The Last Door - A History of Torture in Mexico's War Against Subversives

As guerrilla groups sprouted up across Mexico in the early 1970s, the military and police routinely resorted to extreme acts of violence, including the systematic use of torture. In The Last Door, Gladys McCormick provides the most thorough account of how torture became a crucial and routine practice of the Mexican government's war against subversives. Drawing from extensive oral history interviews and declassified government documents, McCormick describes experiences of arrest, torture, and detention in which forced disappearances became all too common and advocates for justice rallied around political prisoners. Torture was not always about extracting information; it was also about inflicting punishment on a faceless so-called enemy and instilling terror into advocates of social change. As McCormick argues, torture became a quotidian practice of state making in Mexico during the 1970s, leaving individuals and their families forever changed. The lack of repercussions for government officials notorious for employing torture, even in spite of a growing movement for truth and justice, has led to entrenched impunity that is endemic in Mexico as its contemporary security crisis continues.

Product details

• Authors: Gladys I. Mccormick
• Publisher: University Of California Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 10.06.2025
• EAN: 9780520404205
• ISBN: 978-0-520-40420-5
• No. of pages: 296
• Series: Violence in Latin American History
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > General, dictionaries; Mexico, Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Human Rights, Society & culture: general, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / Caribbean & Latin American, HISTORY / Latin America / Mexico, History of the Americas, Society and culture: general, c 1970 to c 1979, c 1970 to c 1980, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Capital Punishment