Abstract

MENDOZA GARCIA, Jorge. Torture in the context of Mexico's "Guerra Sucia": an exercise of collective memory. Polis [online]. 2011, vol.7, n.2, pp.139-179. ISSN 2594-0686.

During the last century's 60's and 70's, in Mexico, guerrilla groups emerged all over the country; equally in rural areas such as the state of Guerrero, as in cities like Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mexico City. In facing this wave of armed groups, the Mexican State resorted not to the law but to violent strategies, surpassing even the legal frameworks instituted in the country. This terrifying manner of confronting the guerrillas was known as guerra sucia (dirty war). It displayed multiple tactics such as illegal imprisonment, forced disappearance, detention of guerrillas' kin and torture. Torture was practiced equally on men and women accused of being guerrillas or of providing support to these groups. Branding, beatings, mutilations, and even the introduction of objects into the body, were some of the manners that torture adopted in this guerra sucia. By means of several testimonies presented as an exercise of collective memory, this essay aims to reconstruct some of the experiences of those decades and, at the same time, clarify the use of bodily violence by those who exert terror through power.

Keywords : guerra sucia; violence; torture; body; collective memory.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )