The Mexican government’s “dirty war” between 1965 and 1990 saw the disposal of dissident bodies in “death flights,” according to new evidence released by Mexico’s Truth Commission.
Witnesses’ testimonies and leaked documents have provided chilling details about the last moments of victims, who were executed as part of an effort to eliminate leftist social and guerrilla movements. At a military airfield near Acapulco, victims believed they would be having their photos taken but were instead shot in the back of the head and dumped into the Pacific Ocean by plane.
Gustavo Tarín, a former military police unit member, estimated that up to 1,500 people may have been killed this way. He also mentioned that soldiers used the same pistol so frequently that they gave it a nickname: “the sword of justice.” Tarín claimed he participated in 15 such flights.
Margarito Monroy, a military aviation mechanic, revealed that some female victims were offered their release or the release of their husbands if they had sex with soldiers. However, he never witnessed any successful negotiations.
The Truth Commission has found log books for about 30 flights by one plane from the base between 1975 and 1979. A witness statement from a former armed forces deserter mentioned another 25 flights by a different plane, along with a list of 183 possible victims’ names.
Some of those names match individuals who disappeared during the government’s counter-insurgency campaign. The truth commission located records of executions in Mexico’s “dirty war,” which are relatively unknown compared to Argentina’s infamous “death flights.”
The Argentine case involved systematic extermination by military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983, resulting in an estimated 30,000 deaths. In contrast, the Mexican government’s executions seemed more disorganized and targeted small rural guerrilla movements in Guerrero state.
However, the scope of the Mexican killings appears broader than previously thought. Fishermen recalled seeing bodies wash up on shore, which were then allegedly placed in weighted sacks before being dumped into the ocean.
The Truth Commission report details thousands of abuses committed by the government against farmers, students, union activists, and Indigenous groups during the “dirty war.” The report cited evidence that nationwide, approximately 4,500 people suffered severe abuse. Of those, around 1,450 were killed, while another 517 simply disappeared without a trace.
The government has attempted to locate remains in clandestine grave sites but with limited success, recovering only seven victims’ remains during the commission’s work. The report’s authors noted that institutions involved in the abuses denied or destroyed documents to “hide the truth.”
The Truth Commission called for an investigation into 600 possible perpetrators of the abuse, although many may have passed away by now. In 2004, former president Luis Echeverría became the first Mexican head of state formally accused of wrongdoing related to the “dirty war.” However, he was later cleared of genocide charges due to a statute of limitations issue.
Source: AP
