40
133. The forced disappearances examined occurred in specific political, social, and
economic circumstances.110 In this regard, the National Commission established that
[…] in the scenario of the presidential succession of 1970, while a political-electoral battle was
being developed in plain sight without surprises, scores of activists were found in secrecy,
dedicated full-time to their own tasks, as a prior and necessary step for the subsequent
development of the actions. […]
Between 1973 and 1974 the guerrilla actions and the counter insurgence were exacerbated. The
Communist League 23 de Septiembre went on to occupy the top position in the confrontation with
the federal government as of the failed kidnapping and subsequent murder of the businessman
from Nuevo Leon, Eugenio Garza Sada, in September 1973. This event is followed by a time
marked by drastic measures against the guerrilla: the illegal arrest, torture, and forced
disappearance and, even, probable extralegal executions of militants and leaders. […]
[…]
Other important groups of the Mexican guerilla were the “Agricultural Brigade for Executions of the
Party of the Poor”, led by Professor Lucio Cabañas, whose presence was basically in the State of
Guerrero. […] Its main actions were, besides ambushes to the Army and the security forces, the
kidnapping in 1974 of the governor elect of Guerrero, Rubén Figueroa.
The group commanded by Professor Genaro Vázquez Rojas, the “National Civic Revolutionary
Association” (ACNR) also had impact on the public opinion, with its main presence also in Guerrero;
it was an organization that did not survive, as part of the guerrilla, the death of its leader in
February 1972. Its most well known action was the kidnapping of Jaime Castrejón Díez, at that
time rector of the Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero, who was exchanged for a dozen inmates of
the armed movement, who were sent to Cuba by the Mexican government.
[…]
Against these groups, the anti-subversive policy was characterized, at least until 1981, for having
practically unlimited powers. Its operation was the responsibility of groups specially formed by
some corporations of the [S]tate’s safety (White Brigade or Special Brigade) led by the Federal
Security Office [...]
[…] the violence continued until the beginning of the eighties and it was translated into armed
actions, confrontations, with the continuance of the excessive behavior of anti-subversive
organizations and the subsequent forced disappearances that engrossed the relationship of illegal
facts [...].111
134. From the investigations carried out, the National Commission observed that in those
times “[t]he government instances that constitutionally had the task of seeking justice and
protecting the rights of citizens, showed their incapacity and negative to prevent,
investigate, and punish the facts, as well as offer the necessary help to the people
110
In that sense, the Commission indicated that it does not seek to “[p]resent a specific story or chronicle
regarding the events occurred in [that] period, instead[,] it ma[de] reference to the context in which the
disappearances object of the investigation of [the] National Commission occurred and[,] due to the diversity of the
sources consulted, [the] statements could lack precision, which [did] not imply any judgment of value on behalf of
[the] Commission regarding the groups referr[ed] to therein.” Recommendation 026/2001 of the National Human
Rights Commission (dossier of appendixes to the application, appendix 3, folio 877 and dossier of appendixes to
the respondent’s plea, appendix V(2), pages 6 and 7).
111
Cf. Recommendation 026/2001 of the National Human Rights Commission (dossier of appendixes to the
application, appendix 3, folios 879 through 881, and dossier of appendixes to the respondent’s plea, appendix V(2),
pages 8 through 10).
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