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During the decades of the Cold War, the CIA’s “station” in Mexico was the largest in the world, journalist Manuel Buendía revealed in his famous book The CIA in Mexico. According to U.S. documents declassified in recent years, the Agency had high-level collaborators in the Mexican government, including at least two presidents. But, as a former CIA analyst told us, be careful about assuming that official documents reveal the truth when those who write them are professional liars. And in Mexico, veteran analysts and former officials recall that Mexican politicians skillfully manipulated intelligence agents not only from the United States, but also from the Soviet Union and other countries, allowing them to believe that there was exclusive cooperation when, in several instances, the opposite proved to be true — especially when Mexico defended nationalist policies and even expressed solidarity with “enemies” of Washington, as was the case for decades with Cuba and progressive governments in the hemisphere.
“They do have people in Mexico, to this day,” President Claudia Sheinbaum acknowledged after two CIA agents were killed during a counternarcotics operation in Chihuahua. But in that case, the president said, neither the governor nor the CIA informed the federal government about the operations in that state and that constitutes a violation of the law. The incident is still under investigation by the Attorney General’s Office. And to this day, no one knows the size of the CIA’s team in Mexico, or whether its presence is larger than it was in the 1960s.
The revelation this week that the CIA financed right-wing university students before and after the Tlatelolco massacre of October 2, 1968, is reviving interest in the agency’s role in Mexico. “Taken together, the CIA ran at least five projects over two decades aimed at controlling student leadership at Mexican universities, infiltrating and seeking to influence the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the National Federation of Technical Students, and student leaders at the National Polytechnic Institute, according to official documents,” La Jornada reports.
The CIA’s activities in Mexico were so extensive that a partially declassified history eventually spanned three volumes and a total of 539 pages. President Donald Trump’s order to open the entire secret government archive related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy revealed more details about cooperation between the CIA and the governments of Adolfo López Mateos and Gustavo Díaz Ordaz to spy on Mexican political opposition figures, political refugees from other countries—including Americans and Guatemalans—and, above all, Cuban and Soviet diplomats in Mexico.
For much of the 1960s, the CIA worked with Mexican governments to spy not only on Soviet and Cuban diplomats in Mexico City, but also on political opponents of Presidents Adolfo López Mateos and Gustavo Díaz Ordaz and political exiles from other countries. But not everything about this collaboration has been revealed yet.
But more details are beginning to emerge. In the newly declassified material, there are documents detailing how the CIA financed right-wing university students in Mexico. They reveal the agency began supporting these groups in the 1950s. They describe how the agency “intervened” in the ouster of UNAM rector Luis Garrido Díaz in 1952 and offered support to others who succeeded in removing “communist rectors at the universities of Monterrey, Puebla, Guadalajara, and Morelia.”
In 1963, the CIA began providing funds to the Institute for Social and Economic Research (IISE) and the University Movement for Renewed Orientation (MURO), which at the time was identified as a group active in “influencing student politics.” By 1968, the CIA was deeply involved in supporting right-wing student organizations in Mexico.
“At best, the agency played an active role in polarizing student politics at the time,” write Claire Dorfman and Arturo Jiménez-Bacardí of the National Security Archive in a new assessment of declassified U.S. government documents. “At worst, given its close relationship with Fernando Gutiérrez Barrios, Miguel Nazar Haro, and the Federal Security Directorate (DFS), the agency played a more direct role in orchestrating the violence” in Tlatelolco.
In recent years, the CIA has sought to expand its role in the fight against drug trafficking, and in some respects competes with the DEA in that area. The Trump administration’s designation of drug cartels as “terrorist organizations” opens up an even broader field of action for official CIA missions in other countries, experts and some journalists warn.
The Quote:
Paraphrasing the classic: “Poor Latin America, so far from God and so close to the far right!”
-Rayuela, La Jornada
In Case You Missed It
◻️ Barrio 18 has about a dozen parks and gardens that residents themselves maintain through monthly contributions and renovate using funds from participatory budgeting. The neighborhood takes its name from former Xochimilca settlements, where bicycle-taxi drivers are the only people who know its streets perfectly. Until recently, those streets were surrounded by chinampas and canals, and the most famous feature is the rowing course, which has survived modernization and the nearby informal settlements. This article is part of an ongoing series about neighborhoods in Mexico City.
◻️ Mexico is “not in a position” to pursue fracking. “There are a number of restrictions that mean fracking cannot be carried out at this time,” said Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources Alicia Bárcena. During her appearance before the Chamber of Deputies, the official explained that because of the complexities involved, particularly the use of water, the government will not move forward with fracking.
◻️ Domestic workers remain in the informal economy. Seven years after amendments to the Federal Labor Law recognized the labor rights of domestic workers, 96.6 percent continue to work informally. “People who do this work occasionally or sporadically are not considered domestic workers, contrary to what is established in International Labour Organization Convention 189,” denounced María de la Luz Padua Orihuela of the National Union of Domestic Workers. In Mexico, about 2.1 million women perform paid domestic work, representing nearly one in 10 employed women in the country.
◻️ Brazil, Elections, and the Left. How is it possible that the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently imprisoned for attempting a coup against Lula, won? The immediate response from those who describe themselves as being on the left was: cognitive warfare, U.S. interference, and manipulation by Pentecostal churches. But one significant problem is that Lula’s party is fragmented. “It lacks vitality and organizational strength,” writes Magdiel Sánchez Quiroz. “Outside of Lula, it has no figures who are able to connect with the masses.”
◻️ Students take to the streets—not only in France. In 21 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, the share of public spending allocated to education fell between 2019 and 2022, according to a report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). Investment per student in Latin America amounts to just 38 percent of the level recorded in Europe and Central Asia and 65 percent of that in the Middle East and North Africa. It is not only necessary to increase resources allocated to schools, but also to ensure that the money is distributed equitably and used more efficiently, the report says. In Chile, students are staging mass demonstrations with the same demand as their counterparts in France: they are calling for more resources for education.
◻️ The United States harbored terrorists. This month, Cuba paid tribute to the 73 people killed in the bombing of Cubana de Aviación Flight 455 fifty years ago. The masterminds behind the bombing—the worst terrorist attack in the Americas until Oklahoma City—were protected and shielded by the U.S. government for the rest of their lives. “The most incredible thing is the impunity. How is it possible that this country offered impunity to Posada Carriles and to the Cuban American terrorists who have carried out so many terrorist acts against Cuba over the years?” asks attorney José Pertierra.
◻️ The persistence of racism in Mexico. “How are you going to value an Indigenous person if Indigenous people are not valued in your society?” asks sociologist Mónica Moreno. In a conversation with Elena Poniatowska, the Mexican sociology professor at the University of Cambridge explains that the Zapatista movement brought the issue of racism into public debate, where it remains today. This racism was exemplified this week when a newborn baby was detained at a hospital after her mother brought her in to be vaccinated.
◻️ The best of Mexican cinema. With six awards, including Best Picture, En el camino (directed by David Pablos and produced by Inna Payán) was the big winner at the Ariel Awards. During the ceremony, Payán shouted, “Long live Mexican cinema!” and thanked the “invaluable team for taking care of this film.”
🎥 What We Are Watching
Tom Morello, During the Power to the People festival
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Edited by David Brooks and Jim Cason in the United States, Tania Molina Ramírez in Mexico City, of La Jornada, and Elizabeth Coll in Tokyo, under the direction of Carmen Lira Saade and Guillermina Álvarez. More information.