When the spy was the spied on (and vice versa)
It seems that in Mexico the line between hunter and prey is finer than the budget for culture. The General Archive of the Nation (AGN), in a burst of transparency that leaves us speechless, has decided to dust off and declassify the file that the Federal Directorate of Security (DFS), that jewel of institutional repression, put together for former prosecutor Alejandro Gertz Manero. And, oh surprise, he was not just a subject of interest: according to the papers, the man was advisor to the feared police corporation. An attorney general advising the political police? It sounds as coherent as a vampire working as a blood donor.
The newspaper EL UNIVERSAL rummaged through dozens of DFS reports and found that the agents followed Gertz Manero with the devotion of a gossip fanatic. They documented practically all of his movements: from boring meetings in public service to the exciting details of his private life, including, with an almost festive touch, the date of his saint. Because nothing says “national security” like knowing if your target will celebrate San Alejo. All this documentary treasure lies, with poetic justice, in the Black Palace of Lecumberri, a place that knows more about secrets than a confessional.
From recommended to recommender: a virtuous circle
In the file, marked with the cold bureaucracy of “Exp.1_1” in file 74, the personal data of the former prosecutor is detailed with a precision that would make any SAT form pale. Address in Las Lomas, parents’ names, phone number… everything except their favorite color. And there, shining like a jewel of nepotism, the pearl: he joined the DFS on the recommendation of its then director, Francisco Javier García Paniagua. The note, which reads “Recommended by the Director“, is as subtle as an elephant in a china shop. Government networking in the 70s? Who would have imagined it!
But Gertz Manero not only received favors; I also asked for them. A report from June 19, 1976 reveals that he sent a letter to the then deputy director of the DFS, Miguel Nazar Haro (yes, the one whose name is synonymous with black legends), to investigate an alleged extortion of an architect in Tepoztlán, Morelos. The citizen, according to the letter, was a middle-class man without resources, harassed by anonymous people. A moving story, which demonstrates how the powerful used the political police to… help others. Or at least to some neighbor in particular.
Things get juicier in a report from July 1974. It turns out that, being General Director of the PGR Technical Institute, Gertz Manero would have given instructions for the arrest of three workers from the Banco Agrario de Yucatán. His crime: operating machinery that damaged archaeological remains. The bank’s lawyer, with exasperating logic, complained that it was not proven that the area was protected. In other words, the classic “robbery but there was no sign.” Luis Ríos y Valles and his companions ended up in the penitentiary, pending a resolution that, one suspects, may still be in progress.
The baseball attorney and other rarities
And to demonstrate that the file has it all, his role as a sports mediator also appears. In 1980, as Labor Defense Attorney, our protagonist got involved in the negotiations between the National Baseball Players Association (Anabe) and the directors of the Mexican Baseball League. DFS agents, with evident interest in the curveball and slider, reported that Gertz Manero would draw up the new collective contract. Because, clearly, the security of the State depended on accurate throwers having legal benefits. Can you imagine spies taking notes? “Target negotiated bonus clause for home run. Danger of strike strike decreases.”
In short, this declassified file is not just a pile of old papers. It is a mirror of a time when institutions were entangled in a grotesque dance, where he who watched was also watched, and where the secret history of Mexico was written with reports, recommendations and an unhealthy obsession with saints’ books. A reading that, between the lines, continues to ask us how much of that past has really been archived.
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