Mexico and Central America

In 2006, fiercely-contested presidential elections with an uncertain outcome rattled Mexico’s openness community.  The Federal Institute for Access to Information (IFAI), along with journalists, academics and NGOs, worried that advances made after the political transition of 2000 could be seriously jeopardized by a new administration.  In response to these concerns, advocates sought to strengthen and consolidate their gains by pushing for a comprehensive reform of the Mexican Constitution, which would guarantee the right to know and establish permanent standards for openness that

Washington D.C., Enero 20, 2008 –Documentos hechos públicos hoy por el National Security Archive revelan como agentes de un escuadrón de inteligencia argentino fueron capturados por el servicio secreto mexicano  y “expulsados por espionaje a los [exilados] Montoneros radicados en México”, en enero de 1978.

Update - December 12, 2006 Communiquй from Authors of the Draft Report of the Special Prosecutor (in Spanish) Click here to read the press release (also in Spanish) The authors of the draft report of the Special Prosecutor, "ЎQue no vuelva a suceder…!" (parts of which were posted by the National Security Archive on February 26, 2006), have written a critique of the government's official report, "Informe Histуrico a la Sociedad Mexicana - 2006." In their communiquй, the authors object to changes made to their original findings and ask the government to recognize the conclusions and recommend

Washington, DC, October 18, 2006 - The CIA's reliance on high-level informants including the President of Mexico for "intelligence" about the student protest movement in 1968 that culminated in the infamous Tlatelolco massacre misled Washington about responsibility for the repression, according to documents obtained by journalist Jefferson Morley and posted today on the Web by the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

This new Electronic Briefing Book on the Tlatelolco massacre is based on a collaboration between Proceso magazine and the National Security Archive and launched on March 2, 2003. The collaboration grew out of a shared desire to publish and disseminate to a wide audience newly-declassified documents about the United States and Mexico. On an occasional basis, Proceso magazine publishes an article by the Archive's Mexico Project director, Kate Doyle, examining new documentary evidence on a chosen topic. The series--called Archivos Abiertos (or, Open Archive), draws from U.S.

Update - June 19, 2006 Open Letter to the Fox administration from three authors of the draft report (Alberto Lуpez Limуn, Josй Luis Moreno Borbolla and Agustнn Evangelista Muсoz) (in Spanish). After the National Security Archive posted the draft report of the Special Prosecutor for Social and Political Movements of the Past (Fiscalнa Especial para Movimientos Sociales y Polнticos del Pasado - FEMOSPP) on its website, the authors of the draft asked the archive to post this open letter as well.

Washington, D.C., November 21, 2005 - On July 5, officials from the Guatemalan government's human rights office (PDH - Procuradurнa de Derechos Humanos) entered a deteriorating, rat-infested munitions depot in downtown Guatemala City to investigate complaints about improperly-stored explosives. During inspection of the site, investigators found a vast collection of documents, stored in five buildings and in an advanced state of decay.

Washington, D.C., November 18, 2005 - Investigative journalist Frank Smyth breaks new ground in documenting links between retired Guatemalan military officers and drug trafficking into the United States in "The Untouchable Narco-State: Guatemala's Military Defies the DEA." Smyth's story, featured in the independent weekly Texas Observer appearing on news stands today, uses declassified U.S. documents from the National Security Archive among other critical evidence.

Washington D.C., April 12, 2005 - As the Senate Intelligence Committee convenes to consider the nomination of John Negroponte to be Director of National Intelligence, the National Security Archive today posted hundreds of his cables written from the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa between late 1981 and 1984. The majority of his "chron file"- cables and memos written during his tenure as Ambassador- was obtained by the Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Cuban revolution was a shock to the Mexican system. On the international stage, Mexico was forced to negotiate a position toward Cuba that allowed it to preserve some independence from the United States, which by 1960 had already declared itself the bitter enemy of Fidel Castro, while avoiding serious conflict with its powerful neighbor. [See Proceso No. 1374 and National Security Archive electronic briefing book No.