Leticia Neria PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText ...

PDLP, 115 captured those they thought were members, tortured detainees and otherwise
abused their power. 116 Many of those detained during that time were never seen
again. 117 Despite this violence, the government refused to admit that there were
guerrillas, and insisted that the violence came from criminals and bandits. ‘No existen
guerrillas y si apareciera alguna tendríamos que combatirla inmediatamente,’ said the
Minister of Defence in 25 May 1971. 118 The reality was very different. The government
was using all its strength to exterminate the rebel groups, not only in Guerrero or the
countryside, but also in the cities. Some groups were easily contained while others
required the army, the use of strong violence, and even the creation of special forces to
beat them. 119
Despite official denials, at least part of the population knew about the existence
of the guerrillas. Although our films do not refer to them, in the three comics there are
numerous references to the guerrilla groups. Rius speaks openly about them 120 while in
Hermelinda Linda there is a brief reference when a policeman confesses his crimes and
decides to run away ‘a la Sierra de Guerrero’, 121 where Lucio Cabañas had his army. La
Familia Burrón has also a reference to the urban guerrilla.
After the PRI candidate for the governorship of Guerrero, Rubén Figueroa, was
kidnapped, the army began in May 1974 checking and destroying communities in the
mountains, trying to find the whereabouts of Figueroa and Lucio’s guerrilla. In early
115
Carlos Montemayor, La guerrilla recurrente, p. 80.
116
An example of these excesses is the events in the small town of El Quemado, where one hundred and
six peasants were detained after being accused of helping Lucio Cabañas. Castellanos, México armado…
p. 142.
117
About this, Rosa Santiago Galindo, the mother of a peasant who disappeared during the Guerra Sucia
in Guerrero, said to Julio Scherer in an interview: ‘Yo sabía que si lo había agarrado el gobierno, no lo
iban a soltar, porque todo el que se llevaban ya no aparecía’. Scherer, ‘Los patriotas’, p. 103.
118
Jorge Torres, Nazar, la historia secreta. El hombre detrás de la Guerra sucia (Mexico: Debate, 2008),
p. 47.
119
An example is the secret group called C-047 created in 1966, which did not depend on the DFS and
whose work would be to spy on and fight subversive movements. Its head was Miguel Nazar Haro who
later became (in)famous for the violence he used against government opponents. Torres, Nazar, la
historia secreta… p. 26.
120
Such as Los Agachados, 114.
121
Óscar González, Hermelinda Linda, 373, p. 26.
63