Mexico's Cold War Bogeyman and Its Dirty Little Secrets
The DFS, Mexico's political police, was created in 1947 to protect national security. It became a tool for repression, particularly during the Cold War. The DFS was involved in surveillance, harassment, torture, and extrajudicial killings of political dissidents.
The Dirección Federal de Seguridad (DFS) is not exactly a name that rolls off the tongue unless, of course, you happened to be on the wrong side of their surveillance. This shadowy organization was Mexico’s answer to the paranoia of the Cold War, a time when the entire planet seemed to teeter between two great ideological blocks: communism and capitalism, with Mexico finding itself caught in the crossfire.
The story of the DFS, however, is not as straightforward as most government security agencies. No, this was an outfit that managed to blur the lines between protecting the nation and terrifying its citizens. And like all good secrets, it was buried for decades—hidden behind layers of redacted documents, whispered in fear, and classified by various Mexican governments. It was, in essence, Mexico's Big Brother: everywhere, watching, listening, and taking meticulous notes, all while quietly pulling strings in the shadows. And naturally, we don't talk about it. Or at least, we didn’t—until recently.
