SUMMARY

The Government of Mexico has been involved in many inter and intrastate conflicts since the country’s war of independence from Spain. Within these contexts, it has also committed acts of one-sided violence against civilians. From the 1960s until the 1980s, the government of Mexico engaged in the organized and deliberate persecution of left-leaning individuals and organizations, which led to many forced disappearances, and extrajudicial executions of civilians. Mexican government forces also committed several notorious acts of one sided-violence against protesters during this period such as the Tlatelolco and Corpus Christi massacres. During the 1990s, recorded events of one-sided violence were mostly seen within the context of government crackdowns against peasant insurrections as well as electoral violence in the southern states of the country. Currently one-sided violence by government forces in Mexico is commonly associated to the context of the government’s struggle against the cartels, and reactions to popular protest. Mexican human rights organizations alleged that the practices of forced disappearances and extrajudicial executions continue to be implemented by Mexican state forces in current times.

During the 1980s and 1990s, government forces would often collaborate with pro-government paramilitaries when committing acts of one-sided violence. In recent years, Mexican government forces have been accused of collaborating with criminal elements on several occasions such as the forced disappearance of 43 students in the Mexican state of Guerrero 2014, some of which have been confirmed to be dead.

The Government of Mexico first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in the year 2014 when government forces killed a combined number of 32 civilians in a multitude of events, surpassing the UCDP requirement for inclusion of 25 deaths per year.