The Life and Disappearance of Guerrilla Doctor Pedro Chiclayo

One of the episodes with the highest number of human rights violations in the history of Mexico was the Dirty War. During the 1970s, a series of crimes against humanity were carried out, in which hundreds of people were disappeared, tortured and murdered at the hands of the Federal Directorate of Security (DFS). One of the main victim groups of this institution was the September 23 Communist League, which carried out a set of actions in which hundreds of activists participated in their search for a social revolution in Mexico. For example, Dr. Pedro Miguel Morón Chiclayo.

Pedro Miguel Morón Chiclayo was born on October 8, 1947, in Chiclayo, Peru. Initially, he studied two years of Economics and Administration at the University of San Marcos, Peru, where he began to sympathize with leftist ideas upon his admission. However, what he was really passionate about was medicine, so, in 1966, he decided to travel to Mexico City to enter the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and study it.

During his stay at UNAM, he met various people with whom he shared political ideas. He indirectly participated in the 1968 student movement, since, being a foreigner, the authorities monitored him closely. Although he did not attend any demonstration, rally, concentration or other public activity due to the personal monitoring that the Mexican government maintained on foreigners, he actively supported the movement.

He married Blanca Estela Cervantes in December 1971. Both believed that true change would be achieved only through armed means and not through peaceful means as the Mexican Communist Party maintained at that time. The following year, his father died, which caused the financial help he received from his family to end. This exacerbated his financial needs, to mitigate them he turned to various doctors searching for work.

Likewise, he decided to return to medical school, where he met Francisco Toledo, a doctor who was his professor during his studies. Toledo introduced him to Alfonso Rojas Díaz, with whom, through various talks and debates, he discovered his political sympathies. Later, Alfonso would introduce him to a clandestine armed group that Pedro and his wife joined.

The group was called the September 23 Communist League, a guerrilla organization that managed to bring together various groups, commandos and collectives into a single socialist front, one of the largest in the history of Mexico. Pedro became the group's doctor. His job consisted of caring for and protecting the health of the members of the organization, under the nicknames “Esteban” or “Doc” [1].

The “Doc” set up a clandestine clinic where he treated League members who were injured in combat, performing everything from sutures to operations. In addition to providing medical care, he was also one of the founders of the Red Brigade, a section of the League that was characterized by its high theoretical-ideological level and its objective of agitation and propaganda among the Mexican population.

Pedro Chiclayo was arrested on December 1, 1973, by members of the General Directorate of the Republic and Transit of the Federal District in the Moctezuma neighborhood, along with Arturo Alejandro Rivas Jiménez, Artemisa Tecla Parra and Juan Roberto Ramos Eusebio. The next day, they were placed at the disposal of the Federal Security Directorate and imprisoned in the Lecumberri Penitentiary, where it was the last place where Chiclayo was seen alive.

The case of Pedro Miguel Morón Chiclayo is an example of the fight for justice and the defense of human rights in Mexico during the Dirty War. His commitment to the socialist cause and his courage in facing state repression marked an indelible legacy in the country's collective memory.

Source: Archivo General de la Nación. “Pedro Miguel Morón Chiclayo: vida, activismo y muerte.” gob.mx, http://www.gob.mx/agn/es/articulos/pedro-miguel-moron-chiclayo-vida-activismo-y-muerte?idiom=es. Accessed 23 July 2024.