Dirty War (Mexico)

La guerra sucia, or the dirty war, refers to the internal war between the Mexican PRI-ruled government and left-wing student and guerrilla groups in the 1960s and 1970s under the presidencies of Luis Echeverría and José López Portillo. The war was characterized by a backlash against the active student movement of the late 1960s which terminated in the Tlatelolco massacre at a 1968 student rally in Mexico City, in which 30 to 300 (official report, non-governmental sources claim thousands) students were killed. During the war, government forces carried out disappearances, estimated at 1,200, systematic torture, and "probable extralegal executions".

There were several barely connected groups fighting against the government during this period. Among the most important, the 23 of September Communist League was at the forefront of the conflict, active in several cities throughout Mexico, drawing heavily from Christian Socialist and Marxist student organizations. They carried out confrontations with Mexican security forces, several kidnappings, and attempted to kidnap Margarita López Portillo, the sister of the president. In Guerrero, the Party of the Poor, ostensibly fighting against landholder impunity and oppressive police practices in rural areas, was led by the ex-teacher Lucio Cabañas; they carried out ambushes of the army and security forces and the abduction of Guerrero's governor-elect.

The legalization of leftist political parties in 1978 along with the amnesty of imprisoned and at large guerrillas caused a number of combatants to end militant struggle against the government. However, certain groups continued fighting, and the National Human Rights Commission states the hostilities continued into 1982.

In June 2002, a report prepared for Vicente Fox, the first president not from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 70 years, detailed the government's actions from 1964 to 1982. The report states, according to BBC News, that the Mexican army "kidnapped, tortured, and killed hundreds of rebel suspects" in the period and accused the Mexican state of genocide. The Mexican Special Prosecutor claimed the report was overly biased against the military, and failed to detail crimes committed by rebels, which included kidnappings, bank robberies, and assassinations.