{"id":552424,"date":"2026-03-20T08:31:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T08:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/552424\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T08:31:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T08:31:16","slug":"glamming-up-dirty-war-teens-in-mexico-glorify-1970s-secret-police-on-tiktok-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/552424\/","title":{"rendered":"Glamming up \u2018dirty war\u2019: teens in Mexico glorify 1970s secret police on TikTok | Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"

Young people in Mexico<\/a> are taking to TikTok<\/a> to imagine themselves as agents<\/a> from the country\u2019s 1970s secret police, the DFS \u2013 a force which was infamous for torturing, murdering or disappearing thousands during the country\u2019s \u201cdirty war<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

The trend, which has sparked condemnation<\/a> by some users on the social media platform, has seen young people use AI to transform themselves into agents glorifying the \u201cabsolute impunity\u201d<\/a> afforded to the notoriously corrupt and brutally violent secret police.<\/p>\n

The videos mostly show young men in gray 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<\/a>: \u201cI would\u2019ve loved to live in the 70s with my DFS badge, total impunity \u2026 smelling of whiskey and smoke with a shitload of money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Founded in 1947 under the country\u2019s dictatorial PRI party, the Federal Security Directorate (DFS) was Mexico\u2019s version of the FBI, providing intelligence on subversive groups, spying on political opponents and suffocating resistance to the regime.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The group was involved in \u201cdeath flights\u201d<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey developed a brutal but effective strategy to annihilate the cells of the multiple guerrilla organizations that emerged in the 70s and 80s,\u201d said Sergio Aguayo, a Mexican historian who has studied the DFS closely. \u201cThey were ruthless in their attacks against the insurgency.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the early 1980s, with the guerrilla movement largely quashed, the DFS became involved with the country\u2019s early drug trafficking groups, offering them protection and even transporting drugs themselves, according to Aguayo.<\/p>\n

A journalist investigating the ties between the DFS, the CIA and drug trafficking groups was brutally murdered<\/a> in 1984. A year later, a DEA agent named Enrique \u2018Kiki\u2019 Camarena was kidnapped and murdered by drug traffickers<\/a>. Subsequent investigations found that the DFS were involved in both killings, and the agency was dissolved in November 1985.<\/p>\n

Aguayo said the TikTok<\/a> videos are examples of \u201cthe rise of the culture of violence and the discrediting of the work ethic \u2026 The point is to make a lot of money quickly, without paying attention to how it\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Irene Soria, a feminist scholar and expert on digital culture, argued that the videos point to something more complex: the rise of the Mexican far right and its opposition to the feminist movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen this, especially in the macho-sphere,\u201d said Soria. \u201cThis idea of going against feminism, and by placing myself in opposition to feminism, then I\u2019m the resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mexico\u2019s feminist movement has become particularly powerful in recent years, with hundreds of thousands of women taking to the streets of cities all over the country to mark International Women\u2019s Day and protest violence against women.<\/p>\n

Yet there are also videos posted by women, some of them posing as DFS agents<\/a> too but many as wives of agents or high-ranking politicians in the PRI.<\/p>\n

Soria compares this to the \u201ctradwife\u201d phenomenon in the US<\/a>, where women also reject modern feminist ideals and adopt 1950s-style gender roles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been another wave of very young girls who say, \u2018Oh no, I do want to be supported,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201c\u2018I do want to have a family and have a rich guy who maintains me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The DFS videos have also ignited something of a backlash, with some users taking to TikTok to point out the brutal nature of the secret police agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredible to see how a trend can override collective memory,\u201d wrote one young woman<\/a>, using the same music from the DFS videos. \u201cWe were NOT better off before; stop romanticizing one of the institutions that has done the most damage to the country.\u201d<\/p>\n