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World]]|date=2020 |publisher= [[PublicAffairs]]|page=157|isbn= 978-1541742406}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Prashad |first=Vijay |author-link=Vijay Prashad |date=2020 |title=Washington Bullets: A History of the CIA, Coups, and Assassinations |publisher=[[Monthly Review|Monthly Review Press]]|pages=85–86 |isbn=978-1583679067}}</ref> At least 400,000 to 500,000 people, perhaps as many as 3&nbsp;million, were killed over a period of several months, with thousands more being interred in prisons and concentration camps under extremely inhumane conditions.<ref>Mark Aarons (2007). "[https://books.google.com/books?id=dg0hWswKgTIC&pg=PA69 Justice Betrayed: Post-1945 Responses to Genocide] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105010004/https://books.google.com/books?id=dg0hWswKgTIC&pg=PA69#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=5 January 2024 }}." In David A. Blumenthal and Timothy L. H. McCormack (eds). ''[http://www.brill.com/legacy-nuremberg-civilising-influence-or-institutionalised-vengeance The Legacy of Nuremberg: Civilising Influence or Institutionalised Vengeance? (International Humanitarian Law).] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105053952/http://www.brill.com/legacy-nuremberg-civilising-influence-or-institutionalised-vengeance |date=5 January 2016 }}'' [[Martinus Nijhoff Publishers]]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=dg0hWswKgTIC&pg=PA80 pp. 80–81] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105010011/https://books.google.com/books?id=dg0hWswKgTIC&pg=PA80#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=5 January 2024 }} {{ISBN|9004156917}}</ref> The violence culminated in the fall of the [[Guided Democracy in Indonesia|"guided democracy" regime]] under President [[Sukarno]] and the commencement of [[Suharto]]'s [[New Order (Indonesia)|thirty-year authoritarian reign]].<ref>[http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/101east/2012/12/2012121874846805636.html Indonesia's killing fields] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150214005113/http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/101east/2012/12/2012121874846805636.html |date=14 February 2015 }}. ''[[Al Jazeera Arabic|Al Jazeera]]'', 21 December 2012. Retrieved 20 August 2017.</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=2 June 2016 |title=Looking into the massacres of Indonesia's past |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36431837 |work=[[BBC News]] |access-date=20 August 2017 |archive-date=14 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170814070158/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36431837 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Iran ====
{{Main|Extrajudicial killings in Iran}}
{{Further|Chain Murders of Iran}}
After the [[Iranian Revolution|Islamic Revolution]] overthrew the Shah, [[Amnesty International]] continued to complain of [[Human rights in Iran|human rights abuses in Iran]].<ref>Abrahamian, Ervand, ''Tortured Confessions'',  (1999)</ref> Suspected foes of the [[Ayatollah Khomeini]], were imprisoned, tortured, tried by [[kangaroo court]]s, and executed. The most famous victim of the era's death squad violence remains [[Amir-Abbas Hoveida]], a Prime Minister of Iran under the Shah. However, the same treatment was also meted out to senior officers in the Iranian military. Other cases exist of Iranian dissidents opposed to the Islamic Republic who have been tracked down and murdered abroad. One of the most notorious examples of this remains the 1992 [[Mykonos restaurant assassinations]] in [[Berlin, Germany]].

The Iranian government's victims include civilians who have been killed by "death squads" that operate under the control of government agents but these killing operations have been denied by the Iranian government. This was particularly the case during the 1990s when more than 80 writers, translators, poets, political activists, and ordinary citizens who had been critical of the government in some way, [[Chain Murders of Iran|disappeared or were found murdered]].<ref>Elaine Sciolino, Persian Mirrors: the Elusive Face of Iran, Free Press, 2000, p.241</ref> In 1983 the American [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) gave one of the leaders of Iran [[Khomeini]] information on Communist [[KGB]] agents in Iran. This information was almost certainly used. Later, The Iranian regime occasionally used death squads throughout the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. However, by the 2000s, it seems to have almost if not entirely ceased its operations. This partial [[Westernization]] of the country can be seen as paralleling similar events in [[Lebanon]], the [[United Arab Emirates]], and [[Iraqi Kurdistan|Northern Iraq]] beginning in the late 1990s.

==== Iraq ====
{{Main|Extrajudicial killings in Iraq|Iraqi conflict (2003–present)}}
Iraq was formed by the [[British Empire]] from three provinces of the [[Ottoman Empire]] following the [[Partition of the Ottoman Empire|empire's breakup]] after [[World War I]]. Its population is overwhelmingly [[Islam in Iraq|Muslim]] but is divided into [[Shia Islam|Shiites]] and [[Sunni Islam|Sunnis]], with a [[Kurds in Iraq|Kurdish minority]] in the north. The new state leadership in the capital of [[Baghdad]] was formerly composed of, for the most part, the old [[Sunni]] [[Arab]] elite.

After [[Saddam Hussein]] was overthrown by the [[2003 invasion of Iraq|US-led invasion of Iraq]] in 2003, the secular socialist [[Baathist]] leadership were replaced with a provisional and later constitutional government that included leadership roles for the Shia and Kurds. This paralleled the development of ethnic militias by the Shia, Sunni, and the Kurdish [[Peshmerga]].

During the course of the [[Iraq War]] the country has increasingly become divided into three zones: a [[Kurdish people|Kurdish]] ethnic zone to the north, a Sunni center and the [[Shia]] ethnic zone to the south.

While all three groups have operated death squads,<ref name="cnn.com">{{Cite news |title=U.S. cracks down on Iraq death squads |url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/24/iraq.main/index.html |publisher=CNN |date=24 July 2006 |access-date=20 December 2006 |archive-date=6 January 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070106182907/http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/24/iraq.main/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
in the national capital of [[Baghdad]] some members of the now Shia [[Iraqi Police]] and [[Iraqi Army]] formed unofficial, unsanctioned, but long tolerated death squads.<ref name="guardian.co.uk">{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/Iraq/Story/0,,1869439,00.html | work=The Guardian | location=London | title=US patrols to weed out militias posing as Iraqi police | first=Peter | last=Beaumont | date=11 September 2006 | access-date=1 May 2010 | archive-date=5 January 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105010015/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/sep/11/iraq.peterbeaumont | url-status=live }}</ref> They possibly have links to the [[Ministry of Interior (Iraq)|Interior Ministry]] and are popularly known as the 'black crows'. These groups operated either by night or by day. They usually arrested people, then either tortured or killed them.<ref name="Iraq's Death Squads">{{cite news| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/03/AR2005120300881.html | newspaper=The Washington Post | title=Iraq's Death Squads | date=4 December 2005 | access-date=1 May 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=ALLBRITTON |first=CHRISTOPHER |date=2006-03-20 |title= Why Iraq's Police Are a Menace|language=en-US |magazine=Time |url=https://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1175055,00.html |access-date=2023-12-29 |issn=0040-781X |archive-date=27 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927112734/https://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1175055,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Moore |first=Solomon |date=2005-11-29 |title=Killings Linked to Shiite Squads in Iraqi Police Force |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-nov-29-fg-death29-story.html |access-date=2023-12-29 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US |archive-date=29 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231229185513/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-nov-29-fg-death29-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The victims of these attacks were predominantly young males who had probably been suspected of being members of the [[Iraqi insurgency (2003–2011)|Sunni insurgency]]. Agitators such as Abdul Razaq al-Na'as, Dr. Abdullateef al-Mayah, and Dr. Wissam Al-Hashimi have also been killed. Women and children have also been arrested or killed.<ref name="'25,000 civilians' killed in Iraq">{{Cite news |title='25,000 civilians' killed in Iraq |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4692589.stm |publisher=BBC |date=19 July 2005 |access-date=20 December 2006 |archive-date=31 August 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060831072954/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4692589.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> Some of these killings have also been simple robberies or other criminal activities.

A feature in a May 2005 issue of the magazine of ''[[The New York Times]]'' accused the U.S. military of modelling the "Wolf Brigade", the Iraqi interior ministry police commandos, on the death squads that were used in the 1980s to crush the [[Marxist]] insurgency in El Salvador.<ref name=Nytimes050501>{{cite news |title=The Way of the Commandos |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/magazine/01ARMY.html |work=The New York Times |date=1 May 2005 |first=Peter |last=Maass |access-date=1 May 2010 |archive-date=18 April 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090418193442/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/magazine/01ARMY.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2004, the US dispatched [[James Steele (US Colonel)|James Steele]] as an envoy and special training adviser to the Iraqi [[Special Police Commandos]] who were later accused of torture and death squad activities. Steele had served in El Salvador in the 1980s, where he helped train government units involved in human rights violations death squads in their war against the [[Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front|FMLNF]].<ref name="The Guardian">{{cite news |title=From El Salvador to Iraq: Washington's man behind brutal police squads |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/06/el-salvador-iraq-police-squads-washington |newspaper=The Guardian |date=6 March 2013 |location=London |first1=Mona |last1=Mahmood |first2=Maggie |last2=O'Kane |first3=Chavala |last3=Madlena |first4=Teresa |last4=Smith |first5=Ben |last5=Ferguson |first6=Patrick |last6=Farrelly |first7=Guy |last7=Grandjean |first8=Josh |last8=Strauss |first9=Irene |last9=Baque |display-authors=8 |access-date=11 December 2016 |archive-date=7 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161207204447/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/06/el-salvador-iraq-police-squads-washington |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Lebanon ====
Death squads were active during the [[Lebanese Civil War]] from 1975 to 1990. The number of people who disappeared during the conflict is put around 17,000. Groups like [[Hezbollah]] have used death squads and elite wings to terrorize opponents, the most known of them is [[Unit 121]], that was led by [[Salim Ayyash]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-02-15 |title=Lists Of Opponents .. Will The Assassination Unit "121" Of The "Hezbollah" Militia Move? - MENA Research Center |url=https://www.mena-researchcenter.org/lists-of-opponents-will-the-assassination-unit-121-of-the-hezbollah-militia-move/ |access-date=2024-11-24 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Schenker |first=David |date=2024-11-26 |title=Lebanon Is a Global Sanctuary for Criminals |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/08/02/lebanon-crime-hezbollah-salameh-port-explosion-corruption/#cookie_message_anchor |access-date=2024-11-24 |website=Foreign Policy |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Levitt |first=Matthew |date=2023 |title=Episode 8: Hezbollah Assassinations Unit 121 |url=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/media/6965}}</ref>

==== Philippines ====
[[File:Rodrigo Duterte warns government officials engaged in corrupt practices in a news conference 30 September 2016.jpg|thumb|President [[Rodrigo Duterte]]]]{{Main|Extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances in the Philippines}}
There are certain vigilante death squads that are active in the Philippines, especially in [[Davao City]] where [[Davao Death Squad|local death squads]] roam around the city to hunt criminals.

After winning the Presidency in June 2016, [[Rodrigo Duterte]] had urged, "If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful."<ref>{{cite news|title=Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte urged people to kill drug addicts|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/01/philippines-president-rodrigo-duterte-urges-people-to-kill-drug-addicts|agency=[[Associated Press]]|date=1 July 2016|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=23 April 2017|archive-date=12 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612140423/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/01/philippines-president-rodrigo-duterte-urges-people-to-kill-drug-addicts|url-status=live}}</ref> By March 2017, the death toll for the [[Philippine Drug War]] passed 8,000 people.<ref>{{cite news |title=Between Duterte and a death squad, a Philippine mayor fights drug-war violence |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-drugs-mayor-idUSKBN16N33I |work=Reuters |date=16 March 2017 |access-date=2 July 2017 |archive-date=16 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170316234452/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-drugs-mayor-idUSKBN16N33I |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cev9g1ez2d2o|title=Philippines' Duterte admits to drug war 'death squad'|date=29 October 2024 |publisher=BBC News}}</ref>

==== Saudi Arabia ====
{{See also|Killing of Jamal Khashoggi|Tiger Squad}}

==== South Korea ====
{{Main|Extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances in South Korea}}
News reports on the use of death squads in Korea originated around the middle of the 20th century such as the [[Jeju Massacre]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.brianwillson.com/awoltruthkor.html |title=Unknown Truth about Korea |publisher=Brianwillson.com |access-date=13 November 2011 |archive-date=1 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090301174118/http://www.brianwillson.com/awoltruthkor.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and Daejeon.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/t-z/titfortat4.html |title=Channel 4 – History – Tit for tat |publisher=Channel 4 |access-date=13 November 2011 |archive-date=8 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090208231955/http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/t-z/titfortat4.html |url-status=live }}</ref> There were also the multiple deaths that made the news in 1980 in [[Gwangju]].<ref>{{Cite news |title=Lingering legacy of Korean massacre |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4557315.stm |publisher=BBC |date=18 May 2005 |first=Becky |last=Branford |access-date=20 December 2006 |archive-date=17 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117101726/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4557315.stm |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Thailand ====
During the [[Cold War]], in the short period of democracy in Thailand after the [[1973 Thai popular uprising]] (1973–1976), three right-wing paramilitary groups, [[Nawaphon]], [[Red Gaurs]], and [[Village Scouts]] were founded and supported by [[Internal Security Operations Command]] and [[Border Patrol Police]] to promote national unity, loyalty to [[Thai royal family]], and [[anti-communism]]. They were also heavily funded and backed by the [[United States]] government and were under the patronage of the royal family themselves. Among their ranks were former soldiers, veterans of the [[Vietnam War]], former mercenaries in Laos, and violent vocational students.

These groups were first employed to counter protests of the pro-democracy and left-wing students movement, attacking them with firearms and grenades. When the ideological conflict escalated, they started assassinating labor and peasants union officials and progressive politicians, the most famous was Dr. [[Boonsanong Punyodyana]], the general secretary of the [[Socialist Party of Thailand]]. The conflict reached its peak with the [[Thammasat University massacre]] in 1976, which the [[Royal Thai Armed Forces]] and [[Royal Thai Police]], supported by the three aforementioned paramilitary groups, stormed [[Thammasat University]] and [[6 October 1976 massacre|shot mostly unarmed student protesters indiscriminately]], resulting in at least 46 deaths. A military coup was staged later in the same day. During the military rule, the paramilitary groups' popularity diminished.

In contemporary Thailand, many [[Human rights in Thailand#Deaths relating to the 2003 war on drugs|extrajudicial killings occurred during the 2003 anti-drug effort]] of Thailand's prime minister [[Thaksin Shinawatra]] were attributed to government-sponsored death squads. Rumors still persist that there is collusion between the government, rogue military officers and radical right wing/anti-drugs death squads, with both Muslim<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/thai/articles/20070214.aspx |title=Thailand: Death Squads and Roadside Bombs |publisher=Strategypage.com |access-date=13 November 2011 |archive-date=21 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120121105940/http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/thai/articles/20070214.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Buddhist]]{{Citation needed|date=February 2013}} sectarian death squads still operating in the South of the country.

==== Turkey ====
{{Main|List of massacres in Turkey|Political violence in Turkey (1976–80)|Extrajudicial executions in Turkey}}

The [[Grey Wolves (organization)|Grey Wolves]] was established by Colonel [[Alparslan Türkeş]] in the 1960s, it was the main [[Turkish nationalism|Turkish nationalist]] force during the [[Political violence in Turkey (1976–80)|political violence in 1976–80]] in Turkey. During this period, the organization became a "death squad"<ref name="Sloan&Anderson">{{cite book|last1=Sloan|first1=Stephen|last2=Anderson|first2=Sean K.|title=Historical Dictionary of Terrorism|date=2009|publisher=[[Scarecrow Press]]|location=Lanham, Maryland|isbn=9780810863118|contribution=Gray Wolves|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=aVcG7EkuPgAC&pg=PA214 213–4]}}</ref> engaged in "[[Urban guerrilla warfare|street killings and gunbattles]]".<ref name="Combs">{{cite book|last=Combs|first=Cindy C.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H7fT0BQxwDsC&pg=PA110|title=Encyclopedia of terrorism|year=2007|publisher=Facts On File|location=New York|isbn=9781438110196|author2=Slann, Martin|page=110|quote=The Grey Wolves, the unofficial militant arm of the MHP, has been involved in street killings and gun battles.|access-date=7 September 2015|archive-date=5 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105010040/https://books.google.com/books?id=H7fT0BQxwDsC&pg=PA110#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> According to authorities, 220 of its members carried out 694<ref name="Sloan&Anderson" /><ref name="Ganser">{{cite book|last1=Ganser|first1=Daniele|author-link1=Daniele Ganser|title=NATO's Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe|date=2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781135767853|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=n0uRAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA240 240]}}</ref> murders of left-wing and liberal activists and intellectuals.<ref name="Idiz">{{cite news|last=Idiz|first=Semih|title=Turkey's Ultra-Nationalists Playing With Fire|url=http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/turkey-ultra-nationalists-rally-grey-wolves-mhp.html|agency=[[Al-Monitor]]|date=29 March 2013|access-date=30 July 2015|archive-date=28 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210228121729/https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/turkey-ultra-nationalists-rally-grey-wolves-mhp.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Attacks on university students were commonplace. They killed hundreds of [[Alevis]] in the [[Maraş massacre]] of 1978<ref name="Marcus">{{cite book|last=Marcus|first=Aliza|title=Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence|date=2007|publisher=New York University Press|isbn=9780814796115|page=50|quote=...attacks on minority Alawite communities by the Grey Wolves, including the Kahramanmaras massacre in 1978...}}</ref><ref name="Cengiz">{{cite news|author=Orhan Kemal Cengiz |title=Why was the commemoration for the Maraş massacre banned? |url=http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist/orhan-kemal-cengiz/why-was-the-commemoration-for-the-maras-massacre-banned_302207.html |work=[[Today's Zaman]] |date=25 December 2012 |quote=This was the beginning of the massacre; later on, angry mobs led by grey wolves scattered into the city, killing and raping hundreds of Alevis. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151007145955/http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist/orhan-kemal-cengiz/why-was-the-commemoration-for-the-maras-massacre-banned_302207.html |archive-date=7 October 2015 |df=dmy |author-link=Orhan Kemal Cengiz }}</ref> and are alleged to have been behind the [[Taksim Square massacre]] of 1977.<ref name="Sullivan">{{cite book|last1=Sullivan|first1=Colleen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I_jh4VBi_HYC&pg=PA236|editor1-last=Martin|editor1-first=Gus|editor1-link=C. Augustus Martin|title=The SAGE Encyclopedia of Terrorism|date=2011|publisher=[[SAGE Publications]]|pages=236–7|edition=2nd|isbn=9781412980166|access-date=7 September 2015|archive-date=5 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105010033/https://books.google.com/books?id=I_jh4VBi_HYC&pg=PA236#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="socialistworld">{{cite news|author1=CWI reporters in Istanbul|title=Hundreds of thousands on Taksim Square on Mayday|url=http://www.socialistworld.net/mob/doc/4252|publisher=[[Committee for a Workers' International (1974)|Committee for a Workers' International]]|date=2 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141022012706/http://www.socialistworld.net/mob/doc/4252|archive-date=22 October 2014|quote=In 1977, at the peak of a revolutionary movement in Turkey, half a million gathered there. Immediately after the demonstration began, snipers – from the fascist Grey Wolves, or from the police (this is still not clear today) – began shooting at the masses.}}</ref> The masterminds behind the [[Pope John Paul II assassination attempt|attempt]] on [[Pope John Paul II]]'s life in 1981 by Grey Wolves member [[Mehmet Ali Ağca]] were not identified and the organization's role remains unclear.{{efn-ua|"Mohamed Ali Agca of Turkey, the man who shot at Pope John Paul II in Rome had no political motive. The investigating agency in Italy tried to establish his link with the Turkey based terrorist group, 'Grey Wolf,' however, could not get any evidence of his political connection."<ref name="Prabha">{{cite web|last1=Prabha|first1=Kshitij|title=Defining Terrorism|url=http://www.idsa-india.org/an-apr-08.html|publisher=[[Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses]]|location=New Delhi, India|date=April 2008|quote=Mohamed Ali Agca of Turkey, the man who shot at Pope John Paul II in Rome had no political motive. The investigating agency in Italy tried to establish his link with the Turkey based terrorist group, 'Grey Wolf,' however, could not get any evidence of his political connection.|access-date=30 July 2015|archive-date=25 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141025060347/http://www.idsa-india.org/an-apr-08.html|url-status=usurped}}</ref>}}

==== Ottoman Empire ====
During the [[Armenian genocide]], the [[Special Organization (Ottoman Empire)|Special Organization]] functioned as a death squad.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Extermination of Ottoman Armenians by the Young Turk Regime (1915-1916) {{!}} Sciences Po Mass Violence and Resistance - Research Network |journal=Extermination-ottoman-armenians-young-turk-regime-1915-1916.HTML |date=25 January 2016 |url=https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/extermination-ottoman-armenians-young-turk-regime-1915-1916.html |language=en |access-date=19 November 2020 |archive-date=16 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210216152531/https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/extermination-ottoman-armenians-young-turk-regime-1915-1916.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Europe ===

==== Belarus ====
{{main|SOBR (Belarus)}}
The [[SOBR (Belarus)|Special Rapid Response Unit]] of the [[Internal Troops of Belarus]] has been referred to as a "hit squad" or "death squad" by various sources for its role in the repression of [[Belarusian opposition]] protests and allegations that it has participated in the [[enforced disappearance]]s of opposition politicians.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Trippe |first1=Christian F. |last2=Sotnik |first2=Ekaterina |date=16 December 2019 |title=Belarus: How death squads targeted opposition politicians |work=[[Deutsche Welle]] |url=https://www.dw.com/en/belarus-how-death-squads-targeted-opposition-politicians/a-51685204 |access-date=20 September 2023 |archive-date=18 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201118232619/https://www.dw.com/en/belarus-how-death-squads-targeted-opposition-politicians/a-51685204 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Rainsford |first=Sarah |date=18 September 2023 |title=Former Belarus 'hit squad' member on trial in Switzerland |work=[[BBC]] |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66848265 |access-date=20 September 2023 |archive-date=20 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230920044809/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66848265 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Wesolowsky |first=Tony |date=18 December 2019 |title=Belarus Death Squad? Chilling Claims A Shock But No Surprise, While Some See Kremlin Hand |work=[[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/belarus-death-squad-chilling-claims-a-shock-but-no-surprise-some-see-kremlin-hand/30332590.html |access-date=20 September 2023 |archive-date=20 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230920101532/https://www.rferl.org/a/belarus-death-squad-chilling-claims-a-shock-but-no-surprise-some-see-kremlin-hand/30332590.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Finland ====
[[File:Vyborg massacre 1918.jpg|thumb|Hundreds of people belonging to [[Vyborg massacre|ethnic minorities were executed in Vyborg]] for their supposed Bolshevik leanings.]]
10,000 leftists were executed by the victorious [[White Guard (Finland)|White Guard]] forces during the [[White Terror (Finland)|White Terror]] of the [[Finnish Civil War]] in 1918.<ref>{{Citation|last=Paavolainen|first=Jaakko|year=1971|title=Vankileirit Suomessa 1918|place=Helsinki|publisher=Tammi|isbn=951-30-1015-5}}</ref> General [[Mannerheim]] issued the [[Shoot on the Spot Declaration]] that gave commanders of units wide powers to carry out executions at their sole discretion.<ref>Jyränki, Antero: Kansa kahtia, henki halpaa – Oikeus sisällissodan Suomessa? Helsinki: Art House, 2014. ISBN 978-951-884-520-4</ref>

==== Croatia ====
{{Main|Ustaše}}
The Ustaše was a [[Croats|Croatian]] [[Fascism|fascist]] and [[ultranationalism|ultranationalist]] organization{{sfn|Tomasevich|2001|p=32}} active, as one organization, between 1929 and 1945, formally known as the Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionary Movement ({{langx|hr|Ustaša – Hrvatski revolucionarni pokret}}). Its members murdered hundreds of thousands of [[Serbs]], [[Jews]],{{sfn|Tomasevich|2001|pp=351–352}} and [[Romani people|Roma]] as well as political dissidents in [[World War II in Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia during World War II]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/1673249.stm|title=Croatian holocaust still stirs controversy|work=BBC News|date=29 November 2001|access-date=29 September 2010|archive-date=12 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200412012025/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/1673249.stm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="bbc">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4479837.stm|title=Balkan 'Auschwitz' haunts Croatia|work=BBC News|date=25 April 2005|access-date=29 September 2010|quote=No one really knows how many died here. Serbs talk of 700,000. Most estimates put the figure nearer 100,000.|archive-date=22 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200422051025/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4479837.stm|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== France ====
In 1944, mainly as a result of the gradual liberation of France, armed groups claiming to be members of the Resistance executed around 10,000 people, in what historians describe as an extrajudicial purge, while archive documents speak of "repression at the Liberation".

The [[French Armed Forces]] used death squads during the [[Algerian War]] (1954–1962).<ref>{{Cite news |title=Algeria general 'a war criminal' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1318305.stm |publisher=BBC |date=8 May 2001 |access-date=20 December 2006 |archive-date=5 March 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030305050812/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1318305.stm |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Germany ====

===== Weimar Republic =====
{{Main|Freikorps|Weimar paramilitary groups}}
Death squads first appeared in [[German Reich|Germany]] following the end of the [[World War I|First World War]] and [[German Revolution of 1918–19|the overthrow]] of the [[House of Hohenzollern]]. In order to prevent a [[coup d'etat]] by the Soviet-backed [[Communist Party of Germany]], the [[Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany|Majority Social Democratic]]-dominated government of the [[Weimar Republic]] declared a [[state of emergency]] and ordered the recruitment of [[World War I]] veterans into militias called the [[Freikorps]]. Although officially answering to Defense Minister [[Gustav Noske]], the Freikorps tended to be drunken, trigger happy, and loyal only to their own commanders. However, they were instrumental in the defeat of the 1919 [[Spartacist Uprising]] and the annexation of the short-lived [[Bavarian Soviet Republic]]. The most famous victims of the Freikorps were the Communist leaders [[Karl Liebknecht]] and [[Rosa Luxemburg]], who were captured after the suppression of the Spartacist Uprising and shot without trial. After the Freikorps units turned against the Republic in the [[monarchist]] [[Kapp Putsch]], many of the leaders were forced to flee abroad and the units were largely disbanded.

Some Freikorps veterans drifted into the [[Nationalism#Ultranationalism|ultra-nationalist]] [[Organisation Consul]], which regarded the [[Armistice of 11 November 1918|1918 Armistice]] and the [[Versailles Treaty]] as treasonous and assassinated politicians who were associated with them. Among their victims were [[Matthias Erzberger]] and [[Walther Rathenau]], both of whom were cabinet ministers in the Weimar regime.

In addition, the city of [[Munich]] remained a headquarters of Russian [[White émigré]] hit teams, which targeted those who were believed to have betrayed [[Nicholas II of Russia|the Tsar]]. Their most infamous operation remains the 1922 attempt on the life of [[Russian Provisional Government]] statesman [[Pavel Miliukov]] in Berlin. When newspaper publisher [[Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov]] attempted to shield the intended victim, he was fatally shot by assassin [[Piotr Shabelsky-Bork]].

During the same era, the [[Communist Party of Germany]] also operated its own assassination squads. Titled, the [[Rotfrontkämpferbund]] they carried out assassinations of carefully selected individuals from the Weimar Republic as well as assassinations of members of rival political parties. The most infamous operations of Weimar-era Communist death squads remain the 1931 slayings of [[Berlin Police]] captains [[Paul Anlauf]] and [[Franz Lenck]]. Those involved in the ambush either fled to the [[Soviet Union]] or were arrested and prosecuted. Among those to receive the death penalty was [[Max Matern]], who was later glorified as a [[martyr]] by the [[East Germany|East German]] State. The last surviving conspirator, former [[Stasi|East German secret police]] head [[Erich Mielke]], was belatedly tried and convicted for the murders in 1993. The evidence needed to successfully prosecute him had been found in his personal safe after [[German reunification]].

===== Nazi Germany =====
{{Main|Einsatzgruppen|Order police battalions}}
[[File:Einsatzgruppen murder Jews in Ivanhorod, Ukraine, 1942.jpg|thumb|left|''Einsatzgruppen'' murder Jews in [[Ivanhorod]], Ukraine, 1942]]

Between 1933 and 1945, Germany was a [[one-party state]] ruled by the [[Fascism|fascist]] [[Nazi Party]] and its leader, [[Adolf Hitler]]. During this period, the Nazis made extensive use of death squads and targeted killings.

In 1934, Hitler ordered the extrajudicial killings of [[Ernst Röhm]] and all members of the [[Sturmabteilung]] who remained loyal to him. Simultaneously, Hitler also ordered a mass purge of the German [[Reichswehr]], targeting officers who, like General [[Kurt von Schleicher]], had opposed his drive for absolute power. These massacres have gone down in history as, "The [[Night of the Long Knives]]."

Following the [[Operation Barbarossa|invasion of the Soviet Union]] in 1941, the German [[Wehrmacht]] was followed by four travelling death squads called ''[[Einsatzgruppen]]'' to hunt down and murder Jews, Communists and other so-called undesirables in the occupied areas. This was the first of the [[massacre]]s which comprised [[the Holocaust]]. Typically, the victims, who included women and children, were forcibly marched from their homes to open graves or ravines before being shot. Many others suffocated in specially designed poison trucks called [[Nazi gas van|gas van]]s. Between 1941 and 1944, the ''Einsatzgruppen'' murdered some 7,4 million Soviet civilians,<ref>{{cite web |language=ru |trans-title=Russia and the USSR in the wars of the 20th century |title=Россия и СССР в войнах XX века |url=http://www.soldat.ru/doc/casualties/book/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100722001916/http://www.soldat.ru/doc/casualties/book/ |access-date=10 July 2022 |archive-date=2010-07-22 }}</ref> 1.3&nbsp;million Jews, as well as tens of thousands of suspected political dissidents, most of the [[Intelligenzaktion|Polish upper class and intelligentsia]], [[POW]]s, and uncounted numbers of [[Romani people|Romany]].{{sfn|Rhodes|2002|p=257}} These tactics ended only with the [[End of World War II in Europe|defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945]].

===== East Germany =====
Between the end of World War II and 1989, Germany was divided into the democratic and capitalist [[West Germany|Federal Republic of Germany]] and the Communist [[East Germany|German Democratic Republic]], a one-party state under the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany|Socialist Unity Party]] and its [[secret police]], the [[Stasi]]. During these years, kangaroo courts and cavalier use of the [[death penalty]] were routinely used against suspected enemies of the State.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}} In order to prevent East German citizens from defecting to the West, orders were issued to border guards to [[Schießbefehl|shoot suspected defectors on sight]]. During the 1980s, the Stasi carried out a mission to hunt down and assassinate West Germans who were suspected of smuggling East Germans.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}

On the orders of the Party leadership and Stasi chief [[Erich Mielke]], the East German Government financed, armed, and trained, "urban guerrillas," from numerous countries. According to ex-Stasi Colonel Rainer Wiegand, ties to terrorist organizations were overseen by [[Markus Wolf]] and Department Three of the Stasi's foreign intelligence wing.<ref>Koehler (1999), pages 362-363.</ref> Members of the West German ''[[Rote Armee Fraktion]]'',<ref>Koehler (1999), pages 387-401.</ref> the [[Chile]]an ''[[Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front]]'',<ref>Koehler (1999), pages 311-315.</ref> and the [[South Africa under Apartheid|South Africa]]n ''[[Umkhonto we Sizwe]]''<ref>Koehler (1999), pages 316-318.</ref> were brought to East Germany for training in the use of military hardware and, "the leadership role of the Party."<ref>Koehler (1999), page 313.</ref> Similar treatment was meted out to Palestinian terrorists from the ''[[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine]]'', ''[[Abu Nidal]]'', and ''[[Black September (group)|Black September]]''.<ref>Koehler (1999), pages 359-386.</ref>

Other Stasi agents worked as [[military adviser]]s to African Marxist guerrillas and the governments they later formed. They included the [[Namibia]]n ''[[SWAPO]]'' and the [[Angola]]n ''[[MPLA]]'' during the [[South African Border War]], the ''[[FRELIMO]]'' during the [[Mozambican War of Independence]] and [[Mozambican Civil War|civil war]], and [[Robert Mugabe]]'s ''[[ZANLA]]'' during the [[Rhodesian Bush War]].<ref>Koehler (1999), page 317.</ref>

Colonel Wiegand revealed that Mielke and Wolf provided bodyguards from the Stasi's counter-terrorism division for Senior PLO terrorist [[Carlos the Jackal]]<ref>Koehler (1999), pages 368-371.</ref> and ''Black September'' leader [[Abu Daoud]]<ref>Koehler (1999), pages 363-367.</ref> during their visits to the GDR. Col. Wiegand had been sickened by the 1972 [[Munich massacre]] and was horrified that the GDR would treat the man who ordered it as an honored guest. When he protested, Wiegand was told that Abu Daoud was, "a friend of our country, a high-ranking political functionary," and that there was no proof that he was a terrorist.<ref>Koehler (1999), pages 365-366.</ref>

During the 1980s, Wiegand secretly recruited a Libyan diplomat into spying on his colleagues. Wiegand's informant told him that the [[La Belle bombing]] and other terrorist attacks against western citizens were being planned at the Libyan Embassy in East Berlin. When Wiegand showed him a detailed report, Mielke informed the SED's Politburo, which ordered the Colonel to continue surveillance but not interfere with the plans of the Libyans.<ref>Koehler (1999), pages 325-357.</ref>

Shortly before [[German Reunification]], West Germany's [[Federal Constitutional Court of Germany|Federal Constitutional Court]] indicted former Stasi chief Erich Mielke for collusion with two [[Red Army Faction]] terrorist attacks against U.S. military personnel. The first was the [[car bomb]] attack at [[Ramstein Air Base]] on 31 August 1981. The second was the [[attempted murder]] of [[United States Army]] General [[Frederick Kroesen]] at [[Heidelberg]] on 15 September 1981.<ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-04-28-mn-1594-story.html Ex-E. German Official Charged With Fraud and Embezzlement], ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', 28 April 1991.</ref><ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-03-27-mn-961-story.html "World IN BRIEF : GERMANY : Ex-Security Chief Accused in Attack"], ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', 27 March 1991.</ref> The latter attack, which was carried out by RAF members [[Brigitte Mohnhaupt]] and [[Christian Klar]], involved firing an [[RPG-7]] [[anti-tank rocket]] into the General's armored Mercedes.<ref>[http://www.stripes.com/news/baader-meinhof-gang-attacked-u-s-troops-bases-in-1970s-1980s-1.36617 Stars and Stripes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141221033521/http://www.stripes.com/news/baader-meinhof-gang-attacked-u-s-troops-bases-in-1970s-1980s-1.36617 |date=21 December 2014 }} Published: 5 August 2005</ref><ref>{{Cite book|first=John E.|last=Jessup|title=An encyclopedic dictionary of conflict and conflict resolution, 1945-1996|page=409|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hP7jJAkTd9MC&pg=PA409|format=Google books|access-date=6 December 2010|isbn=978-0-313-28112-9|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=1998}}</ref> Due to reasons of [[senile dementia]], Mielke was never placed on trial for either attack.

===== Federal Republic of Germany =====
Following [[German reunification]], death squads linked to foreign intelligence services have continued to operate in Germany. The most infamous example of this remains the 1992 [[Mykonos restaurant assassinations]], in which a group of anti-Islamist Iranians were fatally machine-gunned in a Greek restaurant in Berlin. A German court ultimately convicted the assassins and exposed the involvement of intelligence services of the [[Islamic Republic of Iran]]. The murder and subsequent trial has been publicized in the nonfiction bestseller ''The Assassins of the Turquois Palace'' by [[Roya Hakakian]].

==== Hungary ====
{{Main|The Holocaust in Hungary}}<!-- [[WP:NFCC]] violation: [[File:Holocaust-ArrowCross-DohanySynagogue.jpg|thumb|Jewish victims of Arrow Cross men in the court of the [[Dohány Street Synagogue]]]] -->
For most of [[World War II]], Hungary was a military ally of [[Nazi Germany]]. After being threatened in late June or early July 1944 by [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], [[Winston Churchill]] and others with post-war retribution on 7 July 1944 Hungary's Regent  Admiral [[Miklós Horthy]] ordered stopping the deportation of [[History of the Jews in Hungary|Hungarian Jews]] to [[Auschwitz]], which until then took daily about 12,000 Jews to their death.

Then, in October 1944, Horthy announced a cease-fire with the [[Allies of World War II|Allied powers]] and ordered the [[Royal Hungarian Army]] to lay down their arms. In response, Nazi Germany launched [[Operation Panzerfaust]], a covert operation which forced Horthy to abdicate in favour of the Fascist and militantly racist [[Arrow Cross Party]], which was led by [[Ferenc Szálasi]]. This was followed by an Arrow Cross [[coup]] in Budapest on the same day. Szálasi was declared "Leader of the Nation" and prime minister of a "[[Government of National Unity (Hungary)|Government of National Unity]]".

Arrow Cross rule, despite lasting only three months, was brutal. Death squads killed as many as 38,000 Hungarians. Arrow Cross officers helped [[Adolf Eichmann]] re-activate the deportation proceedings from which the Jews of Budapest had previously been spared, sending some 80,000 Jews out of the city on slave labor details and many more straight to death camps. Many Jewish males of conscription age were already serving as slave labor for the Hungarian Army's [[Labour service (Hungary)|Forced Labor Battalions]]. Most of them died, including many who were murdered outright after the end of the fighting as they were returning home. Quickly formed battalions raided the [[Yellow-star house|Yellow Star Houses]] and combed the streets, hunting down Jews claimed to be partisans and saboteurs since Jews attacked Arrow Cross squads at least six to eight times with gunfire.<ref name="remeny.org">{{cite web| url=http://www.remeny.org/node/36| title=Szita Szabolcs: A budapesti csillagos házak (1944–45)| date=15 February 2006| access-date=18 May 2013| archive-date=13 February 2012| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120213154924/http://www.remeny.org/node/36| url-status=live}}</ref> These approximately 200 Jews were taken to the bridges crossing the [[Danube]], where they were shot and their bodies borne away by the waters of the river because many were attached to weights while they were handcuffed to each other in pairs.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Siege: The Arrow Cross - Persecution of the Jews|publisher=[[Blinken Open Society Archives]]|url=http://w3.osaarchivum.org/galeria/sites/siege/section2.html|access-date=8 September 2021|archive-date=8 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210908102558/http://w3.osaarchivum.org/galeria/sites/siege/section2.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Red Army]] troops on their way to [[Nazi Germany]] reached the outskirts of [[Budapest]] in December 1944, and the intense [[Battle of Budapest]] began. Days before he fled the city, Arrow Cross Interior Minister [[Gábor Vajna]] commanded that streets and squares named after Jews be renamed.<ref>Patai, p. 586</ref>

As control of the city's institutions began to decay, the Arrow Cross trained their guns on the most helpless possible targets: patients in the beds of the city's two Jewish hospitals on Maros Street and Bethlen Square, and residents in the Jewish poorhouse on Alma Road. Arrow Cross members continually sought to raid the ghettos and Jewish concentration buildings; the majority of Budapest's Jews were saved only by a handful of Jewish leaders and foreign diplomats, most famously the Swedish [[Raoul Wallenberg]], the [[Papal Nuncio]] Monsignor [[Angelo Rotta]], Swiss Consul [[Carl Lutz]] and [[Francoist Spain]]'s [[consul general]], [[Giorgio Perlasca]].<ref>Patai, p. 589</ref> Szálasi knew that the documents used by these diplomats to save Jews were invalid according to international law, but ordered that they be respected.<ref name="nepszava.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.nepszava.com/index.php?topic=102&page=4147|title=Szálasi Ferenc és a hungaristák zsidópolitikája volt a jobb|access-date=20 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090202103143/http://www.nepszava.com/index.php?topic=102&page=4147|archive-date=2 February 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The Arrow Cross government effectively fell at the end of January 1945, when the Soviet Army took Pest and their enemies forces retreated across the Danube to Buda. Szálasi had escaped from Budapest on 11 December 1944,<ref name="nepszava.com" /> taking with him the [[Holy Crown of Hungary|Hungarian royal crown]], while Arrow Cross members and German forces continued to fight a rear-guard action in the far west of Hungary until the end of the war in April 1945.

After the war, many of the Arrow Cross leaders were captured and tried for [[war crime]]s. Many were executed, including Ferenc Szálasi. Fr. [[András Kun]], a [[Roman Catholic]] priest who commanded an Arrow Cross death squad while dressed in his [[cassock]], was also convicted and hanged after the war. Fr. Kun's cassock remains on permanent display at the [[House of Terror]] in [[Budapest]].

==== Ireland ====
===== Irish War of Independence =====
As British authority in Ireland began to disintegrate, Prime Minister [[David Lloyd George]] declared a [[state of emergency]]. In order to defeat the IRA, [[Winston Churchill]], the [[Secretary of State for War]], suggested the recruitment of [[World War I|First World War]] veterans into a paramilitary law enforcement group which would be integrated into the RIC. Lloyd George agreed to the proposal, and advertisements were filed in British newspapers. Groups of formerly enlisted men were formed into the [[Black and Tans]], so called because of the mixture of surplus military and RIC uniforms they were given. Veterans who had held officers rank were formed into the [[Auxiliary Division]] of the RIC, the members of which were higher paid and received better supplies. Members of both units, however, were despised by the Irish public, against whom the "Tans" and "Auxies" routinely retaliated against for IRA raids and assassinations.<ref>Guerrilla Warfare in the Irish War of Independence, 1919–1921, pp.178–181</ref>

Members of the [[Government of the United Kingdom]], the [[British rule in Ireland|British administration in Ireland]], and senior officers in the RIC tacitly supported reprisals as a way of scaring the Irish into rejecting the IRA. In December 1920, the British government officially approved certain reprisals against property. There were an estimated 150 official reprisals over the next six months. This further eroded support for British rule among the Irish populace.<ref>Coleman, Marie. ''The Irish Revolution, 1916–1923''. Routledge, 2013. pp.86–87</ref>

[[File:Outside the London and North Western Hotel in Dublin, April 21, 1921.jpg|thumb|A group of [[Black and Tans]] in Dublin, April 1921.]]

On 20 March 1920, [[Tomás Mac Curtain]], the nationalist [[Lord Mayor]] of [[Cork (city)|Cork]], was shot dead in front of his wife and son by a group of RIC officers with blackened faces.<ref name="tpc">{{cite book | last = Coogan | first = Tim Pat | author-link = Tim Pat Coogan | title = Michael Collins | publisher = Arrow Books | year = 1991 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/michaelcollinsbi00coog/page/123 123–124] | isbn = 978-0-09-968580-7 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/michaelcollinsbi00coog/page/123 }}</ref>

Enraged, Collins ordered the Twelve Apostles to hunt down and assassinate every one of the RIC officers involved in Mac Curtain's murder. On 22 August 1920, RIC District Inspector Oswald Swanzy, who had ordered the assassination, was shot dead with Mac Curtain's revolver while leaving a [[Protestantism in Ireland|Protestant]] church service in [[Lisburn]], [[County Antrim]]. This sparked a "[[pogrom]]" against the [[Catholic Church in Ireland|Catholic]] residents of the town.<ref>Coogan, p. 149.</ref><ref>'When the killing starts do you defend God or family?' [[Irish Independent]], [http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/when-the-killing-starts-do-you-defend-god-or-family-1462108.html Independent.ie] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022075122/http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/when-the-killing-starts-do-you-defend-god-or-family-1462108.html |date=22 October 2012 }}, accessed 15/12/09,</ref>

On [[Bloody Sunday (1920)|Bloody Sunday]], Collins' men set out to assassinate members of a [[British intelligence agencies|British intelligence group]] known as the [[Cairo Gang]], killing or fatally wounding fifteen men, some of whom were unconnected to the Gang. In one incident, the IRA group was heard to scream, "May the Lord have mercy on your souls", before opening fire.<ref>T. Ryle Dwyer, ''The Squad and the Intelligence Operations of Michael Collins'', [[Mercier Press]], 2005. Pages 172–187.</ref>

Collins later said of the incident:

<blockquote>

My one intention was the destruction of the undesirables who continued to make miserable the lives of ordinary decent citizens. I have proof enough to assure myself of the atrocities which this gang of spies and informers have committed. If I had a second motive it was no more than a feeling such as I would have for a dangerous reptile. By their destruction the very air is made sweeter. For myself, my conscience is clear. There is no crime in detecting in wartime the spy and the informer. They have destroyed without trial. I have paid them back in their own coin.<ref>Dwyer, p. 191</ref></blockquote>

That afternoon, the Auxiliary Division opened fire into the crowd during a [[Gaelic football]] match at [[Croke Park]] in retaliation, killing 14 and wounding 68 players and spectators.

The hostilities ended in 1921 with the signing of the [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]], which guaranteed the independence of the [[Irish Free State]].

===== Irish Civil War =====
[[File:Prisoner (6417469255).jpg|thumb|left|Irish Army soldiers escorting a captured IRA member]]

After independence, Irish nationalist movement divided over the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which granted a partitioned Ireland [[Dominion]] status within the [[British Empire]]. Furthermore, all officials of the new [[Irish Free State]] were required to take an [[oath of allegiance]] to [[George V|King George V]].

As a result, the [[Irish Civil War]] was fought between those [[Irish nationalism|Irish nationalists]] who accepted the Treaty and those who considered it treasonous. Although fought between men who had recently served together against the British, the fighting was often without quarter and brutal atrocities were committed by both sides.

In IRA communications, the Irish State was referred to as, "The Imperial Gang", the "Murder Government", and as "a British-imposed Dáil". Therefore, Irish men and women who supported the Free State were regarded as traitors. At the orders of IRA Chief of Staff [[Liam Lynch (Irish republican)|Liam Lynch]], [[Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)|Anti-Treaty IRA]] began raising money for their cause via [[armed robbery]] of banks and post offices. On 30 November 1922, Liam Lynch issued what were dubbed the "orders of frightfulness", in which he ordered IRA members to assassinate members of the Irish Parliament, or Dáil Éireann, and Senators whenever possible. This General Order sanctioned the assassination of certain judges and newspaper editors. The IRA also launched a concerted [[arson]] campaign against the homes of members of the Dáil, or TDs. Among these attacks were the burning of the house of TD James McGarry, resulting in the death of his seven-year-old son and the murder of Free state minister [[Kevin O'Higgins]] elderly father and burning of his family home at [[Stradbally]] in early 1923.

After TD [[Seán Hales]] was assassinated, the Dáil began to treat the civil war as a [[state of emergency]]. They voted to retaliate by [[Summary execution|summarily executing]] four captured members of IRA Executive — [[Rory O'Connor (Irish republican)|Rory O'Connor]], [[Liam Mellows]], [[Richard Barrett (Irish republican)|Richard Barrett]] and [[Joe McKelvey]]. After the motion passed, all four men were executed by [[firing squad]] on 8 December 1922. During the conflict, at least 73 other captured IRA men were treated in the same fashion—some following [[court martial]], others without trial. There are no conclusive figures for the number of unofficial executions of captured IRA insurgents, but Republican officer [[Todd Andrews]] estimated 153.<ref>Todd Andrews, Dublin Made Me, p269</ref> (see [[Executions during the Irish Civil War]]).

At the beginning of the Civil War, the Irish State formed a special [[counter-terrorism]] police, which was called the [[Criminal Investigation Department (Ireland)|Criminal Investigation Department]]. Based in Dublin's Oriel House, the CID were despised by the Anti-Treaty IRA, which referred to them as "The Murder Gang". During the [[Battle of Dublin]], the CID is known to have shot 25 Anti-Treaty militants, officially while, "resisting arrest." Ultimately, the Irish State disbanded CID upon the cessation of hostilities in 1923.

Despite the best efforts of the Anti-Treaty forces, both the [[Irish Army]] and the CID proved highly effective in both combat and intelligence work. One tactic involved placing IRA message couriers under surveillance, which routinely led the Irish security forces to senior members of the insurgency.

According to historian Tom Mahon, the Irish Civil War "effectively ended" on 10 April 1923, when the Irish Army tracked down and mortally wounded Liam Lynch during a skirmish in the [[Knockmealdown Mountains]] of [[County Tipperary]]. Twenty days later, Lynch's successor, [[Frank Aiken]], gave the order to "Surrender and dump arms."<ref>Tom Mahon & James J. Gillogly, ''Decoding the IRA'', [[Mercier Press]], 2008. Page 66.</ref>

==== Poland ====
According to Polish journalist [[Leszek Szymowski]], at least one death squad operated in Poland at the end of the [[Cold War]] and after the regime change of 1989, and was responsible for the assassination of the former prime minister [[Piotr Jaroszewicz]] and his spouse Alicja Solska as well as several Polish Catholic priests between January and July 1989 to include Stefan Niedzielak, Stanisław Suchowolec and [[Sylwester Zych]].<ref>Leszek Szymowski. (2020). "Operation "The round table" (Capital); (2016) "The priest-killers" "Księżobójcy. Anatomia zbrodni" (Editions Spotkania), ISBN 978-83-7965-212-9.</ref> 

===== The Serial Suicider =====
The term "serial suicider" was coined in Polish culture to denote the cases of mysterious deaths appearing as suicidal, which were usually attributed to the authorities.<ref>Leszek Szymowski. (2013). "The serial suicider" "Seryjny Samobójca" (Bollinari Publishing House), ISBN 978-8363865-05-4. See also: https://wlocie.pl/wydarzenia/seryjny-samobojca-andrzej-lepper-lista/.</ref>

==== Russia ====
===== Russian Empire =====
{{Main|Oprichnik|Individual terror|White Terror (Russia)}}
[[File:0NevrevNV Oprichniki BISH.jpg|thumb|''Oprichniki'', painting by [[Nikolai Nevrev]]]]

The first organized use of death squad violence in Russia dates from the 16th century reign of [[Ivan the Terrible]], the first Russian monarch to claim the title of [[Tsar]]. Named the [[Oprichniki]], they wore [[quiver]]s which contained brooms, symbolizing their mission to ferret the enemies of the Tsar. They dressed in black garb, which was similar to a [[Russian Orthodox Church|Russian Orthodox]] [[monastic habit]], and bore the insignia of a severed dog's head (to sniff out [[treason]] and the enemies of the Tsar) and a broom (to sweep them away). The dog's head was also symbolic of their "nipping at the heels of the Tsar's enemies." They were sometimes called the "Tsar's Dogs" on account of their loyalty to him. They also rode black horses in order to inspire a greater level of terror.

Their oath of allegiance was:
''I swear to be true to the Lord, Grand Prince, and his realm, to the young Grand Princes, and to the Grand Princess, and not to maintain silence about any evil that I may know or have heard or may hear which is being contemplated against the Tsar, his realms, the young princes or the Tsaritsa. I swear also not to eat or drink with the zemshchina, and not to have anything in common with them. On this I kiss the cross.''<ref>Isabel de Madariaga, Ivan the Terrible, page 183</ref>

Led by [[Malyuta Skuratov]], the Oprichniki routinely tortured and executed whomever the Tsar suspected of treason, including [[boyar]]s, merchants, clergymen, commoners, and even entire cities. The memoirs of [[Heinrich von Staden (author)|Heinrich von Staden]], provide a detailed description of both the Tsar's motivations and the inner workings of the Oprichniki.

The most famous victims of the Oprichniki remains Kyr [[Philip II, Metropolitan of Moscow|Philip Kolychev]], the [[Metropolitan bishop]] of [[Moscow]]. The Metropolitan gave a sermon in the Tsar's presence in which he rebuked Ivan for terrorizing and murdering large numbers of innocent people and their families. Enraged, Tsar Ivan convened a Church council which declared Metropolitan Philip [[defrocked]] and imprisoned in a monastery for delinquent clergy. Years later, Tsar Ivan sent an emissary demanding Metropolitan Philip's blessing on his plans for the [[Novgorod massacre]]. Metropolitan Philip said, "Only the good are blessed."

Enraged, Tsar Ivan sent Skuratov to personally strangle the Metropolitan in his monastic cell. Metropolitan Philip was subsequently glorified as a Saint by the Russian Orthodox Church.

In later centuries, Russian Tsars would declare a [[state of emergency]] and use death squad tactics in order to suppress domestic uprisings like [[Pugachev's Rebellion]] and the [[Russian Revolution of 1905]]. During the latter, Tsar [[Nicholas II of Russia]] ordered the [[Imperial Russian Army]] to ally itself with the [[Black Hundreds]], an [[ultra-nationalist]] paramilitary group. Those captured in arms against the Tsar's forces were tried by military tribunals before being hanged or shot. According to [[Simon Sebag Montefiore]], being caught wearing similar clothing to Anti-Tsarist militias was often enough for court martial followed by execution. These tactics were continued by the [[anti-communist]] [[White Movement]] during the [[Russian Civil War]] (1917-1920).

Opponents of the [[House of Romanov]] also carried out targeted killings of those deemed as enemies of Socialism, which was referred to as [[individual terror]]. Among them were the [[People's Will]], the [[Bolshevik]] Battle Squad, and the Combat Brigade of the [[Socialist Revolutionary Party]]. Among the victims of Marxist death squads were Tsar [[Alexander II of Russia]], the [[Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia]], and the [[Georgian language]] poet and publisher [[Ilia Chavchavadze]]. These tactics were drastically accelerated following the [[October Revolution]].

===== Soviet Union =====
{{Main|Political repression in the Soviet Union|Purges of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union}}
Following the [[Bolshevik Revolution]], the former Russian Empire spent 74 years as the [[Soviet Union]], a one-party state ruled by the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]. Especially between 1917 and 1953, the CPSU routinely ordered the abduction, torture, and execution of massive numbers of real and suspected anti-communists. Those with upper class origins were routinely targeted in this way during the early years of the Soviet Union.

Most of the repression was committed by the regular forces of the state, like the army and the police, but there were also many cases of clandestine and covert operations.

During the interwar period, the [[NKVD]] routinely targeted anti-Stalinists in the West for abduction or murder. Among them were the CPSU's former Commissar of War, [[Leon Trotsky]], who was assassinated in [[Mexico City]] on 21 August 1940 by NKVD officer [[Ramon Mercador]]. Furthermore, former [[White Army]] Generals [[Alexander Kutepov]] and [[Evgeny Miller]] were abducted in Paris by the NKVD. Kutepov is alleged to have had a [[Myocardial infarction|heart attack]] before he could be smuggled back to Moscow and shot. General Miller was not so fortunate and died in Moscow's [[Lubyanka Building|Lubianka Prison]]. [[Yevhen Konovalets]], the founder of the [[Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists]], was blown to bits by NKVD officer [[Pavel Sudoplatov]] in [[Rotterdam]] on 23 May 1938.

In the post-war period, the Russian Orthodox Church collaborated with the Soviet State in a campaign to eliminate [[Eastern Rite Catholicism]] in the newly annexed regions of the [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic]].<ref>Rev. Christopher Zugger, ''Finding a Hidden Church'', Eastern Christian Publications, 2009.</ref> Priests and laity who refused to convert to Orthodoxy were either assassinated or deported to the [[Gulag|GULAGs]] in [[Karaganda]].<ref>''Finding a Hidden Church'', pages 33–212.</ref> On 27 October 1947, the NKVD staged a car accident in order to assassinate the [[Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church|Ukrainian Greek-Catholic]] Bishop [[Theodore Romzha]] of [[Mukachevo]].<ref>''Finding a Hidden Church'', pages 78–82.</ref> When the "accident" failed to kill the Bishop, the NKVD poisoned him in his hospital bed on 1 November 1947.<ref>''Finding a Hidden Church'', page 82-86.</ref>

Even in the post-Stalin era, the Soviet secret police continued to assassinate [[Anti-communism|anti-communists]] in the West. Two of the most notable victims were [[Lev Rebet]] and [[Stepan Bandera]], [[Ukrainian nationalism|Ukrainian nationalists]] who were assassinated by the [[KGB]] in [[Munich]], [[West Germany]]. Both deaths were believed to be accidental until 1961, when their murderer, [[Bohdan Stashynsky]], defected to the West with his wife and voluntarily surrendered to [[West Germany|West German]] authorities.

===== Russian Federation =====
The [[Russian Armed Forces]] has been accused of using death squads against [[Caucasian Front (Chechen War)|Chechen insurgents]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thenation.com/doc/20031013/bivins |title=13 October 2003 |work=The Nation |access-date=13 November 2011 |archive-date=16 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090116054630/http://www.thenation.com/doc/20031013/bivins |url-status=live }}</ref> After defecting to the United States in October 2000, [[Sergei Tretyakov (intelligence officer)|Sergei Tretyakov]], an [[Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia)|SVR]] agent, accused the [[Government of Russia|Government of the Russian Federation]] of following Soviet-era practices by routinely assassinating its critics abroad.

==== Spain ====
Prior to World War II, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union fought a war by proxy during the [[Spanish Civil War]]. There were death squads used by both the [[Falangist]]s and Republicans during this conflict. Prominent victims of the era's death squad violence include the poet [[Federico García Lorca]], [[José Robles]], and journalist [[Ramiro Ledesma Ramos]]. (see also [[Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War]]).

The Republican death squads were heavily staffed by members of [[Joseph Stalin]]'s [[OGPU]] and targeted members of the [[Catholic Church in Spain|Catholic clergy]] and the [[Spanish nobility]] for assassination (see [[Red Terror (Spain)|Red Terror]]).

According to author [[Donald Rayfield]]:

<blockquote>Stalin, [[Nikolai Yezhov|Yezhov]], and [[Lavrentiy Beria|Beria]] distrusted Soviet participants in the Spanish war. Military advisors like [[Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko]], journalists like [[Mikhail Koltsov|Koltsov]] were open to infection by the heresies, especially [[Leon Trotsky|Trotsky]]'s, prevalent among the Republic's supporters. [[NKVD]] agents sent to Spain were therefore keener on abducting and murdering anti-Stalinists among Republican leaders and [[International Brigade]] commanders than on fighting [[Francisco Franco|Franco]]. The defeat of the Republic, in Stalin's eyes, was caused not by the NKVD's diversionary efforts, but by the treachery of the heretics.<ref>Donald Rayfield, ''Stalin and his Hangmen: The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him'', [[Random House]], 2004. Pages 362–363.</ref></blockquote>

[[John Dos Passos]] later wrote:

<blockquote>I have come to think, especially since my trip to Spain, that civil liberties must be protected at every stage. In Spain I am sure that the introduction of [[State Political Directorate|GPU]] methods by the Communists did as much harm as their tank men, pilots and experienced military men did good. The trouble with an all powerful secret police in the hands of fanatics, or of anybody, is that once it gets started there's no stopping it until it has corrupted the whole body politic.<ref>[[John Patrick Diggins|Diggins, John Patrick]], "'Organization is Death': John Dos Passos," and "Visions of Order: Dos Passos," in ''Up From Communism'', 1975, [[Columbia University Press]], then Harper & Row, pp. 74-117, and pp. 233-268.</ref></blockquote>

The ranks of the Republican assassination squads included [[Erich Mielke]], the future head of the East German [[Stasi|Ministry of State Security]]. Walter Janka, a veteran of the Republican forces who remembers him described Mielke's career as follows:

<blockquote>While I was fighting at the front, shooting at the Fascists, Mielke served in the rear, shooting [[Trotskyites]] and Anarchists.<ref>John Koehler, ''The Stasi'' (1999), page 48.</ref> </blockquote>

In the modern era, death squads, including the [[Batallón Vasco Español]], [[Triple A (Spain)|Triple A]], [[Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación]] (GAL) were illegally set up by officials within the Spanish government to fight [[ETA (separatist group)|ETA]]. They were active from 1975 until 1987, operating under [[Spanish Socialist Workers' Party]] cabinets from 1982.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

==== United Kingdom ====

During [[the Troubles]], an ethno-nationalist conflict in [[Northern Ireland]] which lasted from the 1960s until the 1990s, numerous accusations of collusion between the British state and [[Ulster loyalism|Loyalist]] paramilitaries were made. The [[Military Reaction Force]] (MRF), a disbanded British [[Intelligence Corps (United Kingdom)|Intelligence Corps]] unit which operated undercover in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, was described by a former member as a "legalised death squad".<ref>{{Cite news| url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24987465| title=Army unit 'killed unarmed civilians'| work=BBC News| date=2013-11-21| access-date=5 October 2018| archive-date=31 August 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180831003329/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24987465| url-status=live}}</ref> In an interview, another former MRF member stated that "If you had a player who was a well-known shooter who carried out quite a lot of assassinations... then he had to be taken out. [They were] killers themselves, and they had no mercy for anybody."<ref>{{Cite news| url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24987465| title=undercover soldiers| work=BBC News| date=2020-02-06| access-date=5 October 2018| archive-date=31 August 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180831003329/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24987465| url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]] (IRA), an Irish republican paramilitary organisation, was also operating death squads in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Historians have described the IRA's [[Internal Security Unit]] as a death squad, which targeted suspected informers by conducting investigations, interrogating suspects and executing those the IRA thought were guilty of passing on information to British security forces.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Ingram | first1 = Martin | author-link = Martin Ingram | last2 = Harkin | first2 = Greg | title = Stakeknife: Britain's Secret Agents in Ireland | date = 2004 | publisher = [[O'Brien Press]] | pages = 95–98 | isbn = 978-0862788438}}</ref> Prior to any execution carried out by the Internal Security Unit, an ''ad hoc'' [[court-martial]] of the suspected informer would take place, and any death sentence passed would need to be ratified by the [[IRA Army Council]] in advance.<ref>{{cite book | last = Taylor | first = Peter | author-link = Peter Taylor (journalist) | title = States of Terror | publisher = [[BBC]] | year = 1993 | page = 153 | isbn = 0-563-36774-1}}</ref> IRA members carried out extrajudicial killings and massacres of protestant civilians, most notably the [[Kingsmill massacre]], in which 136 rounds were spent against eleven unarmed and nonresisting protestant men on their way home from work.

==== Yugoslavia ====
{{Main|Srebrenica Massacre}}
The [[Srebrenica Massacre]], also known as the [[Srebrenica Genocide]],<ref>{{cite news|title=Mladic shadow hangs over Srebrenica trial|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/aug/21/warcrimes|date=21 August 2006|access-date=1 November 2008|work=The Guardian|location=London|archive-date=10 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220710175146/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/aug/21/warcrimes|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Post_Aug06">{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/20/AR2006082000360.html|title=Srebrenica Genocide Trial to Restart|last=Corder|first=Mike|date=20 August 2006|agency=Associated Press|access-date=1 November 2008|newspaper=The Washington Post|archive-date=30 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181030131242/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/20/AR2006082000360.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7461310.stm|title=UN Srebrenica immunity questioned|date=18 June 2008|publisher=BBC|access-date=1 November 2008|archive-date=31 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200131052444/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7461310.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> was the July 1995 killing of an estimated 8,000 [[Bosniaks|Bosniak]] men and boys, as well as the ethnic cleansing of 1,000–2,000 refugees in the area of [[Srebrenica]] in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by units of the [[Army of Republika Srpska]] (VRS) [[command responsibility|under the command]] of General [[Ratko Mladić]] during the [[Bosnian War]]. In addition to the VRS, a paramilitary unit from Serbia known as the [[Scorpions (paramilitary)|Scorpions]] participated in the massacre.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/24/AR2005062401501_pf.html |title=Srebrenica Video Vindicates Long Pursuit by Serb Activist |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=13 November 2011 |first=Daniel |last=Williams |archive-date=6 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106120900/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/24/AR2005062401501_pf.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In Potočari, some of the executions were carried out at night under arc lights, and industrial bulldozers then pushed the bodies into mass graves.<ref name="CNN-2006-05-03">Graham Jones. [http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/02/22/warcrimes.srebrenica/ Srebrenica: A Triumph of Evil] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120711190625/http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/02/22/warcrimes.srebrenica/ |date=11 July 2012 }}, CNN 3 May 2006</ref> According to evidence collected from Bosniaks by French policeman Jean-René Ruez, some were buried alive; he also heard testimony describing Serb forces killing and torturing refugees at will, streets littered with corpses, people committing suicide to avoid having their noses, lips and ears chopped off, and adults being forced to watch the soldiers kill their children.<ref name="CNN-2006-05-03"/>

In 2004, in a unanimous ruling on the "Prosecutor v. Krstić" case, the Appeals Chamber of the [[International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia]] (ICTY) located in [[The Hague]] ruled that the Srebrenica massacre was [[genocide]].<ref>{{cite web |title=APPEALS CHAMBER JUDGEMENT IN THE CASE THE PROSECUTOR v. RADISLAV KRSTI |url=https://www.icty.org/x/cases/krstic/acjug/en/040419_Krsti_summary_en.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110806021252/http://www.icty.org/x/cases/krstic/acjug/en/040419_Krsti_summary_en.pdf |archive-date=2011-08-06 |url-status=live |website=United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia |access-date=7 December 2020}}</ref>

== Human rights groups ==
{{Expand section|date=April 2022}}
Many [[human rights]] organisations like [[Amnesty International]] are campaigning against [[extrajudicial punishment]] along with the [[United Nations|UN]].<ref name=autogenerated1 /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.extrajudicialexecutions.org/ |title=Project on Extrajudicial Executions |publisher=Extrajudicialexecutions.org |access-date=13 November 2011 |archive-date=31 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111031004654/http://www.extrajudicialexecutions.org/ |url-status=usurped }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=22046&Cr=rights&Cr1=council |title=UN independent expert on extrajudicial killings urges action on reported incidents |publisher=United Nations |date=28 March 2007 |access-date=13 November 2011 |archive-date=1 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701100736/http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=22046&Cr=rights&Cr1=council |url-status=live }}</ref>

== See also ==
<!-- Please respect alphabetical order -->
*[[Arbitrary arrest and detention]]
*[[Manhunt (military)]]
*[[Midnight Man (TV serial)|''Midnight Man'' (TV serial)]]
*[[Outlaw]]
*[[Salvador Option]]
*[[Assassination]]
*[[Vigilante]]

===Agencies===
*[[Dirección General de Contrainteligencia Militar|DIM]] of [[Venezuela]]
*[[Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional|DINA]] of [[Chile]]
*''[[Einsatzgruppen]]'' of [[Nazi Germany]]
*[[PIDE]] of [[Portugal]]
*[[Securitate]] of the [[Socialist Republic of Romania]]
*[[Secretariat of Intelligence|SIDE]] of [[Argentina]]
*[[Stasi]] of [[East Germany]]
*[[National Information Service (Brazil)|National Information Service]] of [[Brazil]]
*[[SULFA]] of [[India]]
*[[ZOMO]] of the [[Polish People's Republic]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist|group=upper-alpha}}

==Sources==
*{{cite book | last = Rhodes | first = Richard | author-link = Richard Rhodes | title = Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust | location = New York | publisher = Vintage Books | year = 2002 | isbn = 978-0-375-70822-0 }}
* {{cite book |last=Tomasevich |first=Jozo |author-link=Jozo Tomasevich |year=2001 |title=War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: Occupation and Collaboration |publisher=Stanford University Press |location=Stanford Univ |isbn=978-0-8047-3615-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fqUSGevFe5MC}}

== Further reading ==
{{Main|Bibliography of genocide studies}}
*[http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/13328.html Death squad: The anthropology of state terror] Jeffrey Sluka (ed), University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999
*[http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/death-squads-in-global-perspective-bruce-b--campbell/?sf1=barcode&st1=9781403960948 Death squads in global perspective: Murder with deniability] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016175630/http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/death-squads-in-global-perspective-bruce-b--campbell/?sf1=barcode&st1=9781403960948 |date=16 October 2015 }} Bruce Campbell and Arthur Brenner (eds), Palgrave Macmillan, 2003
*[http://www86.homepage.villanova.edu/maghan.keita/readingsterrorism/terrorism/Mason,%20Political%20Economy%20of%20Death%20Squads.pdf The political economy of death squads: Toward a theory of the impact of state-sanctioned terror] T David Mason and Dale A Krane, International Studies Quarterly (33: 2), 1989, pp.&nbsp;175–198
*[http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745335704 Jallad: Death squads and state terror in South Asia]{{Dead link|date=July 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Tasneem Khalil, Pluto Press, 2015
*[http://hrln.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Secret-Killing-of-Assam.pdf Secret killings of Assam: The Horror Tales from the Land of Red River and Blue Hills] Mrinal Talukdar, Utpal Borpujari, Kaushik Deka, Nanda Talukdar Foundation, 2009

== External links ==
*[http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/2926696 Escadrons de la mort, l'école française (Death Squads, the French School – video in French, with Spanish subtitles)]
*[http://nsarchive.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/astonishing-discovery-of-remains-of-guatemalan-death-squad-diary-victims/ Astonishing Discovery of Remains of Guatemalan Death Squad Diary Victims]

{{genocide topics}}
{{Secret police of Communist Europe}} 
{{World topic|prefix=Extrajudicial killings in|title= [[Extrajudicial killing]] by country |noredlinks=yes}} 
{{Death}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Extrajudicial killings by type]]
[[Category:Law enforcement units]]
[[Category:National security]]
[[Category:Political repression]]
[[Category:Secret police]]
[[Category:Counterterrorism]]
[[Category:Paramilitary organizations]]
[[Category:Terrorism tactics]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:War crimes by type]]
[[Category:Dirty wars]]
[[Category:Politicides]]
[[Category:Enforced disappearance]]
[[Category:State-sponsored terrorism]]
[[Category:Genocide]]
[[Category:Revolutionary terror]]