How Mexico's Encrypted Code Safeguarded National Security
Mexico's shadowy DFS used a secret code since 1947. Imagine grocery lists as coded messages. The President himself approved this system with numbered letters based on keywords. Destroyed messages and a tense political climate reveal the lengths they went to keep secrets safe.
Since the emergence of the Federal Directorate of Security (DFS) in 1947, an encrypted language was established that allowed encrypted messages to be transmitted due to the level of information they handled considered national security and their functioning as political police. In this way, if the messages were intercepted or read by someone else outside the institution, they would not be able to understand it and, therefore, they would not discover the hidden communication.
The instruction of the coded language and the key words to be used was established directly by the presidency and entrusted to the Presidential General Staff. Because the DFS was attached to the executive branch during its first years, that is, directly to the presidency and, later, it became dependent on the Ministry of the Interior.
