Glamming up dirty war': Teens in Mexico glorify 1970s secret police on TikTok

"The videos mostly show young men in grey or brown suits standing proudly in front of a 1970s Cadillac or Rolls Royce, accompanied by catchy Mexican music and variations of the same text: I would've loved to live in the 70s with my DFS badge, total impunity – smelling of whiskey and smoke with a shitload of money."

"Founded in 1947 under the country's dictatorial PRI party, the Federal Security Directorate was Mexico's version of the FBI, providing intelligence on subversive groups, spying on political opponents and suffocating resistance to the regime. In the late 1960s and early 70s, with the rise of the student protest movement and later armed guerrilla groups, the DFS became notorious for its brutal tactics: kidnapping, torture, and forced disappearance."

"The group was involved in death flights, in which suspected guerrillas were taken to a military base near the port city of Acapulco, where they were subsequently killed, their bodies put on a plane and tossed into the Pacific. They developed a brutal but effective strategy to annihilate the cells of the multiple guerrilla organizations that emerged in the 70s and 80s."

Young people in Mexico are creating TikTok videos using AI filters to imagine themselves as agents of the DFS, the country's notorious 1970s secret police. The videos depict users in period clothing posing with vintage cars, expressing desire to have lived during that era with DFS credentials and impunity. The DFS, founded in 1947 under the PRI dictatorship, conducted intelligence operations and suppressed political opposition. During the late 1960s and 1970s, it became infamous for kidnapping, torture, forced disappearances, and death flights where suspected guerrillas were killed and their bodies disposed of in the Pacific Ocean. By the early 1980s, after suppressing guerrilla movements, the DFS transitioned to protecting and collaborating with drug trafficking organizations. The trend has drawn criticism from social media users concerned about glorifying this brutal historical institution.

Read at www.theguardian.com